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

I seek leave to move the following motion:

That the House condemns the Prime Minister for:

(1)leading a chaotic and incompetent government which seeks to:

(a)slug Australian students with $100,000 degrees;

(b)rip $80 a week from pensioners; and

(c)rip $6,000 from the budget of a typical Australian family;

(2)putting Australia's AAA credit rating at risk through his own incompetence and mismanagement; and

(3)having no economic plan for Australia's future

Leave not granted.

What a surprise from a chicken-hearted government. I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Maribyrnong from moving the following motion forthwith—That the House condemns the Prime Minister for:

(1)leading a chaotic and incompetent government which seeks to:

(a)slug Australian students with $100,000 degrees;

(b)rip $80 a week from pensioners; and

(c)rip $6,000 from the budget of a typical Australian family;

(2)putting Australia's AAA credit rating at risk through his own incompetence and mismanagement; and

(3)having no economic plan for Australia's future

Tony Abbott is the 'Captain Chaos' of Australian politics. He is the captain of a team who has no economic plan for Australia's future. They have no budget plan. It has been 39 days since 39 Liberal MPs voted to get rid of this Prime Minister, yet I heard that in the PMO bunker they look back on that as the golden age of this government. This government has no adoptable economic strategy. This is why standing orders should be suspended.

Government members interjecting—

Listen to the government say, 'They want to talk about everyone else's plan.' Where is the government's plan? This government is running the classic defence: 'Don't look at us; look everywhere else.' Let's have a look at the plan which they say that they want to maintain. They want to put forward $100,000 degrees for Australian university students, and it has failed in the budget, it has failed when it has gone to the Senate and it will keep failing whenever you call your election.

The real issue for why we should be suspending standing orders is that Australians have had a deep concern that they could not trust Tony Abbott. They deep down wondered: 'Can we trust Tony Abbott?' Many of us have thought you can't. But what has been revealed in recent days, in the nadir of this government's misfortune, is that this government has now junked even any pretence of a surplus. I love hearing these people talk about surplus. In 2012, Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister—I should call him 'the current Prime Minister'—said in 2012 that an incoming Liberal coalition government will bring to surplus in their first year. Remember that promise? Then we saw the old Liberal slip and slide, and they said, 'Well, we'll do it in the first three years.' But the slide did not finish there. This is one of the big slides, like you see at the show. Tony Abbott, who has made many contributions to the English language, invented 'broad balance'. Let me decode what the broad balance budget within five years will be. It is not a surplus.

Then Treasury let the cat out of the bag yesterday. This honest Treasury official, on the way through disowning that piece of propaganda called the Intergenerational report, said that there would be no surplus for 40 years. Australians have heard that right. The Treasury has said that this government cannot generate a surplus for 40 years. And what we have seen, and the reason why we have seen this, is that this so-called 'braveheart' of Australian politics, this crusading Prime Minister—and many of us have had doubts about whether we can trust him—has always had his mantra, his Holy Grail and the item that he politically genuflects before—he has always said 'surplus'. Yet what we have seen is a slip and slide away. Why? Because he wants to save his own job. There is one policy of this government: save Tony Abbott's job. There is only one budget strategy: save Tony Abbott's job.

Now the Prime Minister says: 'It'll be a dull budget. There's going to be something good for families, something good for child care. It'll be dull.' One thing about this Prime Minister is that he is never dull. But what he has done is given up his commitment to ever getting to surplus. That was a core belief. We know that Tony Abbott has trouble keeping his election promises, but at least on surplus—and we might not have liked the way that he would get to it—he has always pushed it. What I have to say to be fair to Tony Abbott here, to be fair to this Prime Minister here, is that it is not a captain's pick to dump everything they believe in or to try and just save their jobs—it is a team vote. This government leaked on each other about whose idea it was to knight Prince Philip, but when it came to leaking on each other about who opposed the bad ideas in this budget there was—unusually for this rag tag mob—radio silence! No-one anywhere can seriously say that they ever disagreed with each other on any of it: the $100,000 degrees, the cuts to family payments and, of course, the pension. The thing about this government is that, at their heart, they do not believe it is the unfairness of the budget which is the problem; they just blame the salesman. Let me tell you: you have got half the answer. You do have a problem with your salesman, but it is more than just who is selling it; it is the unfairness you are selling.

The so-called economic first officer of the nation—I am referring to the Treasurer, in case anyone was confused about who I was referring to—has got less than two months to go for their budget, and they are adrift. What the government often says is that it is just gossip—the inside talk—about the problems they have. Treasury officials have made it clear: it is five minutes to midnight, less than two months before the budget and there is no budget plan.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What are you proposing?

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

There is the agriculture minister. You have done enough this week, son! Standing orders should be suspended because we have an education minister who is not a fixer; he is a failure. He is arguably the worst higher education minister that we have ever seen since we had higher education in this country: $100,000 degrees—what a stupid idea; and $2 billion from vocational education, skills and training. The vandalism that they are committing to Australia's schools by cutting $30 billion from schools over the next 10 years is a disgrace.

Standing orders should be suspended because the health ministers have no plan for health. What mind would have dreamed up a GP tax on the sick and vulnerable! Fifty billion dollars cut from Australia's hospitals. That is an important point to remember. This government's last budget, which none of the 'would-be's, 'could-be's or 'never-were's opposite have repudiated, is a $50 billion cut to our hospitals. The damage that this government is doing to Australia with their lack of an economic plan—to our hospitals—is absolutely appalling.

The real problem here is that this government, unlike predecessor governments of Liberal or Labor persuasion, have no adoptable strategy. They cannot convince the Senate. They act as if having a Senate not of their own political persuasion is a new phenomena. For many years in Australian history there has been a Senate of a different political complexion to a government. But this is the first time we have had a government who has not got an adoptable economic plan. Australia has no budgetary plan because this government has no budgetary plan that Australians want.

The Prime Minister, the man who loves to get up and say one thing and then apologise—'I'm really sorry'—then do it again and apologise again, as if life is one huge, 'I make a mistake. I am a fool then I repent.' This is not good enough—your budgetary policies. Your $6,000 cuts for families are a bad idea. Your $100,000 degrees are a broken promise. Your cuts to pensions are an outrage. Your cuts to hospitals and schools—$80 billion worth in the next 10 years—are absolute economic vandalism.

If you want to take these rotten ideas to an election, please do it. Give the Australian people an opportunity to have a say on your policies, rather than trying to intimidate the Senate with your broken promises. I also advise the Prime Minister that it does not matter when you bring on the election, the battlelines are most certainly drawn. You love to talk about the way the Liberals can do this and the Liberals can do that—you have not done very much in the last 18 months. You have taken 18 months of the nation's life and wasted the time of the nation.

We believe in universal health care versus your GP cuts, and your GP tax and your health care cuts. We believe in access to higher education for all, not $100,000 degrees. We do not share the narrow, extremist philosophy of the education minister, who says that people who have not been to university begrudge paying taxes for those who have. I have never met a parent or a grandparent who begrudged it.

This is a government with no economic plan, and you most certainly do stand condemned.

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

Is the motion seconded?

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. The Australian people know that this government is unfair and out of touch, and they know it is chaotic and incompetent as well. They know that, at the heart of the matter, this Prime Minister has no judgement. This Prime Minister has no judgement when it comes to important decisions or important statements. The Australian people never know what is going to come out of his mouth next and nor do the people sitting behind him. Nor do the people sitting behind him know what he is about to say next; who he is about to insult; what policy he is about to change on the run; what captain's pick he is about to make in this 'Captain Chaos' government.

At the heart, we have a Prime Minister and a Treasurer who are not up to their jobs. A Prime Minister and a Treasurer who are not up to the task given to them by the Australian people. At its heart, we have a Prime Minister and a Treasurer who have failed in everything they have set out to do. We have a government which campaigned across the country on debt and deficit—they called it a disaster—and yesterday the Prime Minister says, '50 to 60 per cent is a pretty good result'. No wonder those behind him, and the Australian people are shaking their heads at his lack of judgement, at his lack of a strategy, and his lack of an economic plan. He pulls things out of the air. He insults the Australian people. He insults the intelligence of commentators. He insults the House. It is all an excuse and an alibi for his failures.

But there is one thing that does not change. The excuses change, the alibis change, the story changes day-to-day and hour-to-hour, but one thing never changes—the people who pay the price. The ordinary Australians who are working hard right across the country. Australia's pensioners pay the price for this Prime Minister's lack of judgement and this Treasurer's lack of competence. They are the ones who daily pay the price because at its heart the one thing that never changes is this government's prejudice—prejudice against working Australians; prejudice against Australia's pensioners. That is what never changes. We have a government that campaigned on debt and deficit that then doubles the deficit, and then boasts that they have halved the deficit. It is like Uncle Arthur's car yard! They put the prices up the day before the sale, and then say it is half price.

We have this government which treats the Australian people with such contempt, which pretends that the last election campaign never happened. They would like to pretend the last budget never happened as well, but the Australian people know the last budget happened. The government might prefer to forget it. The Treasurer might pretend it never occurred. The Prime Minister might say: 'We won't make that mistake again. We won't be doing that again.' But the Australian people know what this Prime Minister and this Treasurer in their hearts really want to do.

If they ever get the chance again, they want to do everything they attempted in the last budget and more. They want to cut the age pension. They want to take the age pension down to 16 per cent of average weekly earnings. That is what they want to do. It has been a bipartisan policy for 40 years. Forty years ago an Australian Prime Minister said that Australia's pensioners deserve a share of our growing prosperity. Forty years ago an Australian Prime Minister said that Australian pensioners should have their incomes grow as Australia's wage incomes grow. It was Gough Whitlam who said that. And it was a bipartisan policy—Whitlam was followed by Malcolm Fraser, followed by Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, followed by John Howard—until this Prime Minister and this Treasurer, without a skerrick of a mandate said to Australian pensioners: 'You do no deserve to share in our prosperity. We will make you pay for our mistakes.' That is what we get from this Prime Minister and this Treasurer, who are not up to the job.

They talk of the Intergenerational report, a document that is the property of the Treasurer, that the Treasurer wrote. We had the Prime Minister yesterday claim that the budget will be back in broad balance in just five years—another one of his great statements that his backbenchers just could not wait to hear. The sermon he presented—that the budget will be balance in just five years

Forget about the 40 years of deficits after that. 'Nothing to see here,' says the Prime Minister. 'Don't worry about that job, our job is done.'

As Peter Costello said, there is a problem with the government's narrative—there certainly is—but, more importantly than that, there is a problem with the government's substance, there is a problem with the government's competence and, most of all, there is a very big problem with this Prime Minister's judgement. At heart, this Prime Minister is not up to the job. This Treasurer is not up to the job. The Australian people have given them a great honour and, in return, they have insulted them. They have given them policies which cut their incomes; they have given them policies which are bad for the economy as well as bad for Australian families. The Prime Minister said this week: 'We won't make Australian families pay for the return of our budget to surplus.' He tried that last time. The Australian people know he is just not up to it.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The members for Dobell and Solomon used unparliamentary language during the Leader of the Opposition's contribution and I ask you to ask them to withdraw, given you have done the same to us on this side.

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

I have to say, in the noise that was carrying on, I am amazed you could hear anything.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw 'Labor lies'.

Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And I withdraw 'Labor lies' too.

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

You will simply withdraw.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The economy is a serious subject. This House deserves a serious debate, a debate based on facts and not on scares, and that is exactly what I am going to attempt to give the House. I welcome a debate about economic management; I welcome a debate about economic competence—because economic management is taken seriously by members of this government and, on the evidence so far, it is not taken seriously by members of that opposition.

I have been asked by the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer: what is our economic plan? It is quite simple. We want to get taxes down; we want to get regulation down; we want to get productivity up; we want to get participation up—because what that will do is create more economic growth. But, in order to get taxes down and in order to take the burden off taxpayers and off business, we have to get spending down too. That is the problem. This country does not have a revenue problem; this country has a spending problem because members opposite built permanent expenditure into our system based on temporary revenue. That is the problem. What we need now to do is to adjust spending so that it is more suitable to the long-term revenue that this country can expect.

I am very happy to have a debate over economic management; I am also very happy to have a debate over competence—because this government did not put pink batts in people's roofs only to see them catch fire and houses burn down and lives lost. This government did not put the people smugglers back in business and produce almost 1,000 boats and over 1,000 deaths at sea. This government did not close down the live cattle trade in panic over a television program. This government did not roll out a National Broadband Network costing almost $100 billion, way over budget and way behind schedule. This government did not introduce a carbon tax, which was socialism masquerading as environmentalism. It is worth repeating not scares but facts. This government has stopped the boats and saved lives at sea.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

There will be silence on my left!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government has scrapped the carbon tax and every household is $550 a year better off. This government is rolling out the National Broadband Network on time and on budget. This government has successfully finalised three free trade agreements, which members opposite struggled with for six years. They could not land a single one of the big deals with our major trading partners. Within 18 months, this government has put them in place and, as a result of what this government has done, our major exports to our major export markets will enter duty free. This is a proud record of achievement. It is a record of sound economic management and it is a record of sound, competent administration.

But there is more. This government said, on the election night back in September 2013, that Australia was once more open for business and under new management. I am very pleased to say, as a result of the good work of the Minister for the Environment, that $1 trillion worth of major new projects have been environmentally approved and environmental approval times are at their shortest on record.

So, when it comes to economic management and when it comes to administrative competence, that is exactly what this government has demonstrated. We are serious; members opposite are not. Look at the economic results. Jobs growth in our first year was three times the rate of members opposite's last year. Economic growth was 25 per cent higher in our first year than in Labor's last year. And let me repeat again: export volumes are up seven per cent, housing approvals are up nine per cent, retail trade is up four per cent and interest rates are low and stable. The exchange rate is finally competitive. Petrol prices are at the lowest level in decades. I am not saying that this government controls petrol prices, but it certainly has had a bit to do with power prices, which had the biggest fall on record in the September quarter of last year. This government is delivering.

One of the worst features of debate in this House is the complete absence of any sense of giving credit where it is due and the complete absence of any sense of attributing good faith to people who are doing their best, sometimes under difficult circumstances. The shadow Treasurer—

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Those on my left, who proposed this question to be debated, listen to the debate.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The shadow Treasurer talked about pensions. The pensioners of this country have had a very good deal under this government, because they have lost the carbon tax but they have kept the carbon tax compensation. The households of Australia have had a very good deal because they have lost the carbon tax, which was hitting them with $550 a year. It is no wonder that confidence is returning to our economy, because this government has a plan. All that members opposite have is one long complaint.

As I have said time and time again, in this House and in the community, not all the restructuring that we proposed in last year's budget has gone through this parliament. I regret that, but in good faith we have been prepared to sit down with the crossbenchers. We would even sit down with the Labor Party if they were prepared to sit down with us and do with us what we were always prepared to do, in opposition, with them. Even so, thanks to the measures that this government has put in place and this parliament has passed, Labor's debt and deficit going forward is halved. A budgetary position that was heading to southern Mediterranean and southern European levels at a rate of knots has been halved under this government.

Opposition members interjecting—

I hear shrieking from the other side of the parliament about this government doubling the deficit.

Mr Giles interjecting—

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

The member for Scullin is not entitled to speak.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The members opposite gave us the six biggest deficits in Australian history, and they were not honest about it going into the last election. Going into the last election, they told us that the deficit would be $18 billion. What did it turn out to be? Forty-eight billion dollars—a $30 billion budget black hole that members opposite should have known about—

Honourable members interjecting—

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

There will be silence on both sides to hear the debate.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and certainly should have told the Australian people about. This is a government which was elected by the Australian people to work hard for them for three years, and that is exactly what we will do. We heard members opposite braying and bellowing earlier today, 'There will be no surplus for 40 years.' That is what they said. The only way there will be no surplus for 40 years is if members opposite ever get re-elected to the government benches. That is the only way. I say to members opposite: what would you do? You are the alternative government. I say to members opposite: just one idea would do.

But in this, the year of big ideas, the only idea that they have come up with is spending $100 million more on the ATO to raise a billion dollars. I say: under your logic, spend a billion and raise ten billion. That is the shallowness and fatuity of members opposite. Look at what this government has done in 18 months. In 18 months, what have members opposite done? Just one long complaint. It is just not good enough.

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

The time for this debate has concluded. The question is that the suspension motion be agreed to.

The House divided. [15:16]

(The Speaker—Hon. Bronwyn Bishop)

Question negatived.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.