Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition hasn't been here long, but this is a suspension debate, not a debate over the airline. If you win the suspension debate, you then get to debate the question of Qatar. This is a suspension debate. The point I am making is that what you are seeking to suspend is a debate about the state of our economy, a debate that the shadow Treasurer, to his credit, wanted to initiate about the state of the economy. The Leader of the Opposition's priority is not to talk about the economy, not to talk about cost of living, not to talk about the price of medicines and not to talk about the loopholes legislation. If this suspension motion wasn't being proceeded with and if the MPI had been canned by the Leader of the Opposition when the shadow Treasurer had been marched by him out of the chamber, we would be moving to the loopholes legislation, but apparently that is not of any particular importance. There has been no question of the minister on that legislation—lots of interjections but no questions of the minister on that legislation.

It just goes to show the priorities of this Leader of the Opposition. His priority is not about having a discussion about the state of the economy, in a week where our GDP figures were released. No question from the shadow Treasurer to the Treasurer about GDP figures, seeking to press and probe what is good about the state of our economy right now and what the real pressures are—absolutely nothing. Finally, on Thursday afternoon, we thought we might have a debate about it—but, no, the Leader of the Opposition thinks it's more important to have a debate about the landing rights of a Middle Eastern airline located on the other side of the world. The only cost of living he is willing to talk about right now is international airfares. No debate about the price of medicines—a bit of cat-calling and yelling out, and encouragement of people up in the gallery, but no real debate about the price of medicines and what that means for households. No debate about the impact on energy prices of the legislation they opposed in December—the substantial relief against all the upward pressure caused by the global gas market on energy prices for households. Instead, it is this obsession by the other side with the landing rights of one Middle Eastern airline located on the other side of the world. Frankly, I think all of us and those who journey into question time have learned more than we ever thought we'd have to know about the arcane area of landing rights and the negotiations between different aviation authorities about that. As we have learned, this is not something particularly new to this minister or this government; this is something the former minister, the member for Riverina, had to traverse as well. He is a great bloke, much loved across the chamber, but it is an area that he's had to traverse just as much as anyone else.

We are not going to support this suspension. We wanted a debate about the state of the economy. We wanted the shadow Treasurer to finally, this week, have his moment in the sun. Instead he was marched out of the chamber by the Leader of the Opposition, forced out with his tail between his legs, to have to humiliatingly fail to turn up to his own party. He sent the invitations out, ordered the booze and canapes, but failed to turn up to his own party where we could have a full-throated debate about the state of the economy. Okay, if they don't want to do that, let's get on with the debate about closing loopholes, about wage theft, about the impact of the gig economy on all those workers who have to undertake all those hours of work without basic protections just to make ends meet. But no—instead, this Leader of the Opposition wants to play politics with the landing rights of one Middle Eastern airline on the other side of the world. This is just an extraordinary display of this Leader of the Opposition's priorities. Nothing to say about cost of living, nothing to say about health policy—which is probably no surprise, given he was voted by doctors as the worst health minister in the 40-year history of Medicare. Instead, he just wants to go in to bat for the landing rights of one airline based on the other side of the planet.

We will not be supporting this motion. If you're not willing to have a debate about the global economy, we'll deal with this suspension, we'll oppose it and, if the will of the parliament is not to accept it, we'll get on with debating the Fair Work legislation and closing loopholes.

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