Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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

The failure of the Government's eighth budget to fix job insecurity, wages growth, neglect and waste.

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—

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think it's important, when we consider the budget that was handed down by the Treasurer from that dispatch box last night, to think about whether or not there are areas of common ground, areas where we can find agreement with the government, things that the government has said in the 24 hours or so since the budget was handed down that we agree with.

I noticed at lunchtime today, when the Treasurer was giving his speech to the National Press Club, he said something that I agreed with 100 per cent. He said that the budget that was handed down last night was a very liberal budget. It was a very liberal budget, I think, in one incredibly important respect. Only the Liberal Party of Morrison and Frydenberg could find a way to spend $100 billion in one night, rack up a trillion dollars in debt and still have the working people of this country go backwards. Only the Liberal Party of Morrison and Frydenberg could find a way to say to the workers of this country, 'We are going to spray all kinds of money around for political purposes to get us through an election. We are going to spray money around at all the problems that have piled up over the past eight long years of this government. But we're going to find a way to make sure that the thanks you get for the sacrifices you made during this pandemic is a cut in real wages.' That is a defining failure and a defining feature of the budget that was handed down last night.

It was an admission of failure that, despite all of that money being spent, all of that money being borrowed, all of those commitments being made and all of those announcements that were made from the dispatch box over there, at the end of that, Australians have to look forward to one thing: a cut in their real wages. This would be bad enough if it were an isolated failure, but what we on this side of the House as the representatives of Australian working people know is that stagnant wages growth has been with us for much of the eight long years that those opposite have been government and that this wasn't the first budget that they handed down from over there; it was the eighth budget that they handed down. It is worth a trip down memory lane to remember that the failure at the core of this 2021 budget is not an isolated failure; it is a pattern of behaviour.

I've got all the budgets here. The 2014 budget was all about repairing the budget before they went on to hand down the biggest deficits in history and more debt than any government has ever handed down. The budget the year after that, 2015, was about a fairer pension system; at its core were cuts to the pension. In 2016 the budget was all about jobs and growth, just before we went into a cycle of anaemic growth and high underemployment. The 2017 budget was a budget for better days ahead, not that far ahead of the Morrison recession. The 2018 budget—on track to deliver budget surpluses and living within our means! The 2019 budget delivers a surplus! This was the budget with all of the 'back in black' mugs that they flogged from the Liberal Party website. The centrepiece of the 2020 budget was the JobMaker program that promised 450,000 jobs and delivered just over 1,000 jobs. It's like if your mate owed you $450 and gave you $1—you wouldn't be happy with that! That was the defining feature of the last budget, and then we get to last night.

Last night was all of the spin and all of the marketing, but at the very core of this budget, as colleagues have mentioned today, was that cut in real wages. This isn't just one year of failure; this is eight years of getting the budget wrong. The next budget that those opposite land will be the first one that they land. That's one of the many reasons why the credibility of those opposite on the economy is completely shredded. We should put these eight budgets into the dumpster fire of inconsistency, economic mismanagement and humiliating backdowns which have characterised the way those opposite have gone about the economy.

If we couldn't believe the first seven budgets handed down by those opposite then obviously the eighth is not worth the paper that it's written on as well, with one exception—that is, that cut to real wages that the government themselves admit is at the core of their budget. This is not a number that we've generated. It's not a forecast that we've come up with. Right there in the government's own budget is a cut to real wages. Penetrating this haze of marketing, spin, self-congratulation and self-regard is one little kernel of searing honesty, which is that Australian workers will be worse off at the end of all of this than they were at the beginning. That is the outcome of the budget of those opposite.

On this side of the House we find it hard to understand how those opposite can be so happy with themselves when we've got almost two million unemployed or underemployed and when we've still got all of this wage stagnation, job insecurity and all the rest of it. But then we are reminded almost every day that, in another burst of searing honesty, the former finance minister—the longest-serving minister on that side of the House—said that stagnant wages growth was a deliberate design feature of their economic policy. So no wonder they think 'mission accomplished' when it comes to this budget, because they are never happier than when the working people of this country are being held back. They are never happier than when they can screw down people's wages and treat them like an input cost into business rather than human beings that want to work hard to provide for the people they love. They are never happier than when that is the outcome.

The economy is emerging from the deepest, most damaging recession in almost 100 years. It brought to an end almost three decades of continuous economic growth. This side of the House is especially proud of starting that economic growth and having saved it when it was at maximum risk just over 10 years ago. But we've had this recession. As we emerge from it, the task of all of us in this building, all of us in this House, is to do what we can to make the economy and society stronger after COVID-19 than it was before COVID-19. In recognising that the economy is recovering, the lion's share of the credit goes to the Australian people who did the right thing by each other. They made sacrifices for each other to limit the spread of this virus, and in that sacrifice lay the kernel of this country's success.

But all of that is being put at risk by the political approach of those opposite—the marketing and spin; the chasm between announcement and delivery. All of that momentum, which is a tribute to the Australian people, is put at risk in at least three ways by the way those opposite go about governing the country. The first is this vaccinations debacle. We saw it again in question time today. The Treasurer, the Prime Minister, the health minister in the media earlier today and the finance minister, all have a different story to tell about when Australians will be vaccinated. The budget was an opportunity for this government to come clean on the costs and consequences of completely stuffing up the vaccine rollout. Instead we are more confused. The Australian people are more confused now than before the budget on when they will get vaccinated and what that means for the economy. As the member for Dobell said, we cannot have a first-rate economic recovery if we have a third-rate vaccine rollout.

The recovery is also put at risk by the fact that those opposite, particularly the Prime Minister, but also the Treasurer and all of the cabinet, are always looking for a political angle, they're always looking for a way to get themselves through the next election. When the country desperately needed a plan for good, secure, well-paid jobs to grow the economy in a broad, inclusive and sustainable way, to repair our economy, and, in doing so, help to repair our society after COVID-19—instead of taking the longer term view, those opposite are always playing the angles. All the money that was sprayed around last night was not because they believe there's an issue in aged care or child care or skills and training. If they believed in any of these things, they would have done something on any of the other days in the past eight years they have been in office. Instead, they take this overtly political approach to this country and to its people.

Last night's budget had a number of deficits in it. At the very core there were obviously deficits as far as the eye could see. But perhaps the biggest deficit in the budget last night was a deficit of vision. There was a deficit of vision when it came to what this country could be and what role we wanted to give the Australian people in the future of this place, and how we give them a slice of the action as the economy recovers. We recognise that a recovery is not a recovery at all if working people are left behind, if working people don't get a look in. That is the most important task of this budget, and that is the task that those opposite failed.

As always, with this deficit of vision, it is left to Labor, under the member for Grayndler and our colleagues on this side of the House, to provide that vision. We will show the Australian people that, as we recover from COVID-19, and as the economy starts to gather pace, we can make sure the Australian people, and particularly Australian workers, are front and centre and that they benefit from this recovery. If they don't, this budget's not worth the paper it's written on.

Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Youth and Employment Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Morrison government is securing Australia's recovery, and we are out of the ICU. It takes a special kind of member, like the member for Rankin and the member for Ballarat, to get up here and deliver a 10-minute negative speech about what's wrong with this country when we've just seen what's happening here in Australia in the middle of a pandemic where Australians are being kept safe.

I couldn't help but notice the member for Ballarat went on about infrastructure spending during question time. With $110 billion of funding for infrastructure, she wanted to mention some page buried deep in the budget papers—a $188.7 million underspend this year out of $110 billion infrastructure spend. If the member for Rankin and the member for Ballarat are so concerned about infrastructure, they should pick up the phone to the incompetent Palaszczuk government in Queensland and talk to their mate Mark Bailey, who cannot deliver a project in Queensland in a timely manner.

In my own electorate of Petrie, residents and people on the north side of Brisbane would know that projects like Linkfield Road at Carseldine and Bald Hills was promised and funded 2½ years ago, and we're still waiting on the Palaszczuk government to do it. I had a briefing from TMR the other day. They said to me, 'We're going to start in 2023.' Have a guess at when it will be finished. They said to me, 'It's going to be finished in October 2024, right when the next state election is due.' I said to them, 'This isn't good enough.' The member for Lilley and others on that side should pick up their phone to the Palaszczuk government and say that the constituents in our communities on the north side of Brisbane cannot wait another three years for these roads to be built. The federal funding is ready to go. It's available now. It's on the table.

It's not just that project, either. It's the on and off ramps at Griffin and Murrumba Downs. It's the second Gateway upgrade project, from St John Fisher all the way to the Pine River. The member opposite really doesn't understand. The first GUN project was promised prior to the 2013 election, which we won, and it's now finished. I will move on and say that those opposite are very negative, and it's not what Australians are looking for at this time.

Ms Wells interjecting—

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lilley will cease interjecting.

Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Youth and Employment Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we emerge from this once-in-a-century pandemic faster and stronger, the 2021-22 budget cements our recovery in a highly uncertain world. Unemployment is at 5.6 per cent, which is lower than when those opposite left office. Australians can be optimistic about the budget, which turbocharges our strengths and provides support where it is needed. Our economy has outperformed all major advanced economies this year. Almost half a million jobs have been created since the last budget, in many cases by businesses, and we thank them for it. We have reached pre-pandemic levels of employment, and unemployment is on a trajectory to go down below five per cent for only the second time in the last 50 years. For the second time in the last five decades, unemployment is due to drop to under five per cent. We've saved lives and we've saved livelihoods. All you need to do is look around at what is going on throughout the world right now, every day. We have avoided the loss of life seen elsewhere in the world, with fewer infections, hospitalisations and deaths than most other countries, and we've emerged resilient, with consumer sentiment the highest in 11 years. And what did we get from the shadow Treasurer after the budget? Ten minutes of negativity.

The Treasurer's budget last night supports everyday Australians in their comeback. There are personal income tax cuts, which is more money in the hand for workers; business tax incentives, which help workers; new apprenticeships and training places; more infrastructure; and record funding for schools, hospitals, aged care—which I'm very passionate about—mental health and the NDIS. In Petrie, I thank those involved in delivering the essential services we all rely on. There have been 341,636 telehealth consultations through Medicare since the start of the pandemic, and these services are now being extended. The 2021-22 budget will deliver more tax relief to around 70,600 taxpayers in Petrie, up to $2,745 this year, because of the Morrison government's tax relief plan. Make no mistake about it: this means more money for Australians, in their pockets. It means more productivity for businesses. And, when the employment market is in full swing, it will mean rising wages.

The budget also extends the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements scheme, which has already helped over 140,000 apprentices secure their future. A further 170,000 new apprenticeship and trainee places will be delivered. Just this week, as the Assistant Minister for Youth and Employment Services, I met two young people, Patrick and Ella, when I visited Thor Building Products in Northgate. Patrick and Ella are employed by one of the 53,000 employers participating in the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements scheme, and 64 per cent of apprenticeships and traineeships registered for the wage subsidy are under 24 years of age. Patrick, who went to school with my son and finished year 12 last year at St Patrick's College at Shorncliffe, said to me that the job has given him security. He moved from casual to full-time work thanks to the BAC scheme and now has a way to plan for his future. His words to me, without any prompting at all, were: 'It's helped me get out of underemployment, and I'm now able to save for what I'm wanting to save for.' This year's budget is all about the Australian people and keeping our economy on the right track. That is what we're doing. It's all about Australians; it's not about us. It's not about this place. It's those out there. In the Petrie electorate, every day I am focused on the people that I represent. As I move about the country, in my role on youth and employment services, along with the minister here next to me, I'm focusing on trying to help Australians every day.

Now is a time to futureproof jobs. There has never been a better time for anyone to reinvent themselves. The extended JobTrainer Fund nationwide will deliver 500,000 new places. Small and medium businesses, of course, are the backbone of this nation and my community. In Petrie, there are around 19,800 businesses that take advantage of the write-off of the full value of the eligible asset that they purchase—the instant asset tax write-off. I've had at least half a dozen businesses in the last two months alone that have said: 'We want to thank you. Please pass on to the Prime Minister and the Treasurer what we've been able to do with the instant asset tax write-off. We've been able to buy new equipment.' One of the businesses up in Burpengary East has completely sold out of trucks. They've got none left, because people have been taking advantage of the instant asset tax write-off. The budget will deliver to a further 6,500 businesses in Petrie that will be able to use the extended loss carry-back measure to support cash flow and confidence, which helps staff.

We're also increasing funding for preschools and making child care more affordable and accessible. Childcare reforms in this budget will directly benefit over 1,700 families in Petrie alone. As we emerge as a more resilient nation, I want to thank those frontline workers guaranteeing essential services. Businesses are growing and creating jobs for parents, teachers and everyday Australians.

The budget also invests in a dynamic and competitive recovery. That's why the Treasurer can confirm the government will back Australians with a $1.2 billion digital economy, including digital skill cadetships. From 2016 to 2019, I chaired the communications and arts committee. I don't know that there are any other members from that here, but we recommended an offset for the gaming industry. The government announced last night a 30 per cent refundable digital games tax offset to try and attract more of the $250 billion global game market to Australia. To get the offset, eligible businesses have to spend at least $500,000 on certain games expenditure, but this will help. The offset is part of the government's $1.2 billion package. The package also includes money to improve MyGov and the My Health Record, as well as money to research artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. This budget is about creating jobs, rebuilding and guaranteeing essential services. The Morrison government is focused on Australians. Those opposite have nothing but negativity.

Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has completely lost the plot, and so has the Treasurer. It's wages, wages, wages. He's telling Australians that the economy is roaring back, but at the same time his blueprint for economic recovery has got real wage cuts within it. There can be no economic recovery built on wage cuts for ordinary Australians, but this is what this Prime Minister and this Treasurer are trying to ask Australians to believe. His blueprint for economic recovery is leaving ordinary Australians behind. Prices are up, and wages are down. This is an eight-year pattern under this government. The only thing that is different under this government is that, for the last seven budgets, they've predicted wages would go up, but they never did. The difference under this one is there's a bit of honesty in the budget papers. They say that wages are going to go down and stay down, and that's their economic recipe under this government. If that was all there was, you'd have enough to worry about, but, on top of that, workers earning less than $90,000 a year are going to get a tax increase. They're going to get a tax hike next July. They won't tell you this, but workers earning less than $90,000 a year are being promised a tax hike from next July. That's the truth. High-paid workers get a tax cut; low-paid workers get a tax increase. That's the recipe under this government. It tells you everything. There are JobKeeper subsidies going to businesses that are handing out big dividends and bonuses to big executives—$10 billion worth of JobKeeper subsidies going to their mates at the same time that they're sending 'please explain' robodebt letters to people who owe a few dollars under Centrelink payments.

We've heard a lot said about housing under this government, and I'm pleased to join them on this debate. Over the last 20 years, home prices have gone up by over 150 per cent. Wages have not kept up. In fact, home prices have gone up more than five times wages over the last 20 years. Over the course of the pandemic, prices have actually gone galloping ahead. If you look at the return on a house in Sydney today, you see it actually returns more than the average worker makes in Sydney today. The shorthand is that you can't afford to live in Sydney, yet these guys are telling you that they are the party of homeownership. If they were the party of homeownership, they'd make it easier for workers to get into the housing market by providing a wage rise. Under this government, house prices are going through the roof and wages are going through the floor. They are making it harder, not easier, for Australians to get into the housing market.

Over in Treasury and over on the backbench, they're all scratching their heads and saying, 'What are we going to do to get wages moving again?' We've got an answer to that. It was invented a long time ago. It was called unions. They were part of the solution during the pandemic. The government went to the unions during the pandemic and said, 'We need your help to sort out some of these conditions so that we can keep business viable,' but, when we're talking about the recovery, they slam the door in the face of the unions. If they wanted a plan for wage rises, they'd be sitting down and talking to the unions, not slamming the doors in their face.

Under the Liberal Party, wage restraint and wage cuts are a design feature. Under the Labor Party, working with the unions, working with workers and working with employees is what we do. That's in our DNA. It ensures that, as the economy recovers, ordinary workers and households get a wage increase and share in the recovery. Under the Liberals, the design feature of a recovery is prices going up and wages going down except for some of them. Wages go down and prices go up. No worker is going to share in the recovery, and that is the design feature of this budget. It is there in black and white in their budget papers: prices go up, wages go down and there is no plan for workers to share in the recovery.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was thinking about why the opposition are constantly negative about everything. Never a positive sound comes out of the other side on any subject that is ever debated in this place. I think I know what part of it is. I think that, when you lose seven of the last nine elections—when in seven of the last nine elections the Australian people have said, 'We don't put our faith and trust in you'—it makes it very difficult to find your happy place. I think it makes it very difficult for you to find your happy place when the Australian public has said no to you seven out of nine times. I think that's what's going on, because there is much to celebrate about Australia right now. There is much to celebrate about us economically. There's much to celebrate about us on the health front. But you never hear anything about that from those opposite. You never hear any positive statement on any subject.

We all know that at the start of COVID Treasury was saying that, if the government didn't do something, there was the potential for unemployment to go to 15 per cent in this country, that we could lose 20 per cent of our economy given the shutdowns that had to happen when the global pandemic was declared. That was the forecast.

Through a whole lot of economic programs like JobKeeper and many others, what we have managed to achieve—with the help of the Australian people in adhering to social distancing, hand hygiene and a whole lot of other activities—is to cap the unemployment rate. It stopped going up at 7½ per cent, and since then it has gone from 7½ per cent to 5.6 per cent. In the budget papers presented last night, it's predicted to go below five. Is there a happy place you can find about that? No. Can you acknowledge that? No, because you've been in opposition too long to celebrate anything about this country. You've been in opposition too long to see any positivity about what is going on in this country. We are the third-fastest-growing economy in the world. Do you hear anything about that? No, you don't hear anything positive come out of anyone over there, and that's why the Australian public don't trust them. That's why the Australian public keep saying no: because they don't trust you. They don't trust you, because you can't say anything positive about this country.

You might say that they might be able to find a happy place about something with the pandemic. We are seeing another wave sweep through the developing world. We are seeing third and fourth waves pop up in other countries. Again, in Australia there is some great news. You can't eliminate this virus, but on so many levels we have combated it, fought it and contained it—again, with the great cooperation and the great attitudes of the Australian public. We have all but eliminated this virus. We have few outbreaks, and when we do have outbreaks we get them under control very well. Is there anything positive about that? No, there is no happy place for those opposite on that either. They will pick on any piece of negativity they can find on the economy or on health—again, no happy place with those opposite. That is why the Australian public do not trust them and do not vote them into government.

I would throw this challenge out to those opposite: if everything is so bad here, tell me one country you would rather be in right now, on either a health front or an economic front, than Australia. Tell me one place in the world you would rather be in right now than Australia, on either a health front or an economic front. I don't think there is one. I think Australia is a great nation. I think Australia is a great country. I think we are doing exceptionally well on the very severe challenges that we face, as the globe does, on a health front and on an economic front. There is some great news. There are some great statistics in last night's budget. We will continue as a government to look out for the Australian public, on the health front and on the economic front, and that's why Australians put their faith and trust in us, not you.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian Club is an exclusive men's-only club in Sydney. Despite it being 2021, they still don't admit women as members. Last year, they doubled their surplus, thanks in part to $2 million from the government's JobKeeper program. Accent Group, the shoe seller, paid their CEO a million-dollar bonus, boosted their profits and delivered, through dividends, $11 million to billionaire Brett Blundy. They've gotten $45 million through JobKeeper, and they won't pay a cent of it back. The car dealer AP Eagers turned a $200 million profit. Their dividends will deliver $17 million to billionaire Nick Politis, but they won't return their $130 million in JobKeeper.

Then there's Best & Less. Their profits are up, but, because they're doing a sale, they've actually come clean with investors. They have said to investors that JobKeeper was a sugar hit, directly delivering more than $20 million to their budget bottom line. I imagine Best & Less are thinking, 'You only get one Morrison government in your lifetime, and we've had ours.'

Then there's Premier Investments. They may have received as much as $110 million in JobKeeper. They set a record profit and paid their CEO a $2.5 million bonus, more than most Australians earn in a lifetime. They paid a stonking dividend, of which billionaire Solomon Lew will get a sizable whack, and are refusing to repay the bulk of their JobKeeper. The government set up the 'DobSeeker' helpline which employers can call to dob in jobseekers. There is no helpline which people can call up and complain about the billions of dollars that this government has delivered to profitable firms. Among the listed firms we know that about a fifth of the money went to firms whose earnings went up, not down. If that's true, that means that across the entire scheme we are talking about some $15 to $20 billion delivered to firms that didn't need it. That's about $1,000 of Morrison government waste for every single Australian. It's $1,000 dollars per adult wasted through the JobKeeper scheme—

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on both sides will cease interjecting.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They go hard on social security recipients through robodebt, but they go soft when it comes to taking on the strong—

Mr Howarth interjecting—

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fenner will just pause for a moment. Assistant Minister, when I tell you to stop interjecting, stop interjecting.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You know why these sorts of problems arise? It comes from a story which Nick Xenophon told to Katharine Murphy for her Quarterly Essay. She talked about a moment when Nick Xenophon asked the Prime Minister if he would like to catch up for a coffee. Nick Xenophon said:

He looked at me askance and said, 'What for?' I said just to catch up and have a chat about issues. He said, 'No, mate. I'm purely transactional.'

That's what we've got, a purely transactional Prime Minister who has delivered a budget with a trillion dollars of debt and no reform to show for it. This government is like Seinfeld,a show about nothing but without the laughs.

A government member interjecting—

That's not me. That's the right-wing Spectator magazine speaking about you. That's what your friends are saying about you.

There is a better way. In 1945 Curtin and Chifley didn't just say, 'Let's put the country back the way it was in 1939.' Instead they had a bit of ambition. As Liam Byrne reports in his book Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin: 'Curtin pledged that under his government Australia would not just win the war, but win the peace too. There would be investment in social services, new housing to replace the old slums, new opportunities to be pursued and full employment for the benefit of all.' It was a vision of what Australia could be. It was based upon the belief that if the government could expand its power and influence over the workings of the economy and society to mobilise the nation to win the war, then it could do so to ensure the social betterment of all. As Liam Byrne has said: 'The Curtin government moulded the age. It actively created a new era, transforming our economy, our politics and our society. It defied the inherited orthodoxies and expanded the bounds of the possible.' That is what ambition looks like. That is what a reforming government would be doing today to ensure that wages went up, not down; to ensure that we had a more egalitarian nation, not a less egalitarian nation; to ensure that we tackled climate change, which will hit Australia harder than any other advanced country; to see improvements in productivity, in business startup rates; to create a better Australia. Australia deserves a bold budget, not the flaccid financial statement we got last night.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I always enjoy following the member for Fenner. He is always so erudite and so wise on the history of his party. It's just a shame that the future that Labor would offer us is a return to the 1940s. Maybe they want to reintroduce petrol rationing. Maybe they want to send the troops down the mines again. But when they think about the future they are always looking to the past. That is a good way to think about Labor's response to this budget because past performance is a good indicator of future performance, and Labor have a history of misreading budgets.

During the last budget the member for Rankin said:

Decisions taken by the Liberals in their budget mean that the … recession will be deeper and longer than necessary.

He went on to say:

Unemployment will be too high for too long in this country because the government is failing on jobs.

The member for Rankin could be no further from the truth on this budget than he was on the last one. The truth is what this budget is doing is setting Australia up, through the Morrison government's plan, to secure Australia's economic recovery with a very strong focus on jobs. I think our record on jobs underlies the fact that this budget is the best received budget in a generation, so those opposite, unfortunately, have very little to say.

The 5.6 percent unemployment rate that we now have is lower than when we came to government in 2013. Treasury said to us at the beginning of the COVID recession that unemployment could reach 15 per cent, or two million Australians out of work. Unemployment is even lower than when the COVID pandemic began. There is a record set of job ads—243,500 job ads. Over 12 months, there was a 245 per cent increase in the number of job ads, showing how buoyant the economy is and how many opportunities there are for people. More Australians in jobs means more taxpayers, it means more revenue for government, it means fewer people dependent on welfare and it means a lower deficit. JobKeeper, which has been described as a lifeline and a godsend by so many businesses in my electorate, kept 3.8 million people in work and JobSeeker helped 1.5 million people without work.

Labor talks about wages, but I think the important points to note here are that real wages to the December quarter were higher than when we came into office in 2013, and Treasury says that we need to get unemployment with a four in front of it until we can accelerate wages growth for the long term. So what do we as a government do to put more money in people's pockets, so citizens and workers have more money? Well, the first thing we are always committed to as Liberals and Nationals is tax cuts. Tax cuts are in our DNA. Why are they in our DNA? It's because we believe fundamentally that individuals can spend their own money better than the government can. Under the government's tax policies, there's $7.8 billion worth of personal income tax cuts for lower- and middle-income earners. Individuals will be $1,080 better off and couples will be $2,160 better off.

We are trying drive the unemployment rate lower, below five per cent. Treasury says that the initiatives we've put in this budget will help create 250,000 jobs. That's on top of the half a million we've created since the last budget last October and the million that we've created since the COVID recession began. How are we doing that? What do we do to create more jobs? We expand JobTrainer, with more than 450,000 places to upskill jobseekers, and 170,000 new apprenticeships and trainees with the 50 per cent wage subsidy that has been such a success. As I go around my electorate talking to people in the horticulture industry, in the automotive industry and in restaurants and so on, more people are putting on apprentices for the first time because of the significant wage subsidy that we've offered. There are the 5,000 additional places in higher education for short courses to help upskill people; the increases in mutual obligation that we've put in place to ensure that people who are offered jobs take the jobs that they're offered; the increases in child care for low- and middle-income earners to ensure that child care is more affordable for working people; the infrastructure plan that we have—$15 billion in infrastructure in every state and territory, which will increase jobs right across our economy; and the special arrangements for businesses to encourage them to take on more workers by giving them more of their own money through the extension of programs like the instant asset write-off. The Morrison government is successfully managing Australia's future, because we have a plan to secure Australia's economic recovery.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I always find budget night—certainly for the last eight years of this government—really quite disappointing. That's not because of what the government does but because it has such a small ambition for this country. The government's ambition for this country is so, so small. There's a function that government has that only government can do. That is to look forward at what is coming down the road towards your country, what the opportunities and the threats are, and position your country so that the population of the country and the business of the country don't fall into a hole—to make sure that the country is ready for the change that's coming down the track. That is called leading.

This government doesn't know how to do that. This government not only waits until the problem is well known by experts; it waits until everybody knows about the problem. It waits until the crisis is so great that the population is screaming for an answer, and then it puts its hand and up and says, 'We'll do something about that.' But let me say this, you of small ambition: after eight years of government, if there's a crisis in this country its yours. If there's a crisis in aged care, it's yours. It's a federal responsibility. If there's a crisis after eight years of a Liberal government, you should have done something about it before, and you should have seen it coming: the ageing of the population, climate change, growing gig work, the changing nature of data and its role, the decline in economies of scale as a source of competitive advantage, the ageing of the population, and the fragmentation of supply chains and what that means for our tax revenue. These are things that we all know about. We know they're coming, and yet this is a government that doesn't even look at them.

I understand that when it comes to climate change we have a problem: a Liberal government has never governed in its own right ever in its entire history. It needs the Nationals to govern, so there's a bit of an agreement going on, and no-one knows what it is. I understand the problem. But their role is to do something about it; their role is to look forward and do something about it, and yet they wait for the crisis. It's as if the marketing Prime Minister has decided, 'Let's not bother to do anything about it until everybody knows.' There's no point in solving a problem if no-one knows there was a problem in the first place! There's no point in that for Mr Marketing Man, 'Let's wait until the crisis is so great that everyone knows about it and we can take the credit for solving it.'

You could be forgiven for believing that that's what this government are doing, because for so many years they've ignored the extraordinary crises that have been decimating some people in our communities. There's aged care: malnutrition and people lying in faeces. There are, literally, people dying while waiting for home-care packages—really. Let's look at aged care just for a moment, because it's actually really quite interesting.

The aged-care royal commission, which we called for for ages, was called in October 2018. There was an interim report, called Neglect, on 31 October 2019. The crisis was known before the calling of the aged-care royal commission. It was certainly known in all of its glory on 31 October 2019, and this government sat on its hands while people literally suffered—while families suffered. Then, during COVID: 'Aged-care? Not our problem.' It was their problem.

Let's look at child care. There's a childcare package in the budget—well, so there should be. When Prime Minister Scott Morrison was still the minister, he offered the best-ever package of child care in 2015, just before an election. He didn't legislate it until 2017. He introduced it in 2018, just before an election—surprise, surprise! But over the 2½ years since then all the benefit has dissipated, so we're back to square one. In fact, we're worse off.

Now, just before an election again, there's another announcement. There's a pattern with this government: wait until the crisis is really, really great and then wait until an election year comes along and announce it. Wait until the crisis comes. Their ambition is so small; they're the wrong government for the times that we're in. We're in a world that's changing rapidly, where the opportunities have to be grasped and where they have to do things in a country where the population doesn't even know there's a problem because they're ahead of it—because they're leaders and can see what opportunities are coming down the road, and they put Australia in position for them. That's the job of a government all the time, but at no time in Australia's history has it been more relevant than it is now. And that is not those over there; they're the wrong government for the time, and the budget shows it.

It's a budget where they solve the crises that they've caused—that they sat on and ignored for eight years. Then, finally, they put their hands up and said, 'We're doing something about it in an election year,' and they expect praise for it. To the previous speaker, who asked, 'Why don't they find something good to say about the government,' it's because their ambition is too small, too little and too late. They're solving the problems that they caused and then they expect credit for it.

Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the Treasurer said in his budget speech last night, the 2021-22 budget is designed to secure Australia's economic recovery. This budget, and the economic plan which underpins it, will continue to set the right environment for the creation of more jobs. It's on this point that I will probably irritate a lot of my colleagues, who have been referring to the creation of jobs and that we want to create jobs. We are, in fact, a government that likes to create the environment for others to create jobs, so I'm just being a little pedantic here. Eight out of 10 jobs in Australia are actually found in private enterprise, so our view, as a government, is not only being one of lower taxes and smaller government but also one which creates the right environment so that other people can thrive and, in the case of employment, create jobs for others. That's what we want to do.

Rather than focus on what the alleged gaps are in this budget, let's look at what this budget does in terms of our values and what we're seeking to do in Australia. The first of those is that it provides tax relief for more than 10 million hardworking Australians so that they have more money in their pockets to spend in the way that they want to spend it. In my electorate of Curtin 73,000 people last year benefited from tax cuts, and 52,000 people are going to benefit from the tax cuts being introduced this year. This is helping all of those people in my electorate to make the choices that we know that they can make and to spend money in the way that they want to, hopefully, by buying Australian, buying locally made and supporting all of our great businesses.

Another thing that this government is doing to make sure that we're creating the right environment for more jobs is supporting small and medium-sized businesses. Having more jobs is our goal. Having more jobs means more tax is collected, and it allows us to provide essential services. Throughout COVID, the initiatives that we put in place supported over 25,000 small businesses in my electorate. Those initiatives, which are continuing through this budget, are, again, going to support those small and local businesses in my electorate. Around 25,000 businesses are going to be able to write off the full value of any eligible asset they purchase, and about 12,000 businesses are going to be able to use the extended carry-back measure to support cash flow and confidence.

Rather than creating jobs and employing people, we are investing in giving people the opportunities to develop further skills and training so that they can go out and seek other job opportunities. The expanded JobTrainer Fund is going to support 163,000 new training places. An additional 163,000 people are going to be able to upskill. They are going to be able to go out and search for jobs in areas that they might not be qualified to work in at the moment. There are also going to be 170,000 new apprenticeships and traineeships. Once again, this will create an environment for people to go out, seek employment and get new skills. We have 680 apprenticeships in Curtin. I'm sure that, with these new measures, we'll have a whole lot more people seeking apprenticeships and traineeships over the coming year.

Another thing that our government does, as opposed to employing people and becoming a direct employer of people, is invest in infrastructure. By investing in infrastructure and putting things out to tender, we get companies and local businesses benefitting from major infrastructure projects. I don't particularly get excited by road infrastructure, but $1. 6 billion is being spent on infrastructure in Western Australia, and I am excited about it. It will make all of those road trips to get home to your families safer and smoother, which is really important.

This government is also making it easier for people to get more hours. For those parents who need to access child care to take on additional work, this government is investing an additional $1.7 billion into child care. This is going to directly benefit about 1,100 families in Curtin, by helping them take on more work. I know a number of them who have reached out to me over the last couple of months will be pleased with this initiative.

Essentially, our government is one that wants to support people to make their own choices. We want to create the environment for jobs. We want to create the environment for others to actually get out there and do things, to start their businesses and employ people, and for people feel confident to go ahead.

Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They say that this is a budget for pandemic recovery. What they mean is that this is a budget for political recovery. The Morrison government's media release for their federal budget infrastructure investment should have read: 'The Morrison government manages to spray $589 billion but still miss one of the fastest growing corridors in the country.' They have not announced a single cent for infrastructure in my electorate of Lilley.

I really made it as easy as humanly possible for the Morrison government. I spent six months asking my electorate's constituents what they wanted from the federal budget. I asked them online. I asked them at mobile offices. I compiled all of their answers. I sorted and prioritised all of their answers based on numbers. I literally hand-delivered a list of projects, crowdsourced from my constituents. I tidied it up into a neat little eight-page document. I sought to table it in the House, and, when I was denied, I walked it around to the Treasurer's office. I physically handed this document over. I could not have made it simpler for the Morrison government to assist people in Lilley and provide vital infrastructure, yet they have still managed to squib it. It is actually unbelievable how incompetent this government can be when they've had eight years of practice at this point.

There was nothing for Gympie Road, which the Morrison government's own Infrastructure Priority List categorises as high priority. There was nothing for the Rode Road, Beckett Road and Queens Road roundabout near McDowall primary school. There was nothing for Robinson Road West in Aspley and Geebung—a boundary I share with the member for Petrie. There was nothing for sound barriers along the Gateway Motorway in Deagon to curb increased noise for residents who live near the Gateway Arterial Road. There was no park and ride for the 750 commuters who try to park at Northgate on weekdays to get to work. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer need to face up in question time and explain to my 108,000 constituents why these desperately needed Northside infrastructure projects were not funded.

The budget, which we hear was aimed at addressing the perception that the coalition doesn't care about women, seems to involve returning a lot of money to essential services that they have spent eight years cutting. I spoke with two community centres in my electorate last week, ahead of the budget, and their feedback was unanimous: the emergency COVID funding distributed to the state governments should never have been emergency COVID funding, because they desperately needed that same funding long before COVID ever hit and they will continue to need it for years after COVID has gone.

Northside Connect, in Nundah, used their funding to increase their family solicitor's hours by one day a week, and they hired a new legal support officer to help women who are fleeing domestic violence to navigate that process and complete all of the paperwork. But they still have a three-week waitlist of women who need their help, and that money expires on 30 June. SANDBAG also received modest emergency funding, but it is nowhere near enough to support the immense pressure they are under. To date this year, SANDBAG has processed over 200 police referrals for counselling about domestic violence. They are well on their way, in Sandgate, to having triple the number of referrals about domestic violence that they received last year. Triple since last year—that's how bad domestic violence has gotten since the start of COVID. They have 80 women waiting for counselling—80 women who have fled domestic violence and now must wait six months to receive any counselling support.

Sharon, Yolandi and Nicki at Northside Connect and Kylie and her volunteers at SANDBAG are busting their guts every single day to help women fleeing domestic violence. The emergency funding that they, together, received from the federal government—from this Morrison government—is still less than what the member for Bowman will continue to get paid in his remaining time in parliament. That is the priority of this government. When it's all said and done, when we sift the actions from the words, that is where they are choosing to put their money.

They say this is a budget for pandemic recovery, but it is actually a budget for political recovery. Half of one per cent, or $3.4 billion, of the whole budget of $589 billion is going to women's economic security. We're about to hear what an amazing priority women's economic security is, but it is half of one per cent of the entire budget. That is a pretty shady ladies' budget if you ask me. Half of that is $1.7 billion for child care, because apparently child care is only a problem for women, according to the Morrison government. Apparently child care isn't a problem for parents or a policy issue for Australian families; it's just something to hand to the ladies as an offering—asking for forgiveness after all of the crimes they have committed over eight years.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Here we go again: the usual whingefest from the other side. I'll start with the member for Rankin, who said that our budget and all the things we have achieved since we've been in government are all spin. But I'd like to remind them about concrete, steel, buildings, dams, roads and bridges. They are all really important bits of infrastructure. In my own electorate, I can think of 12 bridges that have been improved and rebuilt courtesy of the Bridges Renewal Program.

Just the other day we announced a flyover across the Pacific Highway between Coopernook and Harrington—$48 million into this much-needed $60 million project. Just last week I was with the Prime Minister at Newcastle Airport. That's going to turbocharge tourism, freight and industry in the Hunter region and up the North Coast, because we're spending $66 million expanding the capability of the runway. The international airport in Newcastle will become a reality. The expansion of the Newcastle Airport terminal will go ahead. The Astra Aerolab development in the Newcastle Airport precinct will take off, literally. It's already there, and it's going to expand exponentially.

On dams: we have contributed at a federal level to the Rookwood Weir, which is being constructed as we speak, up in Queensland. The Chaffey Dam, in New South Wales, has already had an extension of the dam wall height. These are concrete things being delivered. The National Water Infrastructure Development Fund has delivered pipelines and improvements and recycling of water—all sorts of water projects—around the nation.

Those opposite complain about job security. We have just been through the worst economic shock the country has faced since the Depression and World War II. What have we done? We've bounced back exponentially. We have 75,000 more people in employment now than before COVID. During the COVID pandemic we put in place JobKeeper, JobSeeker, improved cash flow and extra support for aged care, tourism and the arts sector. We have had one million jobs since May 2020. There have been 440,000 more jobs since the last budget in October. The participation rate in employment is up. Female employment is at an all-time high, at 61.8 per cent. The most important thing is to have people in employment. Consumer sentiment is up. There's been a surge in apprenticeships because of the 50 per cent subsidies we have put in place. In my electorate we have got over 1,200 apprentices benefiting from this.

The instant asset write-off is continuing; there has been an exponential increase in businesses in my electorate and around the country using this to get new equipment in their factories and businesses. The loss carry-back provision is still available for businesses as well. We have delivered small and medium-sized businesses a tax cut, down to 25 per cent, as part of our company tax plan. The patent box tax treatment was just announced last night. That means that, with the amazing intellectual property and all the innovations that Australian businesses come up with, the companies that keep that IP here and develop it will get a preferential tax rate of 17 per cent for that portion of their company's business.

I have more elderly residents requiring aged care in my electorate than any other electorate, and I'm so pleased we've got $17.7 billion more going into the aged-care system, both in home-care places and in residential aged care. Across the nation, 17,000 families will benefit from the changes to child care when they have more than one child in child care. It means they will be able to work if they choose to and get more income so they can save and get ahead. There's been a surge in first home buyers because of the HomeBuilder initiative. It's also turbocharged our economy. The construction industry is powering ahead. We'll have a whole new generation of people getting into their first home because of that. We're helping so many people— (Time expired)

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The discussion has concluded.