Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we approach the end of this parliamentary term, the question that arises is: are Australians better off and is Australia now a better country to live in after eight years of coalition governments? For most Australians, the response would very likely be no. Every indicator points to Australians today being worse off than they were eight years ago, facing an uncertain future and having very little confidence that life will get better. There is no denying that COVID has disrupted life both in Australia and around the world and added to the difficulties of government, but Australia's slide predates COVID. The national health system is at breaking point. Ambulance ramping, unheard of years ago, has never been worse. In South Australia it has become a daily occurrence. Lives have been put at risk, and there are already claims that lives have actually been lost. Elective surgery waiting times are getting longer, with people now waiting years for urgently needed operations. Gap fees are rising and all too often causing people to avoid essential medical treatment. Private health insurance has become unaffordable for many people, and mental health services are unable to keep up with the surging demands for help.

The aged-care system is still in crisis. Even after the royal commission, little has changed, and disturbing stories of poor care are regularly reported. For people with a disability, the NDIS system has been woefully implemented and is a nightmare to navigate, and packages are now being heartlessly cut. Skyrocketing housing prices have put the great Australian dream of home ownership further out of reach for most young people, or anyone who is not earning an above-average income. As housing prices rise, so do rents, making life for those people renting even more difficult to make ends meet let alone save money to one day buy their own home.

Both net debt and gross debt have increased every year under coalition governments, with gross debt hovering around a trillion dollars. Wages are stagnant, and job security for many Australians is becoming a thing of the past. Even for dual-income households, life can be a struggle. Many Australians are now having to work multiple jobs just to get by.

On climate change, other than a statement about a 2050 target that is in 30 years time, we've had no direct action from the coalition government to what is rapidly becoming a race against time. In South Australia, the cancellation of the French submarine contract has left hundreds of workers and small businesses in limbo. Eight years and billions of dollars have been wasted. Meanwhile, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is once again under threat of being derailed by the National Party as we saw by attempts in this parliament earlier this year.

Rorting has become a hallmark of the whole Morrison government and, not surprisingly, we still do not have a National Integrity Commission. We have a coalition government racked by dysfunction, disunity and dishonesty; a government that is characterised by indecision, incompetence and scandal that does all that it can to avoid any form of scrutiny; and a government that has bungled the NBN rollout, presided over the billion-dollar robodebt fiasco, wasted over $13 billion in JobKeeper payments, mismanaged the Afghanistan withdrawal, racked up a trillion dollars in debt, refused to disclose the source of a million-dollar donation to the former Attorney-General, and, on Monday, released a calendar for next year's parliamentary sittings that lists a very likely 10 sitting days of parliament over the next eight months.

The Morrison government is unravelling, as we have seen in the last two weeks. It has become a shambolic government with no clear purpose. I don't pretend that getting Australia back on track, restoring confidence and bridging the inequality divide will be easy, but I believe that Australians can do so much better. That requires a change of government—a government that has the right priorities and treats all Australians as equals; has a real plan and is serious about climate change; strengthens the Australian economy; restores confidence in the national health system; invests in social housing and infrastructure; backs our education system, including our TAFEs and universities; fixes the national electricity grid; rebuilds Australian manufacturing; and respects our First Australians.

It is time to elect an Albanese-led Labor government and give Australians the security and confidence in the future that they deserve.