Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Paris Olympics are coming up, and on this side of the House, we're very excited because, on the Labor side, we our own Olympian—the great Dan Repacholi—on the hunt for gold. Dan Repacholi is currently in Europe, smashing a few bull's-eyes and probably smashing a few schnitzels as well, I dare say. But it occurred to me that, on that side of the House, they might have their own shot at Olympic gold as well, because the shadow Treasurer today performed an absolutely beautiful triple-backflip. He performed a backflip and deserves a gold medal for hypocrisy.

Two weeks ago, the shadow Treasurer was running around telling everybody in Australia that the government's budget didn't cut far enough—it was too soft, it needed more cuts, it needed more savings, it needed bigger budget surpluses. But today, in the extraordinary Olympics-worthy backflip of the shadow Treasurer, he had a completely different message. Today, when the weak GDP numbers came out, he now thinks the economy is fragile. Two weeks ago, he wanted more cuts—he said it's a big spending budget. On 14 May he said it's a big spending con job. He said Labor has added $315 billion of new spending at a time when we need restraint. But today he wants us to know the opposite. Today he wants us to know that the economy is in dire straits, that consumer confidence is at recessionary lows. Well, which is it? Is the economy in desperate need of more cuts, as he said two weeks ago? Or is it weak and in need of support, as he seems to be saying today?

Two weeks ago, he wanted a bigger budget surplus and big budget cuts; today, he realises that those would have been a devastating outcome for an economy that is fragile in the face of a weak GDP and significant global challenges. And so, the most embarrassing moment of the day for the shadow Treasurer was when it was put to him that he should articulate his own fiscal position, and he couldn't. Of course he couldn't! Because two weeks ago he was saying we should spend less and today he's talking about the economy being weak. He cannot answer the question, 'What would you do?' because he is so confused. He's like Elmer Fudd, firing off bullets in every single direction, trying to land a shot. In fact, he has no coherent position, and every day he shows his own hypocrisy.

He's tried the backflip, he's hit his head on the diving board and, to make matters worse, this morning the Governor of the Reserve Bank gave him quite a slap. He tried to verbal the Governor of the Reserve Bank; he said that she had said that real wages were falling, that typical family real wages fell by nine per cent, but that isn't actually what the Governor of the Reserve Bank said at all. For the benefit of the shadow Treasurer, let me read the full quote from the Governor of the Reserve Bank. She said 'real wages have been negative' but then she said, 'they have started to rise, they are rising now'. What she was talking about when she said real wages have been falling was the record under the previous government. And what she explicitly acknowledged was that right now real wages are rising. That was the first slap that the governor gave to the shadow Treasurer, but she gave him another good one, which keen observers will have noticed.

She gave him a slap on the energy rebate. The shadow Treasurer has been briefing everybody over the last two weeks that the energy rebate will be expansionary, that it is unnecessary, that it will build cost a lot of money, that it will put up prices and that it will, ultimately, lead to higher inflation and higher interest rates. Unfortunately for him, the Governor of the Reserve Bank said exactly the opposite of that this morning. She said:

It is helping people who clearly are hurting at the moment. But I don't think it's material in terms of our forecast for inflation.

Ouch! The Governor of the Reserve Bank has said that the measures the government is putting in place to help Australians are not changing her inflation forecast, completely torpedoing the primary attack of the shadow Treasurer. If only he hadn't helped her by torpedoing his own attack today by confusing himself on the government's fiscal position!

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