Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased tonight to have the opportunity to address the House and to give feedback from local residents and businesses that I consulted with during the recent break. As we head towards the end of the year, they have asked me to place on record their concerns about how the economy is treating people in the south-west of Brisbane, the community that I represent.

Despite the claims from those opposite that the national economy is chugging along quite nicely under their leadership, the truth is very much a different story. In an era of fake news and journalists facing oversight and intimidation like we've not seen before in this country, it's important that the facts about what is really going on are clear for all to see. When you peel back the empty rhetoric of those opposite, you'll find that those who have a go are not being given a go by a government that is too focused on austerity, cuts and contracting of the economy.

The numbers don't lie. The economy is growing at its slowest pace since the global financial crisis. Wages have stagnated. Almost two million Australians are looking for work or more work, and living standards and productivity are going backwards. In my own home state of Queensland, the alarming number of apprenticeships that have been cut under this government, particularly in the electorate of Oxley, was highlighted in this week's The Courier Mail. So I do remain puzzled when the Treasurer says:

Our strong economic performance and the important reforms we are undertaking means a more secure future for all Australians.

It might look good on a billboard, but this is not what is happening out in the real world. I'd like to remind the Treasurer that business investment has been down 20 per cent since the coalition came to office, and it's now at the lowest level since the 1990s recession. The Treasurer should also know that consumer confidence is well below average, consumption growth is weak and annual retail trade volumes are growing at the slowest pace since the 1990s. I recently met with the Retailers Association and they echoed the strong concerns I'm hearing from local businesses in the Oxley electorate. Perhaps most damaging, the Treasurer should know that net debt has more than doubled under the Liberals and rocketed to record highs.

Those figures speak for themselves. It is not a time for self-congratulations and celebrations. Instead, my message to the government tonight, through you, Mr Speaker, is: instead of smashing unions and trying to dismantle organised labour, instead of ignoring the allegations around Westpac—where we've seen breaches of anti-money laundering laws over 23 million times—the government needs to outline an economic plan that all Australians will benefit from.

Not content with this, the Treasurer has taken aim at older Australians, suggesting that 'Australia's ageing population is an "economic time bomb" for the national economy.' Rather than ripping the guts out of aged-care funding—and the government today want to be congratulated for restoring the funding they cut out of aged care—and cutting funding to training and vocational training for older Australians, I call on the Treasurer to focus on helping older Australians to actually find work. We know this government has a long track record of making people work for longer. It tried time after time to increase the pension age to 70, and it was only because those on this side of the House stood up for Australians that the government was forced to back down. We know that they've cut the pension and we know they've frozen superannuation before. The fact is that this House is dealing with further cuts to the pension as I speak. The government simply have no ideas, no plan and no strategy to fix the problem they themselves created.

There can be no finger-pointing, no blaming, no saying it's all Labor's fault, and continual cracked record after continual cracked record, but it's probably only a matter of weeks or days before we know what this government's go-to plan will be over the Christmas break, and that is to blame people on income support or people living on social security: 'It's all their fault and it's time we cracked down on them.' That's what they'll say over the Christmas break; you can set your watch by it. But the largest single group of Australians on Newstart were not teenagers and were not those in their 20s, but over-55s. The data confirms that 173,000 people aged over 55 are on Newstart. We’ll continue to keep speaking out for those people and to deliver that message to the government that you simply can't live on an income of $275 a week, or $39 a day. (Time expired)