Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Today the Treasurer told us he painted a picture. I don't know whether it was a watercolour, an oil painting or a finger painting, but the truth of the matter is he ain't no artist. He might think he's Leonardo da Vinci. He might think he's Michelangelo. He might think he's Tom Roberts. Who knows? But the truth of the matter is that he didn't do what the Australian people really want, which is explain how he's going to address the cost-of-living pressures that Australians are facing. Indeed, Mr Speaker, within three hours of painting his picture he couldn't even answer a question about what was going to happen to the cost of essential goods and services for the Australian people. He refused to answer that question. In fact, what we heard from him was all smear and no idea. That's all he had, Mr Speaker. He could not answer that question. The truth of the matter is the real reason is that he has no plan.

Mr Speaker, it's worse than that, because they are already either crab walking or sprinting away from the few commitments on this that they did make to the Australian people prior to the election. We heard it here today, Mr Speaker. Did any of us hear the Prime Minister prepared to recommit to the $275 reduction in electricity prices he promised? He promised it back in December. He's making all sorts of excuses about what happened in April and May. He's walking away from it, Mr Speaker—and not like a crab, like a gazelle. He is running away from that commitment as fast as he can.

It gets worse than that, because in the oil painting that we got today from the Treasurer we also saw another broken commitment. Prior to the election, they committed to meaningful increases in real wages, Mr Speaker. Snuck away in the back of his statement, in a table, was an admission that there was not going to be any meaningful increase in real wages. In fact, in the next 12 months, Mr Speaker, there's going to be a 1.75 per cent reduction. In the total of three years—that's likely to be the term, or thereabouts, but who knows how long they're going to last—of this parliament the total increase in real wages is 0.5 per cent. That's 0.166 per cent a year, Mr Speaker. This is a real worry, Mr Speaker. This is a pathetic excuse, Mr Speaker—that in fact things are happening that they don't really like. What we've heard is: 'Gee, it's tough.' He's pointed the finger a lot and he's walking away from those absolutely ironclad commitments that the Australian people expected. That's what the Australian people expected, Mr Speaker, because they said they were going to deliver it.

Mr Speaker, when we were in government we did deliver under incredibly difficult circumstances. We know the nature of government is you're getting curveballs every day. Things are coming at you at pace and the only thing you can do is respond proactively. There's no point complaining. There's no point saying that the pandemic is not your fault. The one thing you can do is act and put together a plan, Mr Speaker, and that's exactly what we did.

In fact, coming out of the pandemic unemployment was substantially lower than before the pandemic. Growth in the size of the economy was over three points higher at the end of the pandemic than before it. Mr Speaker, these are absolutely remarkable outcomes. In fact, when I talk to others around the world, so many are keen to know what is it that Australia did so well, Mr Speaker. It was a remarkable outcome.

We realised that there were real cost-of-living pressures coming through at the back end of the pandemic. That's why in the last budget we had support for Australians on fuel, support for Australians on medicines, support for Australians on tax. That built on many years of working to make sure Australians were able to make ends meet with tax reductions for small businesses, tax reductions for households—hardworking families, Mr Speaker. Our longstanding commitment is to make sure that Australians are able to make ends meet, because it's this side of the House that has always been committed to lower taxes. It's this side of the House that has always been committed to making sure that Australians can find a way to make ends meet.

In seeking to cast blame today, the Treasurer held out three tests for himself. They were pretty extraordinary tests. What happens to power prices, what happens to apprentices and what happens to wages? Given that they've walked away from their commitments on two of those three, who knows what's going to happen to the third one, Mr Speaker? The reality is that he has set a pretty tough test for himself. But, Mr Speaker, he does recognise the importance of a plan, because during the election campaign he accused the former government of having an excuse for everything and a plan for nothing. But what I heard today from the Treasurer was an excuse for everything and a plan for absolutely nothing, Mr Speaker.

He made an interjection when I was making my response to the statement. He asked us what we were suggesting. I am very happy to provide him with some help, Mr Speaker, because, as he pointed out, it is quite right that we do need to help with some of the supply pressures that businesses are facing right now, particularly the labour pressures. That's why we've announced, in recent weeks, that we would support pensioners being able to double the amount of the work they can do without losing their pension. What we have at the moment is small businesses all around the country looking for labour, looking for people who can help them to deliver to their customers, and we have many pensioners who would like to work more. They're facing a high effective marginal tax as a result of the way the pension works. What we're proposing is that we would allow them to increase the amount that they work without losing their pension. That's good for pensioners, good for businesses and good for the nation. The Treasurer might want to consider that as a way of dealing with this, but he is going to spend between now and who knows when trying to concoct his plan, when the action required is urgent; it is required now, Mr Speaker.

The second thing they can provide is good budget management. We know that every decent economist out there right now is saying that countries had to do what they had to do during the pandemic but now is the time to tighten the belt. That's why, at the last budget, we turned around the budget by $103 billion. Those opposite wanted to spend an additional $81 billion during the pandemic. They wanted to bribe Australians to get a vaccine. And it's worse than that, because they took to the election commitments to spend an extra $45 billion on off-budget indulgences—sneaky little expenditures that the Australian people have to pay for, Mr Speaker. On-budget, they were prepared to fess up to $18 billion of additional spending, Mr Speaker, and we know that additional spending puts pressure on interest rates, puts pressure on inflation and, therefore, puts pressure on Australians.

Mr Speaker, the final area they can focus on is productivity. Productivity matters. It matters because that's how you pay people more. That's how you pay back your budget deficits.

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