Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The words that you've just heard from the Leader of the Opposition are the ultimate testament to Liberal lunacy. The Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer have dragged their colleagues, hangdog, into this chamber to vote against lower taxes. That's what's going on here. All of those are lining up opposite to vote against lower taxes. The party of so-called small government in this moment is in this chamber voting against lower taxes. Robert Menzies would be rolling in his grave—which is perhaps why the seat of Robert Menzies is no longer in their pile!

All we hear from the Leader of the Opposition is his method of division and his attempt to come and scare the Australian people. Fear and division is what he has been about. He simply comes in here and rolls out his old bag of tropes, which he has had for the last two decades, around what he says in relation to the Labor Party. In terms of the contribution of the shadow Treasurer today, every time the Shadow Treasurer opens his mouth is a moment closer to the Rhodes Trust asking for their money back! He has done absolutely nothing to make an argument about why the Liberal Party should be in here voting against lower taxes, and yet that is the situation that we find ourselves in.

We understand the challenges that Australians are facing. Those on the other side are sneering at the money that we are ensuring is in the pockets of Australians around this country. In total, the tax cuts that we have put in place will see $50 a week for the average income earner stay in their pockets; that's a result of the tax cuts that we've put in place. But those opposite sneer at that. They say it's nothing. They're out there pretending that what we are doing in terms of income tax relief and energy bill relief is making no difference. They will give every description under the sun about the challenges that people are facing right now, but, when it comes to actually doing something about that and helping Australians who are facing those challenges, they stand in opposition to all of it.

They have been opposed to tax cuts. They have been opposed to energy bill relief. They have been opposed to more affordable child care. They have been opposed to cheaper medicines. At every step along the way, as we have sought to put in place policies which make it easier for people to deal with the circumstances that they face, those opposite stand resolutely opposed to it. The Australian people understand that, and, in the coming weeks and months as we lead up to the next election, they will not forget it, nor will they forget the country that those opposite left us.

When we came to power, inflation was running at 6.1 per cent, and it was going higher. Today it is 2.4 per cent, and it is going lower. When we came to government, those opposite had left us a trillion dollars of debt with nothing to show for it. And to be clear, the debt story started well and truly before the pandemic. There was nothing they wouldn't throw money at. Again, the party of smaller government, the party of so-called prudent economic management, gave this country debt as far as it could see. That is what we inherited. That is the situation that we were dealing with.

In the very first full financial year that we presided over this nation's affairs, we delivered a surplus, and, in the following year, we delivered another one. Two surpluses, two years—that is something that the Liberals promised they would do every single year but didn't do once. As a result of the budget that we handed down last night, the budget bottom line now is $207 billion better than what was forecast when the Liberals were in power. That means that over the course of the decade $60 billion worth of interest is being saved by the Australian people. We have released the country from $207 billion of Liberal debt. That's what we've done. But we've done it because we understand what we are about.

We understand that the people who feel the economy most are the people who have the least. It is in places like in the Treasurer's seat of Logan or in my seat of Corio where people feel what it means when the economy is doing it tough. That's why we understand that the most Labor act that we can take is to manage the budget in a prudent way. That's why, as we have faced the global inflation challenge, we have done so in a way where we have not only brought inflation down but have made sure that unemployment has remained low and that we've got real wages going again for the first time after a decade of wage stagnation.

We've done that by improving the wages of those who need it the most. Literally, the first act of the Albanese Labor government was to intervene in the national wage case to see an increase in the minimum wage above the rate of inflation. From there, we saw increases in wages for those in aged care and for those in child care—feminised industries where people are not paid a lot. It is off the back of those interventions—those acts of policy on the part of the Albanese Labor government—that we are in a position where, on this day, real wages are growing across the country again. We understand that an economy where wages are growing, where unemployment is low, where we've had economic growth in every quarter throughout this period and where we have got inflation down is an economy which works for the people who have the least, and we are focused on that. In the process, we've been focused on making sure that we are giving people cost-of-living relief along the way by cutting HECS debt, which was in the budget last night and is an historic investment in education; by the biggest investment in Medicare that we have seen since the establishment of Medicare more than 40 years ago, an investment which will mean that nine out of 10 visits to the GP will be bulk-billed—there will be no gap fees and people will need to pay nothing; or by energy bill relief or cheaper medicines, such that the maximum price for a PBS medicine payment will be $25. The last time people were paying $25 for medicines was back in 2004. All of those measures are focused and have been focused on enabling people to deal with the cost-of-living challenges that the nation has faced—that, in fact, the world has faced—over the last few years.

All of that has been done in the face of the opposition of the Liberal Party. Now, they drag their members into this chamber to vote against lower taxes, and they sneer at those who are receiving lower taxes, because of the amount that's being talked about—$50 a week. That is what the accumulated amount of tax cuts represents for those who we have provided tax cuts to since we have been in power. That is what they are voting against. It's the cost-of-living relief that we've been putting in place that they are challenging.

Those opposite managed the economy appallingly. Back then, we had a prime minister who, unbeknownst to us all, was also the Treasurer and the resources minister. The Treasurer and the resources minister at the time didn't know that either. That was the chaos of the government that led this country through a lost decade. Let me be clear: the lost Liberal decade remains absolutely fresh in the minds of Australian voters. It will very much be there when the Australian voters go to the polls in the coming weeks and the coming months. Let's also be clear: the guilty party—the Liberal Party—remain absolutely present in terms of their place in this parliament and the choice that is given to the Australian people at the next election.

On this side of the House, with the Albanese government, we stand on the side of Australians. We stand for cutting taxes. We stand for investing in education. We stand for investing in health. We stand for building opportunity. We stand for building aspiration. In the words of the Prime Minister, we are a government which is holding no-one back and leaving no-one behind.

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