Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is terrific. The Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2021-2022 gives the government another $15.9 billion to spend, which is nice because they've already got a $16 billion slush fund in the budget. They put that in the mid-year update—decisions taken but not yet announced—so they won't tell Australians what's in their $16 billion slush fund but they want another $15.9 billion. This does then invite discussion of the government's economic and budgetary record. Labor's not going to be lectured by this mob, the most wasteful government—the most corrupt, rorting government—since Federation.

The government desperately pretends that the Australian economy is going well, but the reality for Australians is very different. The cost of living is rising rapidly. I spoke to a constituent last week. They get the same basket of groceries delivered every week, their basics. It used to cost $100. It's now $25 dearer a year on. Childcare costs have gone up by 6½ per cent in the last year alone and by 44 per cent since his government was elected. Petrol is skyrocketing. It's gone up by a third—that is, 33 per cent—in the last 12 months alone under this mob. Meanwhile, while the cost of everything is going up, wages in this country are stagnating or going down in real terms. 'In real terms' is economic jargon which means the price of things is going up faster than wages. That means wages in real terms are dropping because your pay buys less and working families in this country are going backwards.

The government hates it when you actually point out these facts. They rely on their spin and their brand propaganda. They go around saying the Liberals are great economic managers. It's simply not true. How are people across Australia supposed to pay for things now that the cost of petrol is going up, the cost of food is going up, the cost of child care is going up, the cost of transport is going up, but wages are stagnating or going backwards in this country? I especially feel for retirees, as we saw reported on in the newspaper this morning, like single pensioners who are living alone.

Have a look at wages. For workers, middle Australians have never been more vulnerable. It's not a COVID thing. The really dishonest thing is that whenever you raise these problems and you put them to the Prime Minister, he says it's COVID. We blame everything on COVID, but it's not the case. Even before COVID, real wages in this country under the Liberals for six years went backwards. From 2013 to 2019 real wages in this country went backwards by 0.7 per cent. That is reflected in OECD data showing our wages fell, and last year they went backwards again by $700 on average per worker. They could blame that on COVID, but put those things together and they mean less money in people's pockets while the cost of everything is going up. The government's own projections in their budget, the mid-year financial update for which we're giving them money now, say that real wages will go backwards again this financial year—they'll go further backwards this year. What that adds up to is eight years of stagnant wages under this government. In fact, it's the lowest average wage growth on record. Since they started collecting economic statistics in this country, the Liberals have presided over the lowest average growth on record.

The worst thing is it is deliberate. The former Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann told Australians, when the issue of low wages was put to him, it's 'a deliberate design feature of our economic architecture'. And you can see this architecture—it was an outbreak of honesty, but he's left now—cuts to penalty rates and opposing wage rises for childcare workers, aged-care workers and public servants at every turn. It's a flawed industrial relations framework so workers cannot bargain fairly for a wage rise in this country under the Libs. And their badly run, lazy migration program is letting in the wrong kinds of low-skilled workers, which holds down wages in certain occupations. The data is clear.

To contrast this with Labor's record in government, under Labor wages grew faster than the cost of living. Australians had more in their pockets and could buy more stuff. They had more discretionary income under a Labor government; people were better off. The McKell Institute's analysis last year showed that if the average wage rise under the Labor government had continued for the last decade under this mob, the average worker would be $254 better off. That means that if we'd had the same wage achievement that we saw under Labor, the average worker would have $13,000 more in their pocket every year than under the Libs.

COVID has also exposed the risk to workers and the Australian economy of casualised and insecure work and of underemployment—two other facts the government doesn't like to talk about. There are 1.5 million Australians still looking for work or looking for more work as they can't get enough hours. The vulnerability of casual and insecure workers—the government has done nothing about this—was revealed as a weakness in our society through COVID. These are millions of workers who do not have sick leave; millions of workers who cannot get a secure job or ever get a home loan. They love to talk about home ownership, but they never talk about those millions of workers that are locked out of the home market, not because their income is not high enough to get a loan but because they cannot get a loan on a casual wage, on a labour hire contract. They're privatising the Public Service: tens of thousands of Public Service jobs have gone; people are existing on casual labour hire contracts. It's wasting taxpayers' money. I see this in my community.

They had a scheme, you know, to fix this. The Prime Minister announced it with great fanfare. He gave it a cute little name, as he does: it was the JobMaker scheme. He was going to create 450,000 jobs. Well, we heard today in Senate estimates what actually happened: they created 7,300 jobs—not 450,000; 7,300. If he was honest, he'd rename it the JobFaker scheme, because that's what it was.

But, really, all this exposes the great big lie—the lie that they say day after day, the lie that the Liberals love to perpetuate: the claim that they are better economic managers. It's just rubbish. It doesn't stack up. If you look at the actual data on wages, productivity, tax, debt or growth, it doesn't stack up.

Now, we've been hearing a lot about tax, of course, in question time. The government loves to talk about tax cuts. Well, they're flailing and desperate, as we also saw in question time today. They stooped to a new low. In the Prime Minister's own words, they put their hand in the chum bucket. He actually called the Leader of the Opposition 'the Manchurian candidate'. He actually said that. I heard it. The Speaker didn't; there was a bit of noise down there. That's what he said. He got up and withdrew, but he knew what he was doing. That was effectively accusing the opposition of treason. That's what it means. It's against the Practice. And it's a disgusting, disgraceful slur. And the irony is: when you talk to the national security professionals, that is exactly what China and our opponents, or adversaries, or competitors—whatever you want to call them—want. That's the kind of behaviour they are trying to incite in our country, and the Prime Minister is so desperate, so naive, he fell into the trap again and again. He's a desperate, little man.

But then we go back to the other lie, that Labor always taxes more. Well, the fact is: the Morrison government is the second-highest-taxing government in the last 40 years in this country. On the average tax-to-GDP ratio—that's the measure—it's the second-highest-taxing government in 40 years. Guess who was the highest? We can have a look: there was Whitlam and Fraser and Hawke and Keating and Howard and Rudd and Gillard, and Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison, that nightmare dynasty. It was John Howard! Twenty-three point five per cent was his average tax-to-GDP ratio; 22.4 per cent was Morrison's. That's what it says. So I seek leave to table this graph, Deputy Speaker, which sets out the facts. It exposes your lie, Government. It exposes the lie that the Liberals are lower-taxing. It's simply not true.

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