Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

Before I was elected to this place I ran a business for 20 years. I started a law practice with one of my partners and another partner came along. Then we grew into a multimillion-dollar operation. I later became a shareholder and director in that business. When you are actually running a business you get mugged by reality. You understands concepts like profit and loss, debt and deficit. You understand things like revenue and expenditure, assets and liabilities. Unfortunately, the member for Nicholls doesn't understand any of these concepts because he can't understand that every dollar this government spent they borrowed. They doubled the debt before the COVID-19 pandemic hit these shores. They doubled it. They were good on slogans in opposition: debt and deficit disasters, debt trucks. I wonder where those debt trucks that went around the country are. They are probably at the wreckers now. I guarantee you won't see them at the next federal election later this year or early next year. You will not see a debt truck with an LNP slogan on it because they have racked up the debt.

Contrary to what the member for Nicholls had to say in terms of infrastructure, they will leave no legacy on infrastructure because what they have taken is the debt from $200 billion up to a trillion dollars and not a road project to show for it—nothing for it. Even on the infrastructure spend in the budget, when it comes to bridges renewal, blackspot funding, roads to recovery—which every government does—this government announces it and doesn't deliver on it. Every single time there's a budget or a MYEFO, every single time they're asked questions in Senate estimates, guess what? They underspend. It's announcements and no expenditure or little expenditure every single time. This government is all about the show. A government by the mates for the mates. Sophie Mirabella was appointed for a role today. No-one could possibly think that she was moderate, sensible or understanding when it came to issues of industrial relations. Perhaps they couldn't find a tribunal—AAT—or any other place they could plonk her. Honestly, for the government to do that today of all days is an utter disgrace.

When it comes to disgrace, nothing speaks more of disgrace than the NBN opposing fibre to the premises. Tony Windsor said 'do it once, do it right, do it with fibre'. The government, when in opposition, were pretending all the time that they could do it with this copper based system. In 2021, how about we roll out an old Toyota from 1983 and think that will do the job for Australia, a used Toyota Corolla or something like that? That is what they were doing when it came to telecommunications. This is a government that couldn't manage the Ruby Princess or the vaccination program or JobMaker correctly and can't even get the right figures for JobKeeper. It expects to be lauded for an increase on JobSeeker that will amount to a cup of coffee at a cafe in the high street in a regional town or city across the country. This government can't manage money.

The government have increased the debt five times—doubled it before the pandemic—and left no lasting infrastructure legacy afterwards. What we see is them expecting to be patted on the back with 5.8 per cent unemployment, 8.5 underemployment, over two million Australians languishing. What does the Commonwealth Bank say? The Commonwealth Bank says when JobKeeper goes off on 28 March, 110,000 people lose their jobs. Treasury says 100,000. In my electorate there's about 1,100 businesses with 3,336 people on JobKeeper whose jobs are all at risk come 28 March. The government couldn't even calculate correctly how much JobKeeper would be and wanted a pat on the back when they underspent.

This is not a government that gets things right. It's not a government that cares for people and it certainly doesn't care for the 40,000 Australians who were promised they would be home by Christmas and were left stranded overseas during the pandemic. There wouldn't be a federal MP in this place who wouldn't have had to deal with the challenges—the tears from parents. I can think of young dancers from Ipswich who were stuck overseas. I can think of people stuck in India, stuck in America, stuck in the UK, stuck in Germany and other places who contacted my office during this time. And the government—what did they do? Not very much at all. The government promised, again, they would all be home by Christmas but 40,000 Australians were still stuck overseas.

What about the rorts—the sports rorts, the land rorts? Again and again Senate estimates shows what is happening in this government. They're not managing money. This is a government for their mates, appointing their mates, deciding for their mates. This is a government that seems to think you can persecute poor people on robodebt—$1.2 billion, a fiasco. No-one has lost their job over there on that side, no-one, because the Prime Minister and the current minister are in it up to their eyeballs. They have all had a hand in robodebt, with $1.2 billion of taxpayers' money gone. There were legal fees spent on behalf of the Australian people to defend this nonsense. There were threatening letters that each one of us as MPs would have seen from constituents. How many times did people appeal those? We had cases in my electorate where people were alleged to be owing to the Australian government up to $40,000 or more and, in the end, were refunded. This is what happened.

The minister over there shouldn't be there. The LNP member for that Gold Coast seat shouldn't be there as a minister. It's a disgrace, what's happened with the government. Talk about wastage. The attitude of those opposite towards robodebt, towards people who are poor and disabled, towards people who are aged, and towards people who are on JobSeeker is one thing but what about JobKeeper for their mates—profits, dividends, executive bonuses? Honestly, for the Prime Minister to have a go at Christine Holgate and the way he treated her compared to the attitude when it comes to JobKeeper. So much of that money was wasted and given to people who were wealthy. It's enriching the rich for so many people. The figures clearly show that, in report after report. I want to praise the member for Fenner who has led the charge to show the wastage. He has done a fantastic job in this area, with speech after speech and interview after interview. He led the charge to show that a good program was wasted and mismanaged by this government. What are they doing? It's some sort of corporate largess to give to the wealthy companies in this country. And what do they do? They say: 'Give it back if you feel like doing so. It's okay, we won't charge you. We won't challenge you. We won't go to court in relation to it. We'll just let you go. If you're a nice boy or girl, give it back to us.' Talk about pathetic. This government is pathetic when it comes to these issues. Absolutely pathetic.

Two million Australians unemployed or underemployed. There were so many people excluded from JobKeeper: people in the child-care sector, the local government sector, the arts community and the universities sector. There are the people who are on temporary visa situations and those who have been casuals for under a year in their jobs. So many people who could have been included, if the government had got the program right in the first place, were excluded from JobKeeper. The government was clumsy and inept. Having thought that the program and the idea of a wage subsidy was dangerous at first, the government brings in this blunt instrument and then has the temerity to say that Labor wastes money. This evening I have given example after example of how the government has wasted money on programs that should never have gone on, like robodebt. The JobKeeper arrangement should have been better targeted, not given to wealthy companies to go in corporate bonuses, profits and dividends. If that was to happen, the government should have used every resource of the state to reclaim that money or ask for the money back but, no, they haven't. The government run around the countryside giving us lectures on financial prudence but they will spend this money left, right and centre. Every dollar they've spent on their corporate largess to their friends in the corporate world is a borrowed dollar that we, and future generations, will have to pay.

During the global financial crisis, this government, then in opposition—and I was here at the time—gave us lectures and pretended we shouldn't have borrowed money. They voted against it. Even when we kept the country out of a recession, they pretended that, if we hadn't borrowed the money to support the jobs and infrastructure it was spent on, we would have still stayed out of recession. But that didn't happen. The country would have gone into recession, if the Gillard government and the Rudd government hadn't done what they did, but they weren't honest enough in opposition. Now they pretend, in government, that they can spend this money without consequence and blame us for it. They're forgetting all about what they said, for year, after year, after year and in campaign, after campaign, after campaign.

We don't oppose the appropriation bills. Why? Because we take a principled position that the Labor Party doesn't oppose appropriation bills. Why? Because we can remember, in 1975 when there was a Labor government, that the coalition in the Senate—in the place down the road, before this building was built—opposed the elected Labor government, that was the Whitlam Labor government. We remember it. This government, the Liberal and National Parties, are ashamed of what they did in the 1970s. We always remind them. Every time I make a speech on the appropriations bills, I remind them about this. We have a principled position to support the appropriation bills, because the government of the day, elected by the Australian public, has the right to bring appropriation bills and pass it through the House of Representatives and the Senate. Even if we don't agree with a lot of what the government does, as a matter of principle Labor supports appropriations bills.

Those opposite, when in opposition, pretended for a start that we could keep the country out of recession during the global financial crisis but not borrow money. Now they say the debt is entirely manageable. They confuse debt and deficit—like the member for Nicholls, who doesn't understand basic business concepts—and pretend to give us lectures. I spent 20 years running a business, I know what it's like and how hard it is when it's your own business and your financial future on the line.

This government will leave no legacy afterwards. You might borrow money for a house, end up with a house and land, work hard, pay it off and end up with something at the end. This government has borrowed so much money but left nothing at the end. Our future generations will be in a position where they will have to pay back this debt. What's there? What are they left with? The assets I referred to in the balance sheet will not be there, because the government has given them to its mates—corporate largess. The government should never ever call people dole bludgers, not when it's given so much money to its mates and won't even reclaim it. This government should hang its head in shame over the way it's conducted itself in terms of budgetary management in this country and the inconsistent messages it has perpetuated and perpetrated in campaign after campaign.

I look forward to going around Australia some time and looking for the mythical debt truck. It's probably there somewhere, like the Tasmanian tiger or the yowie—somewhere up in Kilcoy or somewhere like that. That debt truck is probably lurking somewhere! I wonder whether there is a rusty LNP logo somewhere on that truck? I can guarantee they will never wheel it out—probably not in my time in politics or anyone else in this place's time in politics. It will be in the time of people much younger than me.

This government has a shocking record of economic management and has an incredibly hypocritical approach when it comes to economic management and campaigning in this country. The people should remember the different messages between campaigning and governing. This government has a shocking record in this area. In terms of jobs, there are two million people plus who are unemployed or underemployed and who face a stark reality at the end of March this year. I hope the government remembers them.

See this speech in context