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

With the Turnbull government's term in office nearing its end, I reflect on what can only be described as the most chaotic, shambolic and useless government in decades. In a period of just over two years, over 70 MPs and senators have been ministers or other senior government office holders, every senior government position has been turned over, the elected Prime Minister was turfed out, the Deputy Prime Minister was replaced and the Treasurer was removed. We have a new Speaker, government whips were replaced, the government leader in the Senate lost his job, three ministers were sacked for indiscretions and one member tried to jump the sinking ship.

What is left is a weak, paralysed government, a Prime Minister and Treasurer who cannot make a decision—GST one day, backdown the next; tax cuts one day, off the table the next—and with negative gearing and superannuation, the government is totally confused. This is a government that has no vision and no strategy, a government that is racked with internal division, a government that complains that it cannot get its legislation through the Senate when the reality is that it cannot get a single idea through its own ranks.

The damage the government is doing to itself, however, is miniscule when compared with the damage that is being done to Australian families and the Australian economy. This is a government that has doubled the deficit, which on the latest trends will be $38 billion, made changes to pensions that will leave 320,000 pensioners worse off, cut $30 billion from education to continue to keep thousands of students disadvantaged and $60 billion from health that is adding to the suffering of sick Australians. This is a government that is presiding over the closure of Australia's car manufacturing industry and the demise of naval shipbuilding in this country, decimating Australia's scientific institutions, forcing Australian universities to push up university degrees to 100,000, presiding over tens of millions of dollars of rorting of Australia's Vocational Education and Training system and destroying the Australian shipping industry by allowing foreign-flag vessels to do Australian work.

Its greatest failure, however, is yet to be exposed. I refer to the Turnbull government's failure to seriously address the risks and impacts of climate change. Climate change will impact on every aspect of life, with the social, environmental and economic costs for adjustment, mitigation and repair running into billions of dollars. CO2 levels in 2015 were above 400 parts per million, compared with 280 parts per million in the preindustrial era. Temperatures are rising and the world is getting hotter. 2014 was the hottest year on record, only to be exceeded by 2015. February 2016 was the hottest month recorded. Since 1960, the number of record hot days in Australia has doubled, and heatwaves have become longer, hotter and more intense. Major heatwaves have caused more deaths since 1890 than bushfires, cyclones, earthquakes, floods and severe storms combined.

The Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience and Safer Communities' latest report on the economic and social costs of extreme weather events put the cost at $9 billion in 2015. The report projects that by 2050, the cost will be $33 billion per year. What has been the Turnbull government's response? It has been to shoot the messenger by cutting 100 climate science positions and years of expertise from the CSIRO. If the argument is that climate science has been settled, then why is the government persisting with a discredited climate policy in response to such a serious matter? Furthermore, if the science has been settled and climate change is acknowledged, then it becomes even more critical that we have up-to-date, accurate scientific data relating to climate change.

Government Members:

Government members—in particular, National Party members—often, justifiably, refer to the immense contribution made to the economy by Australian farmers. No sector understands the devastation of extreme weather events better than our farmers. Yet it is the future of Australian farmers, and tens of billions of dollars of production, that is so much at risk from climate change. As Australia's Chief Scientist recently warned, the planet is losing the battle against climate change. Other countries are acting, while Australia seems to be going backwards on this. The recent conference in Paris highlighted the urgency of this matter. Again, this country is almost denying reality when it comes to climate change. The members of the Turnbull government may well have exited public life by the time climate change fully impacts on all Australians, so they will not be around to be held to account. But future generations will inherit the fallout of the Turnbull government's incompetence and inaction.