Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable the Leader of the Opposition proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The Prime Minister’s year of underachievement.

I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The year 2014 is the year that Tony Abbott wants us to forget. Unfortunately, this is the year which Australians will remember for the rest of their lives. The proposition which I advance today as a matter of public importance is that this is not what the Prime Minister says is a year of achievement, laughable as that is; this has been a year of underachievement from a government which has let down the Australian people. Every government gets elected with the goodwill of the Australian people, but no government has burnt its bridges so quickly. When we think back to 12 months ago, the Treasurer had goaded Holden into going, losing thousands of jobs, and now we find out it was so he could clear the decks for a free trade agreement. But the list of job losses in this country is far longer than just Holden: Rio at Gove; Toyota; Alcoa; Forge in Western Australia; thousands of more jobs in small businesses and manufacturing; and defence construction. The renewable energy industry is at risk. When the Australian people were beginning to worry at the start of this year about the issue of jobs, sadly confirmed in the last few days by the national accounts figures and unemployment numbers, we discovered that in March this year the Prime Minister's plan for jobs was to come up with the idea of knights and dames. It has been a most extraordinary year.

Government Member:

A government member interjecting—

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was funny! Just for the record, the Labor Party will have no problems debating this policy curly question at our national conference. We have opposed the imperial honours system since 1916. Today is the end of a shocking week, in a dreadful year, of a terrible government. This bunch opposite behave in a dishonest fashion. They have no fidelity between their election promises and what they do in government. They are out of touch—a point I will come back to—and clearly they are incompetent.

Let us think about some of the earlier months of 2014, because the problem with this government is an embarrassment of riches to oppose and every week there are problems—I don't know; maybe it is a cunning strategy by the government—they make bigger blunders the following week so you forget about their blunders the previous week. But remember the Commission of Audit.

Mr Frydenberg interjecting—

A good document, the good member for Kooyong said. Indeed, it was their plan B. They put it out before they put out plan A. However, I do not expect a single Victorian Liberal member to be saying that it is a good document because, at least, when it came to defending their Senate position in Western Australia, defending the Liberal Party in South Australia and indeed in Tasmania, the Commission of Audit sat on it and sat on it, so as not to compromise their electoral chances. They did not show that same courtesy to the former jewel in the Liberal crown, in Victoria. They could not wait. In the first week, they said, 'Dear Denis, just before I come down and hug you, I want to impose a petrol tax.'

When you look at the issue of underachievement, no discussion on the underachievement of this government could possibly go unnoticed without looking at who gets the trophy in the member of this gang for the biggest underachiever? Possibly, the Minister for Foreign Affairs gets the top banana—easily the best-performing woman in the Abbott cabinet. She is going so well that the PMO has decided to make her take excess baggage to Lima—the Minister for Trade!

Joe Hockey—what a year he has had! Two great publications—he launched a budget and he launched his book. It is hard to know which one his colleagues liked more. And then of course we had his John Farnham style tour—trying one more time to sell his rotten budget. And we will never forget the gig he had with Jacqui Lambie—that did not end so well! And of course Joe Hockey has memorably given us the arguments that the strong economic reformers need. 'A GP tax, that's just a couple of beers'—that line worked! 'Pensioners have never had it so good'—I would not go there again, Joe! And don't worry about the petrol tax—because 'poor people don't drive cars'!

And in the other House there are some contributors. Senator Brandis made two noteworthy contributions. The first was 'the right to be a bigot'—memorable! And then there was that interview on metadata, which was possibly the most awkward bit of television since the 70-second staring competition the Prime Minister had with Mark Riley! And then of course we had 'old charm offensive' himself, Senator Abetz—more offence than charm—bobbing up on The Project. That must have been a set up—I have heard the expression 'first-time guest', but he was a first-time viewer! And he gave us some 1950s medical science. And then there was the Minister for the Environment—whose title is sheer irony. He has defended the Antarctic walrus, the Tasmanian tiger and any other animal he finds on Wikipedia! We had of course the Minister for Immigration, working relentlessly on 'Operation Self-promotion'! And then there was the Minister for Communications. He is cutting the ABC and the SBS. I think it might be time to hang up that leather jacket, Malcolm! And speaking of communicators there is Christopher Pyne. He has been texting in his CV to be the Minister for Communications—or perhaps the 'minister for unsolicited communications'! And this is the mob who want to 'put the adults back in charge'!

Of course, 2015 promises to be a potential follow-on from this year of underachievement. Will Senator Johnston be the Minister for Defence? Will he keep his 'rhetorically flourishing canoe' up his 'unparliamentary creek'? We know what Stuart Robert is cheering for! Will Barnaby Joyce visit Shepparton—or has he wiped it off his mental map like Whyalla? And then of course there is the longest 'position vacant' stint—will we have an Assistant Treasurer again in Australia? And so we look promisingly to the contenders—the colt from Kooyong, the member for Moncrieff or that fast-finishing country thoroughbred the member for Wannon?

All of this would be even funnier if the following were not true: Australia cannot afford a year like the one that has just passed. We cannot afford to have unemployment at 6.2 per cent when Labor left it at 5.7 per cent. We cannot afford to have a 13-year high in youth unemployment, which is now at 14 per cent. There are 42,000 more unemployed people around the country following the government's damaging budget. We certainly cannot afford to have another year of the Prime Minister's broken promises. Australians are better than this government. Australians deserve better than this government. We need a government with vision and a plan for the future, not a government that is adrift both domestically and internationally.

Labor in 2014 is standing strong for fairness. We have been standing very strong. We have been defending Medicare. We have been fighting for families who are under pressure from the increased costs of living. We are fighting for a fair pension—and we will keep fighting till we make sure that your cuts do not go through. Dignity in retirement, we believe, is a birthright of all Australians. And yes, despite faux mini-me Churchill on the other side, we will keep fighting the government's unfair changes to universities. Throughout 2015 we will outline our plan for the future—a plan for inclusive growth and a smart, skilful and fair Australia. We do not believe that growth and fairness are mutually irreconcilable; in fact, each drives the other.

We certainly cannot afford to have the destruction of confidence that we have seen. The national account figures yesterday are a most concerning development. This government has slammed us into an income recession. We are dangerously reliant on iron ore and our minerals, with very little else in our economy to help us. We are seeing wages and profits contract in this country under this government. How long will this government keep blaming everything and everyone else for their inability to do their day job? We have seen higher taxes under this government. Even some of the blue-blood supporters of the Liberal Party, surely, are not excited by the fact that they now pay over 50c in the dollar in tax because of this government. Above all, no-one believes in their multi-millionaire paid parental leave schemes—I know that, in their beating hearts, the government desperately want us to succeed in convincing the Prime Minister to drop that unloved scheme of his.

Let's look at the real challenges of next year. Under this government the deficit has doubled and all the projections are looking grim. The government have colluded with the Greens to extend the credit card.

Government members interjecting—

They laugh! They probably do not even know what their leader is doing. They are cutting public investment. The reason we regard it as a matter of public importance to debate the year of underachievement is that I do not believe there is a single Australian who is not disappointed by the Abbott government—from their conservative boosters, right through the spectrum of Australian opinion. We on this side understands that growth comes from extending opportunity—from making sure that kids can go to university, right through to making sure that pensioners get a fair deal—and we will promote this next year.

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can understand the frustration of the Leader of the Opposition because this is the first year in three years where he has not been able to stab the back of a Prime Minister! I just want to say to the Leader of the Opposition that if he were as good at policy as he is at scripted one-liners then maybe his party would not have had the worst result in 100 years. I just want to remind the Leader of the Opposition that the worst day in government is better than the best day in opposition.

We in government are making a difference. This is the 70th year of the Liberal Party and it is 75 years since our founder, Robert Menzies, first became Prime Minister. And when he established our party he did so believing in a progressive party, one that believed in the power of the individual, in free enterprise, in helping those who cannot help themselves, in ensuring smaller and more efficient government. And when you look at our record over just the last year, we meet all those criteria, and we excel in them.

If you want to talk about the performance of individual ministers, let me go through some of their achievements, starting with the Treasurer, the Minister for Small Business, and the Minister for Finance, who have led our economic team. They have reduced the overall tax burden for Australians by removing that terrible carbon tax, a $9 billion hit on the Australian economy and a $550 hit on all Australian families. And what about the mining tax? That is removing $50 billion for the budget bottom line. It was supposed to project all this revenue, which never eventuated, but what it did do is introduce the dark spectre of sovereign risk into our country.

And what about the 96 unenacted but announced tax and superannuation measures that those opposite introduced when they were in government, only to bring uncertainty to the budgetary situation of so many of our economies? And what about the 76 bodies we have abolished to ensure that government is now streamlined and more efficient? And what about the successful sale of government enterprises to ensure that government is not both the regulator and the operator? There is no better example than the sale of Medibank Private for $5.7 billion—$1 billion more than was expected. And now we have scoping studies into Australian Hearing, into the assets registry, and into Defence Housing, because we believe that government should not be in business where the private sector can be.

And of course there is the most important job of budget repair: $300 billion of fiscal consolidation over the next decade. Politics, according to Bismarck, is the art of the possible. So we have to negotiate with a difficult Senate from a minority position. But we are doing it successfully, thanks to the good work of our economic team. And what about for small business? As the minister told us during question time, more than 500,000 jobs in small business were lost over the term of the Rudd, Gillard and Rudd governments. We have introduced a whole suite of measures, including more than 400,000 small businesses that will not have to go through the PAYG system. This has ensured that we have had tens of thousands of new small business registrations. And in my own area of deregulation we set ourselves an ambitious target of $1 billion a year for cutting red tape. And what have we done? We have actually surpassed that. We have more than doubled it, with $2.1 billion worth of announced measures to cut red and green tape. And some of them are so important, including for small business, for agriculture and our farmers, and right across the economy. So, it has been a very good year when it comes to our economic measures.

What about the environment? The Minister for the Environment has got his $2.5 billion Direct Action Plan through the Senate. He has got his Green Army proposal through the Senate. We have a good position on the Renewable Energy Target, which we believe should be a 20 per cent target. And of course he has abolished the carbon tax. That is a proud record when it comes to the environment.

And what about health? Those opposite talk about the cuts to health. I will talk about the boost to health: a more than 40 per cent increase in funding over the forward estimates, $5.3 billion extra money for hospitals and health over the forward years. And what about the changes we are adopting to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, through our announcement that processes, systems and products that have been approved overseas can come into Australia if they have been done by a trusted international jurisdiction. That is good news, because it means that medical devices and medicines can now get to market quicker, and we can have more choice for consumers at lower cost. And of course our medical research future fund, which is a great development, plays to our strength, because if we can get medical research right then we can find the cures for the future.

And what about education? There is a 37 per cent increase—a $4.9 billion funding increase over the forward years, when those opposite never would have fully funded Gonski, and we have increased our education funding. And of course there are the important higher education changes, which have been strongly supported right across the tertiary sector.

And what about in infrastructure, where there has been a $50 billion spend?—the Pacific Highway, the Bruce Highway, the WestConnex and, we hope, the East West Link in Victoria. And after 50 years of indecision we now have a second airport on the cards for New South Wales—again, a very important decision. Again, we are making a difference when it comes to infrastructure, not just with the big projects but also the $500 million for black spots and the $2.5 billion for Roads to Recovery.

When it comes to the NBN, over the last year alone more than double the number of businesses and homes actually have access to the NBN. It was over budget and it was slow in the rollout under those opposite. But we have taken that performance and reshaped it with a much better scheme under the leadership of our Minister for Communications.

And what about trade? What about those three free trade agreements which are the hallmark of this government's achievements in just its first year? It took six years for those opposite to diddle and daddle and produce no results. We have an agreement with Korea that will lead to 98 or 99 per cent of our products going into Korea tariff-free over the future years. What about Japan? And of course, what about China? There have been big gains in agriculture, with the abolition of tariffs for beef, dairy and horticulture. And what about in resources, where we are seeing coking coal and thermal coal tariffs come off, and aluminium oxide come off? And what about in services?—70 per cent of the Australian economy but just 17 per cent of our exports. And of course now education, health, insurance and financial services can actually get in to the Chinese economy, where they could not previously. This is a groundbreaking agreement, one we are proud of and one that will create jobs into the future.

And what about on foreign policy? The minister for foreign affairs has done a brilliant job with the new Colombo Plan. Under her initiative, 1,300 undergraduates from Australia are going to experience what life is like in the region. They will be ambassadors for Australia, just like the Colombo Plan more than 50 years ago under Percy Spender was for 40,000 people.

And what about the way we have handled the tough issues of defence and national security? There has been new counter-terrorism legislation, thanks to the good work of the Attorney-General, boosting funding and support for the Defence Forces, given that those opposite reduced Defence spending to the lowest level since 1938 at just 1.49 per cent of GDP—and what a disgrace that was.

Of course, we are there when it counts, trying to defeat ISIL—or ISIS, Daesh, or whatever you are going to call the group—in Iraq and in Syria, with our deployment over there of our air force and our special forces, because Australia will not shirk those challenges when they are critical to security here at home. We have seen the good work of our Federal Police, ASIO and our other intelligence services in trying to foil attempts to hurt Australian citizens here at home.

And who can forget our success when it comes to border protection? Those opposite ridiculed us by saying we could not stop the boats, that you could not turn back the boats and that you could not do so without damaging the relationship with Indonesia. Who remembers the then leader of the government, Kevin Rudd, talking about 'Konfrontasi' with Indonesia if we would actually go down the path of the 'turn back the boats' policy. But we have been successful, thanks to the fantastic work of the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection and his officials. We have succeeded where those have not.

I want to finish with the G20, because that was Australia's moment in the sun, in Brisbane. Eighty-five per cent of the world's GDP here, 75 per cent of the world's trade and two-thirds of the world's population. They saw Australia at its finest. They saw Australia and they produced outcomes—whether it was in infrastructure, growth, tax, shadow banking and a whole series of areas. We have made a difference with G20, thanks to the leadership of the Prime Minister.

I am proud of what we have achieved over the last year. We have succeeded where those have failed, and they will see the result at the election in 2016.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I want to take the opportunity on this last day of sittings to wish you and your family a happy Christmas and New Year.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I think you were in the chair the other day when I told the story of my little Louis, who helps himself to the mini Magnums. I do not normally share stories of my family, but today's topic brought to mind another one, and it is about my middle child, Joe. I was going into his room and I was finding that it was getting stinkier and stinkier. I thought, 'Here comes adolescence; his body is changing.' No, it was not that. It was in fact a sandwich—I think it was a sandwich. It was something in his schoolbag that had been there for so many weeks that it was actually unidentifiable. It was mush wrapped in gladwrap, which was leaking liquid—and it was hot to the touch.

The only thing that stays in the schoolbag longer than an uneaten sandwich is a school report—that is, a bad school report. At this time of year you know that, the longer it takes for the school report to get from the schoolbag to the kitchen table, the worse it is going to be. And, really, that did make me think that this week we are doing all of this analysis of what has been happening this year and how we have been doing. I think it is fair to say that, if we did an analysis—a report card—of how this government has done in the last year, it would not be a very good report card.

The Prime Minister promised before the election—he made a number of promises, but let us just take one, for example—that 'Kevin Rudd and I are on an absolute unity ticket when it comes to school funding.' He said that on 4 August. Christopher Pyne, the Manager of Government Business, said, 'You can vote Liberal or Labor and you'll get exactly the same amount of funding for your school.' How did they live up to that one? Well, Labor committed $14.65 billion to Gonski school education funding. The Prime Minister has guaranteed—guess what—$2.8 billion. The difference between almost $15 billion and less than $3 billion—not a very good grasp of mathematical concepts there.

What is the consequence of the Prime Minister's poor grasp of maths? Let us hear from David Gonski:

There needs to be a commitment to a properly funded, needs-based funding system and a failure to do so will be to our detriment.

Yes, it will be. It will be not just to the detriment of the individual children who will miss out—and there will be individual children who miss out—but to the detriment of this nation if we do not invest in early education, primary school, infant school and indeed high school.

Let us turn to science. How is the Prime Minister doing when it comes to science? What is the biggest scientific debate in Australia, and indeed globally, today? A colourless, weightless gas—it is this little thing called climate change! Here is something from Lord Deben, the former environment minister in the government of Thatcher, the hero of the Prime Minister:

"I haven’t met an Australian who is not deeply ashamed of this government, most of whom voted for Abbott," he said. "How can you say 'we don’t mind what 97% of scientists tell us, we are going to stick two fingers up and do it anyway'?"

That is really what we saw at the G20. We saw a government determined not to discuss climate science. And you add to that cuts to the CSIRO: $115 million from CSIRO funding; losing 400 researchers, including some of the best known internationally; and 300 positions cut as part of an internal restructure. Nobel laureate Professor Peter Doherty said:

Cutting resources for science, technology, innovation and education is a sure way of accelerating our transition to a Third-World economy.

So he has not been rated very well on maths, our Prime Minister. He has not been rated very well on science. Economics—that is a whole other area. He said he would 'end the debt and deficit'. He has doubled the deficit. He has given debt unlimited, in a dirty deal with the Greens. He has $20 billion for a Paid Parental Leave scheme that no-one wants. He gave $9 billion to the Reserve Bank—unasked for and unneeded. A billion dollars foregone in profit-shifting tax evasion from multinational companies. He has given up the revenue from carbon pricing, but he has kept the compensation. What a disaster it has been.

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great delight for me to be able to stand in this chamber and speak on this motion. I do find it slightly ironic that those opposite have proposed a motion about underachievement. It is ironic to me, because it is something, I think, that they know a little bit about. Really, from those opposite, it comes as some high praise. But I think that, in order to properly consider this motion about underachievement, one needs to measure it against a particular standard. I can think of no better standard than that of the member for Lilley.

The member for Lilley promised in this place—and outside of this place—a surplus on more than 400 occasions. In fact, he inherited a $20 billion surplus, and yet delivered in his time as Treasurer over $190 billion worth of deficits and bequeathed to this government another $123 billion worth of deficits going forward. What does this mean? It means increased debt, and on that debt you pay interest. That interest payment is coming in currently at $1 billion a month, which, of course, means about $12 billion a year, and it is going to go up, if we do not reduce the debt, to around $3 billion a month. But we are focused on reducing the debt, and I will have more to say about some of our achievements later.

Given that I have had some recent experience looking at the experience of foreign investment as chair of the House Standing Committee on Economics, I think it is important to draw the House's attention to underachievement in this particular area. Across the evidence that we received in our committee, it came to my attention that, in 2008, the Assistant Treasurer, Chris Bowen, delivered a quiet press release just before Christmas that took away the ability of the Foreign Investment Review Board to screen temporary residents from needing to go to the Foreign Investment Review Board for that screening. It meant that it was very difficult for the Foreign Investment Review Board to conduct proper audit and compliance. They did this very quietly. They did not announce it. They did it quietly, and this led to a very significant change in our foreign investment framework.

Realising that they had made a tremendously significant mistake and hearing this from the local community, they promised before the 2010 election that they would do something about it. Senator Nick Sherry made grand proclamations, as Assistant Treasurer, in a press release, saying that they were going to restore the screening arrangements for temporary residents to have to go to FIRB for the purchase of existing homes. He also promised a number of other things. Not only did he promise that all temporary residents seeking to purchase an existing property would be brought within FIRB notification—which, of course, they had got rid of—he also promised that they would have a better compliance regime, better enforcement measures and new civil penalties, and that real estate agents would be proactively monitored. He said:

I want to make sure that all arms of the Australian government are working optimally together to secure prosecutions where breaches occur.

So, what happened? There has been not one court prosecution since 2006 and not one property divested since 2007. When the next Assistant Treasurer came along after the election he took on responsibility for putting in place this plan. And who was that person? That person was Bill Shorten, and under Bill Shorten not much happened. The civil penalty regime did not happen. The capital gains penalty did not happen. The checks on real estate agents did not happen. Closer enforcement links with the Director of Public Prosecutions did not happen, and data matching with the states did not progress beyond initial trials. About the only thing that did happen was they introduced a hotline. So if you want to talk about underachievement in this place you need to look no further than the Leader of the Opposition who brought forward this motion. He is the biggest underachiever of them all.

We have had significant achievements in government. In the short time that we have been in government, and inheriting the legacy that we did, we have been able to get rid of the carbon tax, which reduces the costs on family, we have stopped the boats, we have got rid of a mining tax, we have been building for the future with our record infrastructure investment of more than $50 billion and we have concluded three free trade agreements with Japan, Korea and China. We are trying to get on with the job of long-term structural reform, but we are being blocked by those opposite.

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No government in recent times has so badly let down the Australian people, broken more promises and betrayed the trust of all Australians, been so arrogant and out of touch with the Australian people, been more shambolic and so quickly lost the support of the Australian people than has the Abbott government. Public opinion reflects that, as did the Victorian state election only a week ago. Despite the denials of members opposite and other government and coalition members across Australia, the fact is that the Australian people rejected this government's, the Abbott government's, policies. The Victorians did not even want the Prime Minister to visit Victoria in the course of that election. So toxic was the Prime Minister and his government that they were barred from going to Victoria.

The Abbott government are a government that still acts as though they in opposition. They do not know how to govern, having no national strategy of their own but simply dancing to the tune of the right-wing extremists both within and outside of their ranks, clinging to simplistic three-word slogans and policies that they used in opposition and blaming all of their woes on everyone else but themselves Those woes include—and hopefully time will allow me to go through all these because five minutes is not a long time—failure to manage the nation's finances by more than doubling the deficit over the forward estimates, failure to bring in their harsh $7 GP tax, failure to get in their unfair $5 billion plus cuts to higher education and bring in $100,000 university fees, failure to get support for their unfair $50,000 Paid Parental Leave scheme, failure to get their cruel pension cuts through parliament.

They also failed to amend section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act and had to humiliatingly back away from it. They failed to have their own fuel tax get through parliament in its proper form and had to use the back door in order to get it through. They failed to deliver Indigenous Australians the promises they made to them, instead cutting $534 million of funding to them. They failed to deliver the Gonski education funding and instead cut $30 billion of funding to education. They failed to bring down the cost of living. They failed to reduce unemployment, with unemployment being 5.7 per cent when they came to office and now being 6.2 per cent. They failed to support Australia's young people, with youth unemployment being the highest it has been in 13 years. They failed to create the one million jobs that they promised they would create. They failed to build the 12 new submarines in Adelaide, deliberately breaking another pre-election promise. They failed to honour the Renewable Energy Target and failed to even get crossbench support when they tried to wreck it. This was a double failure on the same issue. They failed to protect the environment by weakening environmental laws, including cutting $484 million from the Landcare programs

They failed to implement a real climate change policy. They failed to even mention the words 'climate change' for almost a year in this chamber, and the environment minister has been missing when it comes to the environment and his real responsibilities. They failed to support Australia's science community by cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding, and not even appointing a science minister. They failed to protect the jobs of Australia's autoworkers—one of the most shameful acts of this government was daring the auto companies to leave Australia. They failed to support Australian industries, as the Treasurer himself admitted only on Tuesday, and they sacrificed Australian industry in order to push through free trade agreements.

Perhaps the most notable failure from the government was its woeful performance at the G20 meeting in Brisbane where they failed to capitalise on the opportunity to show real statesmanship on matters of international significance. Instead the Prime Minister was being ridiculed for his shirtfront comments, and he complained to the international community about not being able to get his own policies through his own parliament. It is time the Abbott government took responsibility for its own incompetence and its own failures to understand that the Australian people will not be treated as fools. A government cannot lie its way into office and then expect people to swallow its spin, its excuses and more of its lies. This government—the Abbott government—has failed to honour its election promises, it has lost the trust and confidence of the Australian people, and even the confidence of its own backbench. Its election eve promises of no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions, no changes to the GST and no cuts to the ABC and SBS will haunt it through to the next election. Indeed, Australians do want a government that says what its means and means what it says—this government simply does not live up to their expectations. (Time expired)

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was absolutely delighted to hear the member for Sydney refer to that great woman, Margaret Thatcher. I thought I might begin with a quote from Margaret Thatcher herself, given that she was a woman who truly understood achievement—which, of course, is the topic of the MPI here today. She said:

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's a day you've had everything to do and you've done it.

Throughout history, the finest minds have attempted to define achievement—is it more about persistence than force, is failure a necessary precursor? Of course, the postmodern relativists on the other side of the House can define it however they want. But in the real world where I worked and lived before coming into this place, there is a clearly defined space between achievement and underachievement. The last government defined its achievements by the number of bills it passed, the inches of regulation it imposed, the volumes of reports it produced and the number of new agencies it established. As I go around my electorate I can honestly say no-one gives a hang about any of those measures. The only exception I see is the small number of noisy rent seekers whose wallets were lined by the ALP's incessant waste on pork barrelling rorts, like the RDA fund overseen by the member for Ballarat. As someone who comes from the private sector, where outcomes are all that matter, I am more interested in measures that actually have positive impacts on people's lives. Let us look at the scoreboard: 40,000 boat arrivals and over 1,100 deaths became almost zero and years of inaction on trade agreements driven by the incessant lobbying by ALP-focused rent seekers turned to three massive trade agreements that will drive profound, positive and lasting change to our economy. Dysfunctional taxes were abolished with sharp reductions in costs for businesses and households. Cranes started appearing on the skyline in major cities. We refocussed the NBN, finding massive opportunities for efficiencies and acceleration. A structural deficit which was driven, we are told by Deloittes, by $80 billion of windfall revenues is on its way to zero.

I want to focus on one overarching achievement, which I believe trumps all others—we are beginning to reverse the downward pressure on incomes that was set in motion by Labor's deeply flawed economic policies. Rising real incomes across middle Australia have been a bedrock of this country since European settlement. They have defined our egalitarian culture by sharing prosperity across the nation and down generations, provided opportunities for all of us no matter what our background or heritage, delivered widespread prosperity to recent immigrants as well as fifth-generation Australians alike and delivered rising real wages without driving people out of work. But Labor put this at risk. We saw productivity collapse. We lost focus on doing things smarter across everything we do because Labor told their friends they could do and they could have whatever they wanted, and they gave their mates want they wanted. Nowhere was this worse than in the public sector where Labor for many years stifled innovation in the interests of its increasingly powerful public sector union officials.

Most economists will tell you that the greatest opportunity for doing things smarter in Australia is in the public sector, but Labor's new left-wing powerbase was never going to take any notice of that. Unprecedented commodity prices and currency levels, which as I said Deloittes tells us delivered an $80 billion windfall, were wasted on frivolous and sometimes deadly government programs. In contrast, the coalition is laying the foundation for a new era of rising incomes and prosperity. We are doing this by asking ourselves how to do things better, by pushing every dollar of government spending harder in health, in education, in welfare and in infrastructure, whilst still continuing to prudently increase our spending in these areas. By not conceding to the siren call of the rent seekers that the ALP listen to, delivering greater prosperity, opportunity and choice for generation after generation of Australians is a noble calling and one the coalition is up to.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This has been for the Prime Minister a year of underachievement. Every government does have the best intentions when they come to power; they have an agenda that they want to see achieved. I am relieved that this Prime Minister has been an underachiever. I am relieved that his Liberal agenda has not successfully passed the Senate and that we have not seen a number of their nasty measures introduced.

I am relieved that he has been an underachiever, and that the Liberal agenda on his plans for education have so far not been achieved. His plan for education would have seen $100,000 degrees introduced into our universities—therefore cutting a generation of younger people or mature-age students from attending university.

And the Prime Minister, as well as his party, is completely delusional if they do not believe that their plan for higher education would not see fewer people enrolling in university. The simple fact that they have put deregulation on the table and are trying so hard to get this legislation through has already seen universities reporting that enrolments are down. People do not want to be saddled with debt for life, and that is what we will see if this government ever achieves its dream for higher education.

I am relieved that the government has also been an underachiever in achieving its plan—its Liberal agenda—for health. Billions of dollars have been cut from our hospitals. This government has also not achieved the watering-down or weakening—basically breaking the back of—universal healthcare by introducing the GP tax. This tax is designed to do one thing. Do not be fooled by the trickery of this government saying that this money will go towards health research. This government is trying to break Medicare by reducing the incentive for GPs to bulk bill. I know, from talking to doctors in my electorate, that it would mean the closure of a number of urgent care centres in regional hospitals in Victoria. Those hospitals are currently bulk billed by doctors—doctors on call, doing a good thing for their community.

So I am relieved that this government has been an underachiever when it comes to the GP tax and they have failed to have that introduced. I am relieved that this government has been an underachiever when it comes to the area of pensions, and that the Senate and the people on this side of the House have continued to block their cruel measures to cut the real wages of pensioners—people who have worked very hard in this country to make sure that we have the prosperity we have today. Yet all we have seen from this government is attacks on their retirement income.

I am relieved that this government has failed to achieve its dream of attacks on young job seekers, forcing them to live on nothing for six months. I am relieved that this government has been an under achiever in forcing young people to live on nothing, yet still expecting them to look for work. I am relieved that this government has again failed in this House to perpetuate a number of the taxes in their shocking budget. What they have achieved—and this does disappoint me—is cuts in jobs. They have cut jobs in the Public Service, making it almost impossible for a number of areas of the Public Service to function. The fact is that if you want a functioning Public Service you need a certain number of public servants in proportion to the people we have in this country, yet we have seen, through their cuts, that parts of our Public Service have started to become dysfunctional.

It is disappointing that they have achieved that. It is disappointing that we have lost so many good, well-paying jobs in this country because of this government's inability to support innovation in industry. We have seen it in Holden and Toyota, to name just two—and SPC. What the government has achieved, through its failure to support SPC, is another independent being elected at the state level in the area of Shepparton. I congratulate the people of Shepparton for calling the coalition out on their inability to support that community.

This government has also achieved the reunification of the Labor movement. Through their constant attacks on working people, and the unions that represent them, they have achieved the reunification of the Labor movement fighting as one. Dan Andrews, who is the new Victorian Labor Premier said, on election night, 'This election was about working people and it was about unions. And the next election will be about working people and it will be about unions and a Labor vision.'

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I must say that I was a bit perplexed when I read the title for this MPI—the Prime Minister's year of underachievement. It had me scratching my head. Then I thought, 'Let's look at this from a Labor perspective. Maybe from a Labor perspective we can understand why they have come up with this MPI title.' If you were the Leader of the Opposition you would be thinking to yourself: has anyone been knifed this year? No-one has been knifed so that is an underachievement. Have we had a leadership challenge? No. Another underachievement.

Have we had a game of musical chairs with ministerial portfolios and parliamentary secretaries? No, we have not. So I suppose that is another under achievement. Look at it from the perspective of the Leader of the Opposition. When he was in government, what did he expect, coming up to Christmas. He started off as Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation in 2010. His 2011 Christmas present was the employment and workplace relations portfolio. But 2012 was a bit of a sad Christmas for him because there was no change. But what a year 2013 was! First he became Minister for Education in just enough time to cut $1.2 billion out of education funding. Then he got the top job; it was a good year. The knife went in and it was successful. He became the top person in the Labor ranks.

So if achievement is knifing, we have underachieved. In the area of portfolio changes we have underachieved. What about debt? I suppose you could look at it from a Labor perspective. Labor presided over the fastest deterioration of our debt position in modern history. What have we done? We have tried to repair that. We have tried to restore it. Let's go on. Let's look at free trade agreements. What did Labor do? What was Labor's record of achievement there?

A government member: Lots of trips.

There were lots of trips. I just cannot remember, though, an FTA with Japan. I cannot remember one with South Korea. I cannot remember one with China. I suppose we have underachieved because we have actually got free trade agreements.

Government members interjecting—

I think they probably tried with Norfolk Island but they probably failed there too.

When it comes to immigration, what happened there? Thankfully, there have been no deaths at sea. Thankfully, the boats have stopped. So, when you start to look at it through the Labor prism, you can see why they would say that this has been a year of underachievement.

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's been boring.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, it has been boring. We have actually been doing things. We have been successfully getting the nation's future established. We are getting the nation's future established.

Government members interjecting—

Those opposite can interject all they like, but you do not like the truth. You know that for six years you underachieved. That was all you did. What you see as achievements we do not see as achievements. What we see as achievements over this side is fixing the budget mess you left us. It is getting rid of taxes which hurt this economy—getting rid of the carbon tax, getting rid of the mining tax. It was the government that was defining what was occurring with our immigration policy, not people smugglers. We made sure that we were setting up our nation's future by implementing and signing three of the most significant free trade agreements that this country has ever seen. That will redefine our exports into the future. Now, in the next year, we will have white papers into fixing the Federation and fixing the tax system. I give you this warning over there: we have not stopped. We will continue to make sure that we not only ensure that our current living standards remain but that those of our children and our grandchildren remain and progress. (Time expired)

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am really happy to follow my friend, the member for Wannon. I know he is a fun guy, but he is a Victorian fun guy in denial. He was around. He actually witnessed the last election and he is trying to come into this place and say, 'We're standing on our achievements.' I am sure he did not say that too loudly in the Victorian election. When we come into this place, we are often spoken to about truth in politics. If you look at what has been achieved by that mob opposite in the last year, what they have been able to achieve has gone against everything they promised to be able to do for the Australian community.

People in the gallery will probably remember this. On the night before the election, the Prime Minister stared down the barrel of a TV camera, no doubt with his blue tie on, and said, 'I promise not to cut health. I promise not to cut education. There will be no change to the GST. There will be no change to pensions. And there will be no cuts to the ABC or SBS.' Over the last 12 months, they have delivered change in each of those areas. They have tried to repudiate everything they promised.

If you want to make a promise—this is a lesson to those opposite—and you do not want to keep it, do not do it on national TV, because four million people see it. It was on the ABC. Sometimes these things do unravel on them. Just think about it. Tony was doing all that stuff that night. What if he stood up and said, 'I will introduce an unfair GP tax. I will make you pay $100,000 for a university degree. I will slug motorists with a petrol tax. I will slash family payments. And I will cut $80 billion from schools and hospitals'? I wonder what the reaction would have been the next day for that election. That is precisely what they have done. They have delivered on that. They have brought a budget down to do that. There is only one thing stopping that from being achieved: us and the crossbenchers, whom they cannot convince to follow their unfair budget measures.

There are some achievements that we do need to refer to. This budget has produced change in our economy. Unlike what has been said by those opposite, I do not think these changes are something that you would want to go around crowing about. The unemployment rate has risen from 5.9 to 6.2 per cent since the budget. We have 42,000 more people unemployed. Jobs growth has slowed to around one-third of what it was at the beginning of the year. There has been no creation of full-time jobs. Tragically, youth unemployment has now reached a 13-year high. And what did we hear this week? There has been a lot of crowing over there about the free trade agreement. By the way, we actually support the free trade agreement on this side. But what did we hear earlier this year when the Treasurer goaded Holden to either put up or pack up and leave the shores of Australia? What did we hear last week? He had to make hard decisions to achieve a free trade agreement with Korea. He certainly was not honest with the Australian people about that. He was not honest with the people of Holden, whether they work in South Australia or in the component industry, which proliferates many of our electorates. Thousands of people are losing their jobs because he made a decision on the basis that he never communicated to this parliament and never communicated to the Australian people. That is what they believe they have been able to achieve.

I do not think that Australia can afford that as an achievement. If that is going to be their record, that leaves us in a parlous position for the future—a level of insecurity regarding jobs growth and even investment. We saw the figures only this week of what the investment agencies were saying. We have sluggish growth at the moment, despite the shine that the Treasurer was trying to put on this. The fact is that we have sluggish growth. We need to have some real change in our approach. We need to defend institutions that we hold dear. For instance, only one side of this parliament is standing up for Medicare. Only one side of this parliament is standing up for families earning less than $100,000 a year. Only one side of this parliament is standing up against $100,000 degrees. These are things that we believe are necessary. We believe that, unless we— (Time expired)

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure of mine to be able to stand up today and talk about the Prime Minister's and, indeed, the government's achievements in our first 12 months, because there are many. I know, Deputy Speaker Whiteley, that you are aware of many of them. I am going to start local and talk about the achievements that this Prime Minister and this government have delivered to my local community.

The first one is that the government said they would, and have, delivered infrastructure and delivered the roads for the 21st century. One of the biggest infrastructure projects in the country is the Pacific Highway dual duplication, not least, because of the fatalities that it will save. Of course, it brings an economic boon while being built, and on completion it brings benefits as well. Deputy Speaker, you may be saying, 'Why are you talking about that, because I'm sure the Labor Party had the same position on this piece of infrastructure?' Well, you would be horribly wrong. At the last election the Labor Party put $3 billion on the table to complete the dual duplication. They wanted to walk away from the 80-20 funding split. So what did we, as an incoming government, do? We said that we would maintain the 80 per cent funding split, and that meant we put an extra $2 billion on the table. That will make sure that that duplication gets completed as quickly as possible. One of the first privileges I had as the member for Page was to turn the sod on a new tender at Pimlico Road, which we had announced within weeks of becoming elected, to make this duplication happen as quickly as we could.

There are a few other things I want to talk about, but let me go quickly to the free trade agreements. What do free trade agreements mean to me? What do free trade agreements mean to my community? I have four examples that I want to talk about. The first one is that I have a dairy cooperative in my electorate called Norco. They employ 600 people. They have told me that they are ecstatic about these free trade agreements. They are a well-managed cooperative, and they already export fresh milk to China, which began this year. After the free trade agreement they rang me and said that they were very happy because new markets for them mean increased returns for, not only them, but, very importantly, the dairy farmers in my community.

The biggest employer in my electorate is the Northern Co-operative Meat Company Ltd. They employ 1,100 people. When I was the candidate for Page, the CEO of that company was very concerned and said, 'One of the biggest issues we have is that we are falling behind countries like Brazil and even America, because they have free trade agreements with some of the countries that we export to', and they were falling behind in a price measurement. Their tariffs were getting lowered quicker. You can imagine the joy for their business with the free trade agreement. They said, 'Now our beef prices will be as competitive, if not cheaper, than our competitors to the countries that we export to.' Those 1,100 jobs are made safer in my community because of the good work done by the minister.

But there is more. My electorate is home to the macadamia industry. It employs, directly, hundreds of people and, indirectly, thousands of people. They export to China, and where we have had our tariffs lowered with the free trade agreements, it is going to make that industry more competitive. I am sure you like blueberries, Deputy Speaker. We have a New South Wales farmer of the year, who is a neighbour of mine, who has seen an opportunity. There is a three- or four-month opportunity where we can be the market that supplies China with blueberries. Again, the tariff on blueberries has been lowered and the farmer's investment is looking all the better for it.

You might think the achievements are contained to agriculture, Deputy Speaker, but you would be wrong. Last Friday I was in Ballina and went to see Kimberly Kampers, a manufacturing company, that makes high-end, very high-quality caravans. Guess what they are happy with? The manager said, 'You've just lowered the tariffs for me to sell my product into, not only Asia, but also the Middle East.' He was very excited. So, it is not just agriculture but also manufacturing companies.

There is more. I am finished, Deputy Speaker. I have pages to go.

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! There is no more, member for Page. The discussion has concluded. I call the Treasurer.