Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The shadow Treasurer started out his interesting speech by quoting Taylor Swift from the album 1989. That album was released eight years ago. Taylor Swift has managed to release five albums since. In the same period of time, those opposite managed to deliver a trillion dollars of debt—although, in fairness, maybe it's $500 billion for former Treasurer Frydenberg and $500 billion for secret Treasurer Morrison. Maybe there was a bit of job sharing there. They delivered us three Prime Ministers. They delivered us a few Deputy Prime Ministers—some better than others. They delivered us five secret ministries. In the same time that Taylor Swift managed to get those five albums out, those opposite managed to have 22 failed energy policies and didn't deliver one.

The shadow Treasurer also decided that it was appropriate to quote some interesting pieces from the Financial Reviewit is a great paper of record; I read it every morning—so I might do the same. I refer to the article titled 'ScoMo's besties feed him to the wolves', which notes that some of the closest declared so-called friends of the former Prime Minister—some might call them frenemies—had some interesting things to say. Former prime minister Hawke said that former prime minister Morrison 'wasn't the greatest listener'. I think that might be the understatement of 2022—wasn't the greatest listener. We then saw his great friend the member for Fadden say:

Scotty's a friend, as much as one can have a friend in politics.

That's an excellent qualification of a strong endorsement. I think the most appropriate, the most serious, statement was from former Treasurer Frydenberg who described the secret ministries scandal as 'extreme overreach'. It's good to see that those who are no longer under the puppetry of the former Prime Minister can actually say what they believe about the secret ministries scandal, whereas everyone else on the coalition benches was forced to back in what they knew to be wrong when they voted to defend the secret ministries scandal.

While some chose to spend their time defending what was, frankly, the indefensible over the last few months, which is what this MPI is about, this government got to work delivering the sorts of legislation that we went to the Australian people saying we would deliver. This government has introduced 85 separate bills in six months. So many of them, as I looked through the list, would not have happened if it weren't for the election of the Albanese Labor government.

We have the Aged Care Amendment (Implementing Care Reform) Bill, making sure we have nurses on shift 24/7 in our aged-care facilities. We have the comprehensive royal commission to aged care response bill. We have the climate change bill, acting on climate change, something that those opposite refused to legislate on. We have the Jobs and Skills Australia Bill, giving us long-term planning for the jobs and skills needs of Australia. We have the bill to repeal the cashless debit card, which was introduced and passed thanks to the work done on this side of the House. We had legislation, again passed by this House, to give a tax cut for electric cars, the only tax cut those opposite seem to oppose.

We have the important work, led by the Leader of the House, to ensure we have paid family and domestic violence leave for all workers in Australia. We have the incentives for pensioners to downsize. We have something that I know you, Deputy Speaker Claydon, are very fond of—the High Speed Rail Authority Bill, which will help connect so many parts of our country. We have the respect at work bill; the cheaper child care bill; the National Anti-Corruption Commission Bill, a piece of legislation, now the law of the land, that was promised to the Australian people in 2018 but which was never delivered because those opposite never believed in it. They just wanted to get it off the agenda. We have the offshore electricity infrastructure legislation, which will make sure we can have more renewables plugged into our grid.

We have the workforce incentive bill. We have the appropriation bills for the Treasurer's brilliant first budget, which start to address just some of the trillion dollars of debt that was left behind by those opposite. If they want to give us a lecture about the cost of living, let them be honest: I'd love to see just one member of the opposition come to that dispatch box and admit that the biggest pressure, the biggest growing cost, on our budget today is the trillion dollars of debt that was left by the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Liberal-National government.

We have the secure jobs, better pay bill, which I hope will become the law of the land sometime in the next 48 hours. We'll soon find out when, I hope.

We have improvements for paid parental leave, making sure that families can spend more time together—again, legislation that is in front of this House only because the people of Australia chose to change the government. We have the bill that was introduced today to enable a vote for a Voice to Parliament. That will enable next financial year the Australian people to have a say and for that referendum to be held, in a similar way to how we hold elections in this country, in 2022-23. The last piece of proposed legislation that was introduced into this place today for the end of this sitting was the Ministers of State Amendment Bill, to make sure that never again do we have the parliament treated with such contempt that members who sit in this chamber do not know who is holding what portfolio or when they became the minister for that portfolio and indeed to ensure that other ministers never have the experience that some opposite had, where they never knew that they were job-sharing but their boss did.

I did not find the argument put forward by the shadow Treasurer to be particularly persuasive—that every problem Australia faces today started on 21 May. I know that's what those opposite are trying to put forward, but so many of these were many years in the making. I have to agree with another shadow minister, whom I have some respect for, a West Australian, the shadow defence minister, who really told the truth about what happened in the former government just over the past few years:

I think after the 2017 loss the party was lazy … It did no intellectual heavy lifting and thought the tide would turn.

That's some really honest speaking from the member for Canning.

When it comes to the six months and what has been delivered for the Australian people, we have had an increase in the minimum wage, because this side was elected and wrote to the Fair Work Commission supporting an increase. We had a 15 per cent pay rise for aged-care workers, some of the hardest working people in the care economy. We've had medicine prices reduced to $30 per script, down from $42. We have 180,000 fee-free TAFE places. We've ended the cashless debit card. We've started the robodebt royal commission, so that people who had unfair fines, and the stress that came with them, put in their letterbox can finally get justice. We've got child care that will be on average $1,700 cheaper for families. We've got an extra 20,000 university places for people from low socioeconomic and disadvantaged backgrounds. We've got legislation in front of the parliament right now to close the gender pay gap, and we've got action in our local communities: in Boothby, a $200 million investment in Flinders Medical Centre; in Reid, an $8.5 million investment in the Hill Road upgrade; in Moreton, a koala crossing to help our beloved koalas get from one part of Toohey Forest to another; and in Chisholm, the Box Hill City Oval upgrade—much needed for those communities.

We go further, because it's not just about cost of living; it's also about quality of living—quality of food in aged care; quality of voice for those who might not feel this parliament always hears them, and I commend the work Minister Aly has done with the Youth Steering Committee; quality of living when it comes to secure jobs, so people can have secure jobs, and outlawing things such as sexual harassment, which is attached to the legislation in front of the Senate right now; quality of living in being able to get a doctor and see a doctor with bulk-billing, through 50 Medicare urgent care clinics. I remember the Liberal National cost-of-living record: cuts to JobKeeper, frozen Medicare payments, hiked-up university fees and 22 failed energy policies. They tried to force Western Australia to privatise Western Power, and they said low wage growth was a deliberate design feature of their budget. (Time expired)

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