Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I saw in this motion the phrases 'chaotic government' and 'Prime Minister missing in action' it occurred to me: 'Maybe the opposition has finally undertaken some introspection after the last election. Maybe they're going to come in here and we're going to hear a big mea culpa for the decade of mess that we inherited.' But, unfortunately, after the last 15 minutes of rhetoric, I see that is not to be the case.

Let's look at that phrase 'chaotic government'. How about three leaders in quick succession, with each change ever more acrimonious? How about countless ministers, a turnstile of ministers, in key portfolios? How about productivity across the economy at 60-year lows? Not since the Great Depression had we had an economy perform so badly. How about no skills agreement for their whole term? How about no skills investment? How about taking funds out of our TAFE system? How about denialism on climate change which was embarrassing on the international stage and meant that we couldn't get into a range of international discussions? We couldn't even get a seat at the table. But, even more than that, it means we're starting the task of climate change abatement 10 years after we should have, which is going to make it all the harder. We didn't know exactly when the next massive disruption to our economy would come. We didn't know exactly when the next pandemic would occur. But we knew there would be one at some point. What happened is that, when COVID came, our economy was all the more ill prepared for it. We had low productivity growth, we had low investment in supply chains and we had low investment in skills. It was made all the harder because of a decade of poor government.

When they want to talk about chaotic government, those opposite should have a good, hard look in the mirror. When the Australian people, at the last election, made a judgement on what a chaotic government is, they made a very clear judgement. Let's look at a couple of the key issues at the last election and what constitutes chaotic government. What about good decision-making? What about dealing with corruption in government? What about having institutions that strengthen our democracy and strengthen the public's faith in democracy?

Those opposite had years to put in place a national anticorruption commission. They promised time and time again it was coming: 'It's coming. It's going to come by this date. It's going to come by that date.' Then, towards the end of their hopeless 10 years in government, they had a bill that was outside of government and started to blame us, the opposition; they wouldn't introduce the bill because they wanted a guarantee from us that we would pass their poorly designed institution. It was so chaotic and poor that we had no action on that core issue for so long, and it became a major issue at the election and a major reason why that previous government was thrown out. We have instituted a strong, robust national anticorruption commission in our first 18 months in government, and it represents action on so many fronts.

What about Respect@Work? Those opposite received the recommendations from that report but didn't implement key recommendations. It took the change of government for key recommendations to be implemented. What about climate change? I talked about a decade of denial on climate change, a decade of chaos, with 27 policies on climate change. In our first 18 months we've legislated net zero, we've legislated a 43 per cent reduction by 2030, we've put in place a safeguard mechanism—step after step, taking us down the path we need to get to. It's starting from a point we didn't need to start from but we're taking all the steps we need to.

What about the economy and cost of living? Those opposite had this shocking performance when it came to productivity, which put us in a very poor position when COVID hit. Under their watch, we had the highest single quarter of inflation growth. We've seen, under our term in government, in 18 months, inflation come down materially—it's got further to come down but it has come down materially—and we've seen unemployment resilient and seen the labour market resilient. The unemployment rate remains with a '3' in front of it. We've seen the participation rate at record levels. We're seeing inflation coming down but we are managing to walk that narrow path where we are seeing the labour market remain resilient. That's helping people to continue to stay in the labour market, which is helping them to pay their mortgages and helping them to navigate these difficult times.

When it comes to cost-of-living pressures on the most vulnerable households, there are a lot of households doing it tough. Our government is doing targeted cost-of-living assistance, the 10-point plan—cheaper medicines, rent assistance, child care; the list goes on—and we're doing it in a way where we're not making the Reserve Bank's job harder. We are investing in productivity in the long run—skills, climate change and many other areas. Chaos was what he had until the last election. It's the opposite that we have now.

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