Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Over the last month we've seen the character of the new opposition on display. They are out of touch and they are stewing in irrelevance not because they have to be but because they choose to be. They were invited to participate in an important national conversation on jobs and skills, but they didn't turn up. They don't turn up, because they've got nothing to say. They were a government that gave up governing, and they are an opposition that's got nothing to say about policy.

If they want to have a conversation about the cost of living, let's have a conversation about the cost of living, because there are two sides to the cost of living. This mob over here said there was absolutely nothing they could do to control minimum wages. From opposition we our committed to putting our shoulder to the wheel to get minimum wages moving again, and within the first week we wrote to the Fair Work Commission and said the Labor government expects to see minimum wages moving again and that is exactly what happened: a significant shift in minimum wages, keeping pace with cost-of-living increases, helping deal with cost-of-living pressures on family budgets, in stark contrast to the nine years of this hopeless mob over here, who had wage suppression as a deliberate design feature of their policy. Contrast the two: one week, wages moving; nine years, wages go backwards. This is how hopeless this mob over here is.

The coalition ignored casual workers and casual worker rates going up and up, and didn't we see the result of that during the pandemic? They were thrown out of work with nothing to fall back on. Who could forget the words of the then Minister for Industrial Relations—remember his name?—Christian Porter, who said, 'That's okay, they can fall back on their savings.' How out of touch can you be? They were minimum wage casual workers with nothing to fall back on. It took this side of the house, the Labor Party, to push that government to do the absolute basics, and when push came to shove we did it again by extending pandemic leave for these vulnerable workers. As well as that, we're ensuring we are doing something about insecure work in this country.

The coalition want to talk about power prices. We're very happy to talk about power prices, because after 22 energy policies when they couldn't land on one single policy—perhaps we're on the way to 23—is there any wonder that electricity prices went up on their watch? To add insult to injury we saw the member for Hume over there hide a whopping 18 per cent energy increase because they did not want the voters of Australia to understand what the woeful results of their hopeless policies and nine years of decadence were leading to. They want to know what's going on with energy prices; I'll tell you what's going on with energy policy. In our first week we gave certainty to investors. When we talked to investors and said, 'What's going on with energy generation? How come you're not investing in it?' the first thing they said to us, 'We don't know what the policy is, because for nine years we've had nothing from this mob over here. How are you going to make a 30-year investment when their policies don't last 30 minutes?'. So we are working on an energy policy which gives industry the certainty to invest, and we will ensure that we get cheaper energy and more secure energy and we will have a cleaner energy supply, something that this mob over here failed at 22 times over nine long years.

The coalition are so out of touch that they don't understand what it is like to be a young family dealing with the rising costs of child care. They went up and up and up on their watch. What are we doing? We are introducing a policy to ensure that the majority of Australian families will get a significant cut in their childcare costs. Over 90 per cent of Australian families with children in child care will be having over 90 per cent of their costs covered. That's what a cost-of-living policy does for you. While this mob over here won't turn up and haven't got a clue, we'll introduce legislation for cheaper child care for 1.25 million Australian children.

The coalition talk about the rising cost of health care. What they won't tell you is that they froze Medicare rebates for nine years. If you are wondering why you can't find a doctor in your regional town that will bulk-bill you, it is because this mob over here froze Medicare rebates for over nine years. Doctors can't afford to provide a bulk-billing service in regional Australia, and the answer is right over there. We will reverse the changes in the policies of this mob—six years of neglect and indolence. Our budget will cut the cost of medicines and ensure that Australians can afford to see a doctor once again.

The Jobs and Skills Summit that this mob over here boycotted because they found somebody in the invitation list they didn't like the sound of actually came up with some solutions. If you want to know why you can't get an electrician, carpenter or plumber to your house for love nor money, the answer is over there. They cut the guts out of the TAFE system. They cut the guts out of vocational education and training. Apprenticeship completion rates have been going through the floor. If there is any wonder why the price of tradies is going through the roof, the answer sits over there. We took the horse by the reins, and we will ensure that we reverse nine long years of neglect by reinvesting in TAFE. An agreement was reached with the states and territories and business last week at the forum that you neglected to turn up to. You boycotted it. We reached a landmark decision—180,000 fee-free TAFE student places to ensure that we can get apprenticeships and traineeships going again. We are fast-tracking fee-free TAFE places and ensuring that businesses can hire again.

The coalition's mismanagement of the economy has made it harder and harder for the government to deal with the challenges, but we will not shrink from them. But we will be honest with the Australian people—$1 trillion worth of Liberal Party debt has to be paid off. That is your legacy: a rising cost of living and $1 trillion worth of debt. Never has there been a party which talks so much about economic management, but—

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