Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's why we say that Labor simply cannot manage the economy. That's why we've seen inflation far too high for far too long. Labor cannot manage the budget. That's why we've seen $347 billion in additional spending that has fuelled inflation. The evidence of the Albanese Labor government's failures has been mounting since first elected in May 2022. We have to remember that is only two years and nine months—that's all it's taken for our economy to almost completely collapse.

They've had $347 billion in expenditure, but what do they actually have to show for this? What they have to show for it is higher prices, higher interest rates, more small businesses collapsing, and lower living standards. Since Labor was elected, prices overall are up more than 10 per cent. This includes double-digit increases across the board for many of our essentials. Health is up by 10 per cent. Education overall is up by 11 per cent. Food is up by 12 per cent. Housing is up by at least 14 per cent. Rents are up 17 per cent. Insurance and finance are up 18 per cent. Electricity is up 32 per cent—that's without the rebates. Gas is up by 34 per cent.

Under Labor's economic mismanagement ,we're witnessing the longest sustained period of inflation since the 1980s. We've seen, for example, interest rates that have been hiked 12 times. In relation to energy bills, we were promised in the last election campaign—how many times?—97 times that the now Prime Minister would cut your power bills by $275. Since then, instead, we've seen energy bills rise by an average of $1,000 per household. In my home state of New South Wales, we are now in the ridiculous situation where during summer in Sydney, we've been asked by the New South Wales government not to use our washing machines during the day, and, also, to please try not to use our air conditioning during the day. Almost every day is over 30 degrees in Sydney during summer. That is the position that we have gotten to because of the decisions that have been made, particularly by Minister Bowen. I notice Minister Bowen is fairly quiet these days. I don't expect that he'll be front and centre in this election campaign.

We've seen living standards collapse by 8.7 per cent under this government. That's the biggest collapse on record, and it's bigger than any of our peer economies. We've even seen, for example, respected economics firm Deloitte release figures showing that Australians' standard of living will not recover now until at least 2030. In other words, it's forecast that it will take six years for Australians to make up the ground lost under Labor in two years and nine months.

The number of small businesses that have gone to the wall has been a complete tragedy—27,000 in two years and nine months. I know that, in my electorate of Hughes, we have many, many small businesses. Close to 10 per cent of my entire electorate work in the building and construction industry, for example. These are often family businesses, and so many of these have collapsed, and that's a real shame, because this government does not care about small business, but they are very happy to spend a lot of time with big business, particularly this Prime Minister.

So we've now reached the position where we are in a sustained household recession with negligible productive growth. And what is Labor's response to this? Denial, indifference—the Prime Minister tells Australians, 'Trust me, you'll be better off under Labor.' That message is certainly not cutting through in my electorate. I know, when I'm out doorknocking, when I've been at mobile offices, they are not saying that they are going to trust Labor on this. What I've found, to the contrary, for example—this is heartbreaking. Before Christmas I was doorknocking around Bardia. It's one of the new parts of my electorate; it's down in south-west Sydney. Down in Bardia, they are homeowners with mortgages. The median house price is around $1.2 million. They are small-business people. They are private sector workers. When I was doorknocking, I had three women—when I said to them, 'How are things going for you at the moment?'—burst into tears and say: 'I don't know how I'm going to pay for Christmas. I've just had to pay my energy bill,' or 'I can't pay my mortgage this month.' That's dreadful. That's middle Australia. These are absolutely the people that this government should be governing for and should be assisting, but they're not.

I know that presidents of some of my local sporting associations and sports clubs have said to me that, for the first time in the 10 or 20 years that they have been involved with local sport, parents are coming up to them quietly and saying, 'Could I pay the registration fees off over a couple of months?' This is happening in the Sutherland Shire, it's happening throughout the Liverpool area, and it's happening down in south-west Sydney. That is what this Labor government has done to middle Australia; that's what it's done to Australian families.

They're on their knees now. But, I tell you what, they are getting very, very angry, the ones that I'm speaking to, and they are not trusting that this Prime Minister is able. Based on what's happened over two years and nine months, they have absolutely no confidence whatsoever that he is still fit to be Prime Minister and that he is fit to be the Prime Minister in our next parliament. There are many in my electorate that are saying: 'When is this federal election going to be called? We need this to be called urgently,' because they have said, 'We cannot afford, any longer, any more of this Labor government.'

We've got a situation with mortgage holders, for example. About one-third of Australians at any time are mortgage holders. The average mortgage holder in Australia has paid an additional $50,000 in repayments just to keep a roof over their head. You've got to earn close to $100,000 to have that $50,000 to pay off your mortgage because those mortgage repayments of $50,000 are, of course, net income. When I speak to small businesses, I say to them, 'The reason that you are finding it so tough at the moment is that, when mortgage holders have had to pay $50,000 in additional interest repayments, that's $50,000 they haven't had to spend in local businesses.' So as flow-on effects of this we've first of all had inflation, which has led to higher interest rates, which has then led to people having far less disposable income. That then has that immediate impact as well on our small businesses.

I've seen this in suburbs such as Sutherland in my electorate, where we have had record small retailers close. I've lived in the Sutherland Shire all of my life and, for the first time, I am seeing vacant shopfronts in Sutherland and vacant shopfronts in suburbs like Engadine. This has just not happened before. It has happened under this Prime Minister's watch. It has happened under Labor. It has happened under the Labor government. My parents are in their 80s and they said that, for their generation, if you didn't vote Liberal before Whitlam, you certainly voted Liberal after Whitlam or to get rid of Whitlam. They have said to me for a number of years that this government is Whitlam-esque in its spending. When we've had $347 billion of additional spending, that is Whitlam-esque. As a matter of fact, I think that the spending of this government far surpasses that of Whitlam, with not the policy delivery to justify that level of expenditure.

We hear things like free TAFE. What is the purpose of just throwing money at a centralised, unionised sector and then saying, 'We've solved the problem of apprentices'? They haven't. They have thrown money at TAFE only. They haven't looked at investing in the private vocational education and training sector. Instead, they've thrown it at TAFE, where there is only a 50 per cent success rate for apprentices to get through. It's only 50 per cent for plumbers and only 50 per cent for carpenters who go down the TAFE path as opposed to 80 per cent of plumbers who go through the Master Plumbers Association or 90 per cent for those who go through the National Electrical and Communications Association.

We've got small businesses closing their doors and apprentices dropping out of their trades. This is the reality of Labor's cost-of-living crisis. Yet, despite all of this pain and suffering, the Prime Minister is just in denial. He offers no comfort, no solutions and no plan, except to be grossly insulting to Australians by saying things like, 'Australians have never had it better.' Never had it better? The Australians that I speak to have never had it worse. I tell you what, if the Prime Minister came to the electorate of Hughes and came down to south-west Sydney, he would well and truly hear from Australians who say, 'We have never had it worse.' That just shows a Prime Minister desperately out of touch with the people that he professes to lead.

I just want to speak very briefly as well about the blowout in costs of the NDIS. I've heard personally from constituents some dreadful stories about how they have had NDIS funding cut unexpectedly, have had their files closed. I'm talking about little Isaac, whose mum I met on the weekend. He is 10 years of age. I've gone directly to Minister Rishworth about this issue, because his funding has been completely cut, and this is occurring over and over again at a time when we are spending more and more and more on the NDIS. I fully support that we should be supporting people with disabilities so they can live their best life. But, again, this government cannot manage departments, cannot manage policy and cannot manage the country.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's always a pleasure to rise in this place and speak on an appropriation bill. These bills necessarily provide appropriations for the continued delivery of government services and to fund the decisions in the 2024-25 budget. In total, these bills appropriate some $12 billion for the remainder of the financial year, the majority of which, some $7 billion, is directed to ordinary annual services of government. Now, of course the coalition supports these bills to ensure the smooth operation of government and the uninterrupted provision of services that Australians rely on.

However, while we support the bills as a matter of necessity, we must also use this opportunity to highlight the grave economic mismanagement that has led us to this point, that sees Australians right across the country, not just in households but in small businesses, under increasing pressures, both through cost of living and cost of doing business. There is nothing this government can do to hide their economic mismanagement. They appear to have tries every trick in the book with little, if any, success because they simply don't understand how a market economy works, because none of them over there have worked in the private sector, or very few. It is why we have seen inflation far too high for far too long under their management.

Now, much of their increased spending is through the increase of ordinary government services; I accept that. But there are many parts of their additional spending which could have been much more carefully thought through given the inflationary impacts of the spending and the consequent impact on Australian households. In real terms, we have seen Australian households go back by the best part of nine per cent, an extraordinary number that Australians alive today, most of whom would never have seen their standard of living fall by over nine per cent in three years, let alone a longer period of time. The evidence continues to mount, as we see this government's failure to deal with these fundamental issues of higher prices, higher interest rates, more small business collapses, and lower living standards.

So let's go through a little bit of the track record of those opposite for the benefit of the House. I'm sure my learned colleagues here contributing to this debate will repeat these statistics for the benefit of all concerned: health up over 10 per cent; education costs up 11 per cent; food costs up 12 per cent; housing costs up 14 per cent; rents up 17 per cent; insurance and financial services, 18 per cent; electricity, 32 per cent; and gas up 34 per cent. That's a pretty damning report card on the government's progress over the past nearly three years. As I said, they can dress this up any way they want, but those figures tell a story. I can say that, despite the government's rhetoric about lowering the cost of living and making things easier, when I talk to people in my mobile offices or when I'm out about in community, they're not seeing grocery prices in their shopping baskets going down. They're only going up.

One of the key drivers of cost of living is energy, because energy is in every single thing that we do. You need energy to make the petrol pumps work to put petrol in your car or to put diesel in your truck or ute. You need energy to run the cold rooms in your supermarkets, big warehouses, pub or cafe. Last week, we saw with the businesses that run the big warehouses to distribute food to our supermarkets that some of the cost increases for their electricity bills were up by 200 per cent or more. I know businesses in my electorate whose gas bills haven't gone up by 34 per cent but by 50, 60 or 100 per cent, and they're now talking about closing their businesses. These are businesses that are at the leading edge of innovation in their particular industry in this country.

The government's not interested in them. It's not interested in their struggles. They are interested in all the fancy stuff like Quantum AI. They are happy to hand over a billion dollars with no questions asked to a quantum AI company, yet a company that manufacturers leading-edge textiles in my electorate and, by the way, supplies our Defence Force is at risk of going out of business because the cost of gas has gone up by nearly 100 per cent for them. These are the everyday stories that those opposite have no idea about and no desire to deal with.

It's not going to get better; it's only going to get worse, because the impact of all of these increases accumulates over time. As the previous speaker, the member for Hughes, quite rightly outlined, Australian households are now spending or have spent an extra $50,000 on interest costs on their mortgage because of 12 interest rate rises. That's $50,000 they are no longer spending in the retail shop at the local shopping centre or at a local cafe or club, or maybe they've pulled their kids out of sport because they can't afford to pay the registration fees. Thankfully, the Crisafulli government in Queensland has brought forward the release of the Get in the Game grants to enable families to afford the registration for their kids. I thank them for that. All of these things have an impact on social cohesion and family harmony because of those financial pressures.

So far we've seen some 27,000 businesses go insolvent under this government's lack of leadership. I'll say, with no degree of hesitation, that that number will only continue to grow. What are they doing for small business? We've had a bill go through the House which removes the interest deductibility for a tax debt. We're seeing before this House a proposal to increase the cost of vehicles through making the emissions standards much tougher. We're seeing for maybe some larger businesses and others—I know some business people who were clients of mine in my former life who had business assets in self-managed super funds, and we know many in the agricultural sector have many of their assets in superannuation funds and, rest assured, those funds will be worth way more than $3 million—that this government wants to introduce an unrealised capital gains tax. It would be the first time anywhere in the world that a government introduces an unrealised capital gains tax. What's going to happen to those businesses? If they don't have the cash in their super fund, will they have to sell the asset that they are operating their business from? Does this government actually care about that? Quite evidently, it doesn't. How many people are potentially going to lose their job as a result of that? I can rest assured that the government did no regulatory impact statement whatsoever to assess that risk—zero. So, despite everything this government says, it is doing the opposite of what it says it will do. I've said many times in this place and outside of here: you don't listen to what a Labor government says it's doing; you look at what it does because nine times out of 10 they are two completely and utterly different things. That's exactly what we're seeing from those opposite.

We are in a sustained household recession. We are seeing negligible productivity growth, and that proposition is only made worse by the introduction of broad-ranging increased IR laws that the government has introduced at the behest of the unions. We're seeing more red tape and more regulation in the IR sector that makes it even less attractive for businesses to employ people.

The Prime Minister tries to run the line that we should trust him. As I said before, on the evidence of his track record there's absolutely no reason to trust what he says. And if we have a look at the employee living cost index, which is an index measuring the true cost of living for hardworking Australian families, that cost-of-living index has risen by 19.4 per cent since Labor took government. That's almost 50 per cent higher than the CPI over the same period.

The reason the government can say they've run two budget surpluses is by no dint of credit to their budget management; it's courtesy of the very industries and businesses they're attacking and seek to want to remove from our economy. We've seen a 66 per cent increase in the number of people seeking assistance for their energy bills. We know that people are struggling to keep the lights on. As I said earlier, small businesses are closing their doors at an alarming rate, and yet we have a proposal from the coalition government to assist small business by giving them the incentive to take their staff out for lunch or dinner—this will support our local cafes and clubs and pubs, and every business I've spoken to thinks it's a terrific policy—as a reward for their hard work and effort and yet those opposite are demonising it. Yet at the big end of town—those opposite are quite happy to put their knees under boardroom tables and get donations from the big end of town—can claim that as a tax deduction. It's the height of hypocrisy from those opposite to say they support small business and workers. They don't by their very words and by their very actions.

We saw a revelation late last week of another $11.1 billion blackhole in Labor's budget. What else are we going to find as we keep going through the books, because, rest assured, that $11 billion is just the start.

There is an alternative at this election that's coming up. It is a coalition government. We are focused on strengthening our economy and getting our country back on track. We'll look to lower inflation. We'll look to rein in wasteful spending that fuels that inflation by reducing taxes, reducing red tape and reducing out-of-control union bosses getting stuck into small business. We'll make energy cheaper by ensuring a balanced mix, including more renewables, more gas and replacing retiring coal plants with zero emissions nuclear energy. We'll make homes affordable by funding critical infrastructure required for housing, helping first home buyers, restricting foreign investors and restoring a sensible migration intake. We're looking at supporting safer communities and getting tough on violent crime by non-citizens, boosting our defence and border protection and improving online safety for children. There will be quality healthcare, funded by more GPs, increased bulk-billing rates and more Medicare subsidised services.

On that particular note of subsidised Medicare services, I note with interest that the minister for health over the last few days has been waxing lyrical about their success in bulk-billing. I might remind the House that in 2019—before COVID, so it is on a level playing field—bulk-billing rates in my electorate were 96 per cent. What are they today? They are 84 per cent. That is a 12 per cent drop in bulk-billing rates. The minister for health, along with all of his other frontbench colleagues and those on the backbench, are so busy spruiking the successes of this government. Once again, look at what they actually do and what they achieve, not what they say, because they're not a true representation of what's happening. Only a coalition government will get Australia back on track.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to commend the member for Forde for that contribution. Like him, my community has gone through the same situation with bulk-billing. It was 84 per cent in 2019. In 2023, it was 73 per cent, under the Albanese Labor government. I'll talk more about that, but it's a great example of the spin of those opposite, when the facts and the data don't actually match. It's a little bit awkward for those opposite. They don't like to talk about it, but the numbers are there, and it's the reality. These appropriation bills, Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2024-2025, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2024-2025 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2024-2025, are important, because they bring together government spending, and we always need to make sure that that is appropriate and well targeted.

We've had some wins in my community, which is great, and we celebrate those when we can. The Don Road Recreation Reserve is one of the busiest reserves in the Yarra Ranges, within my community. It's used by over 10,000 locals. I've been working alongside Healesville locals and the Healesville Football Club to advocate for an upgrade to the pavilion. Recently, I had the shadow minister for sport, Anne Ruston, visit, catch up with the committee, tour the facilities and have a look at what needed to be upgraded, as we've seen a great growth in female and women's sport, but we need the facilities to match that.

It's clear that the Don Road Recreation Reserve is long overdue for an upgrade, as Healesville's population grows, and women's participation grows as well. I'm proud that over $5.7 million in funding was secured through the Yarra Ranges Council as part of the Thriving Suburbs Program to build a new multipurpose pavilion and associated amenities. I know the football club at a senior level and also the junior football club are now working together with the soccer club to make sure that the whole pavilion, the whole facility, and that reserve can be fit-for-purpose for all those clubs. The upgrade will allow current and future generations to continue enjoying the benefits of sport.

There are many other clubs in my community, like the Lilydale Football Club, Lilydale Cricket Club, Mooroolbark Football Club, Mooroolbark Cricket Club, Belgrave Football Club, Belgrave Cricket Club, Yarra Glen, Coldstream and the Wesburn Junior Football Club, where I was on Sunday for their family day. I'm talking to all these clubs about the need for new facilities. The need is large in our community. Having this funding for Healesville means there is another club that we can deliver for, so that we can continue to work through the needs in the community, because sport is really part of the core fabric of our community. It's what binds many people together and gives them that sense of purpose in how they communicate and how they spend time with each other.

As a great example of that, I was lucky enough to visit an event on Friday night to catch up with a good friend of mine Allan Pearce and his wife, Paula, to celebrate their commitment of over 20 years to the Healesville Cricket Club, as they move to Gippsland for their next adventure. We shared stories, and the part of that evening that was so special was, unfortunately, reminiscing about it being 16 years on from Black Saturday and the impact of it on our community. There were many past players there who I'd played with and hadn't seen for a long time. We came together, and it was like we were back at the club. That's what sport does. It builds a connection that is stronger than anything, and we need to celebrate and make sure that those clubs have the facilities they deserve.

Lillydale Lake was also able to get an upgrade for improvements of over $1.5 million, again through the Thriving Suburbs Program. It's one of the busiest local destinations in the Yarra Ranges. The upgrades will allow families, walkers, runners and children to continue to enjoy our beautiful local environment at Lillydale Lake and will bring more tourists into our community. The upgrades will deliver enhanced and activated parklands, as well as improved local access, including pathways, car parking, recreation and fitness facilities for local residents and families as well as tourists. I continue to look forward to working with the Yarra Ranges Council on that project as it gets delivered.

There is no doubt that one of the biggest issues, if not the biggest issue, that's raised with me when it comes to underinvestment in my community is roads. Whether you're in the suburbs dealing with traffic congestion, dodging potholes on the Warburton Highway or the Melba Highway, or driving on unsealed roads in the Dandenongs and across the Yarra Valley and the Upper Yarra, it is clear that our road network needs improvement and additional investment. I've been advocating for better local roads, including for our local roads to be sealed, to end the days of dust, potholes and dangerous driving conditions.

Now, one of the first things that the Albanese Labor government did when they came to power was to cut funding from our local road sealing program. This was a program that was committed to by the former Liberal government. It was being delivered on time and on budget, in collaboration with the Yarra Ranges Council. The Albanese Labor government, when in opposition, committed to the program; there is a press release from the Prime Minister himself talking about how important this program was to improve safety in my community. Yet he cut that funding, and that cut impacted over 450 local roads that were due to be sealed. Again, as I have for 2½ years, I call on the Albanese government to honour their word, to honour the commitment that they made to provide funding to our community so that we can continue sealing local roads.

When I'm out doorknocking, talking to locals, particularly in Mooroolbark but also in Mount Evelyn and Lilydale, one of the biggest issues raised with me is the single-lane underpass at Hull Road and Mooroolbark Road. The underpass has been a bottleneck since I was a kid. I remember, when I was growing up in Yarra Glen and my uncle lived in Mooroolbark, that we had to go down Victoria Road, which then becomes Mooroolbark Road, and go through the underpass to get onto Hull Road, and I vividly remember the conversations my parents had about the frustration of being stuck at that intersection. That was over 30 years ago, and in that time the traffic has got worse. More people have moved into our community, which is a wonderful thing. We've had the development of Kinley, which has just started; there are more houses coming in—4,000 houses, 8,000 residents, right at that intersection. So it's crucial that we upgrade it, so that our community can get home sooner and safer. I will continue to fight for that upgrade. I want to thank all those in the community who have added their voice to my petition and our campaign for this upgrade, which is so sorely needed.

Health care is a fundamental right for all Australians. Despite what those opposite say, the facts are that, under a coalition government in 2019, in my community, bulk-billing was at 84.3 per cent. In 2023, under the Albanese Labor government, it had dropped to 73.2 per cent. Not only is bulk-billing down, but, due to the peri-urban and regional nature of my community, families are finding it harder to see a GP and the cost of visiting the doctor has skyrocketed in the last three years. GP bulk-billing rates have collapsed not only in my community but also across the country. From 88 per cent they've now fallen to 77 per cent. Community members are now paying record high out-of-pocket costs to see a doctor under Labor's cost-of-living crisis.

Our nation is also facing a shortage of GPs. The coalition has a plan to build our GP workforce by incentivising junior doctors to become GPs, particularly in regional and rural communities like mine. The Liberals will deliver quality health care, including doubling mental health sessions back to 20, after Labor cut this vital Medicare subsidised mental health support despite a report recommending that it stays. My community needs that support more than ever. The last census showed that the community of Casey unfortunately overindexed on those with mental health challenges relative to Victoria and the nation. I will prioritise quality health care, something that all Australians and all residents in Casey deserve.

The reason health care is so hard and roads can't be funded is the cost-of-living crisis that we are seeing under the Albanese Labor government. Data published last week by the ABC showed what I and many in my community know—that they're under pressure. Mortgage stress is at 42.3 per cent and rental stress is at 74.7 per cent in my community. Everyone in my community is hurting. There is no-one that is doing better today than they were when the Albanese Labor government came to power in 2022. We sit here in question time and hear the hubris from the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer about how Australians have never had it better, how great it is and how lucky they are. But Australians are struggling, with a 21-month per-capita recession. Everyone is going backwards, despite the Prime Minister promising to reduce energy bills by $275 and despite promising to reduce mortgages. Mortgages have gone up 12 times. Interest rates have gone up 12 times under this Prime Minister. There is not one Australian, not one member of Casey, that is doing better today.

Another crucial issue that impacts my community every day, but particularly in emergencies, is telecommunications. We know how important reliable communications networks are for our community in the Dandenongs, in the Yarra Valley and in the Upper Yarra in particular. The coalition has a proud history of increasing local telecommunication capabilities, having delivered towers in East Warburton, Steels Creek, Mcmahons Creek, Mount Evelyn, Reefton and two in Chum Creek, all under the Mobile Black Spot Program. There was also funding for Kalorama, but unfortunately an appropriate location could not be secured. We also funded towers for Silvan and Menzies Creek under the Peri-Urban Mobile Program, with those locations being secured. I'm working with the telecommunications providers to make sure we can get those locations and get those towers up and running as soon as possible. So it was disappointing to learn in the 2024 May budget that Labor plans to axe the Mobile Black Spot Program and Peri-Urban Mobile Program, with no funding for mobile programs from 2027-28.

As I said in my first speech, we must invest in technology to provide reliable access for the safety of our citizens. A working phone line can be the difference between life and death. I will continue fighting for our fair share of telecommunications infrastructure to keep our community connected—every day but also in emergencies. In our community, communications are crucial. When you're living in the Dandenongs or the Upper Yarra, it is not 20 metres to your neighbour; it is kilometres. Local residents need that. I want to pay tribute to Belinda Young and the team at the Mums of the Hills in the Dandenong Ranges, who have done great work advocating for communications upgrades in the Dandenongs and all across Casey. They know how important it is, particularly for stay-at-home mums, who are looking after children and need to be able to call for support if something goes wrong. I want to thank Belinda for her continued advocacy, and I look forward to continuing to work with her to make sure that our residents can get the communications that we need.

But, unfortunately, we have seen under this government the spin about how great we have it as a country, but the reality is everyone is going backwards. Under this government, we've seen 27,000 small businesses go under. There have been no solutions to the challenges that small businesses face in my community or many communities across the country. We have seen, through these challenges, the failures of this government for the last three years. For the Australian people and for the members, residents and communities of Casey, if it's been this bad for this long under this government, imagine the damage they will do if they get another three years to send this country further and further into trouble.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the passage of the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2024-2025, as well as the Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2024-2025 and the Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2024-2025, as we all do on this side of the chamber. It's very important that we make sure the government has the funding that it needs to get through the election period and support the commencement of a new Dutton government before a budget can be passed by that new government at a later stage this year, so we very much support ensuring that the resources are in place for that important transition that is almost upon the Australian people because we desperately need a change in this country. Happily, even if the Prime Minister waits till the latest possible moment—I think the date is 17 May—by 17 May, we will have an election in this country, and the people of Australia will get the chance to cast their verdict on the last three years of this Labor government. I've got a sense of what they're going to say about all that when they get their chance at the ballot box.

It's been three tough years for the Australian people. It's been three years of a government wasting our money on the wrong priorities. We had the voice referendum. That was nearly half a billion dollars of money we'll never see again that came out of the pockets of Australian taxpayers. It was torched on that divisive, unnecessary distraction of a referendum—one that was comprehensively rejected by the Australian people but that didn't result in saving the money that was spent on it. Indeed, not just was it the cost to run it but the money that was invested in that campaign by a range of organisations—the tax deductibility of the donations into that campaign—was an enormous cost to the Australian taxpayer.

We've seen the Public Service grow by 36,000 people at the cost of $6 billion a year. There are 36,000 more bureaucrats here in Canberra worth $6 billion a year. That's a 20 per cent increase in the size of the public sector. Are there many parts of government that are 20 per cent better thanks to those extra 36,000 people? I don't have people stopping me in the street saying: 'It's great that you've got those extra bureaucrats because I really feel like we're getting so much more out of our government because of them.' Far from that, in fact, the data shows that simple things like the KPI failures of Centrelink processing emergency payments for people in domestic violence circumstances, those fundamental elements of government, are an absolute disgrace, despite the fact we've got 36,000 more public servants.

This government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising, of course. Because they're not a good government, they have to try and look like good government, and that is very expensive. You have to spend a lot of money, hundreds of millions of dollars, on television advertising campaigns when you're an atrociously bad government to try and look like a good government, and this government is breaking all the records when it comes to advertising. It was nearly a quarter of a billion dollars—just over that in fact. I think it was $260 million spent in this financial year alone across various government advertising programs.

The Future Made in Australia—that's going well. I'd up the ad buy on that one if I was the government! Hydrogen is going well. In my home state of South Australia I think the state government are about to announce that they're abandoning that as a hydrogen plant and converting it to a gas plant. They're not purchasing the electrolysers for that, and they'll probably use the tragic situation in Whyalla with the steelworks as an excuse to scrap that promise. Hydrogen ideas are collapsing around the country as we speak. So the hydrogen dream isn't going so well.

Solar panel manufacturing doesn't seem to going very well. Then there's PsiQuantum, the 'Future Made in America' quantum computer that the Americans are happily receiving a billion dollars for—maybe not, though, because maybe the Queensland new LNP government will be looking pretty closely at that decision and wondering whether or not the Queensland taxpayer should be shovelling half a billion dollars of their hard-earned money into that very interesting PR exercise that is all about this government trying to look like they're doing things rather than actually achieving them for the people of this country.

The waste goes on and on and on and on, and it couldn't be happening at a worst time because it has never been harder to make the household budget stack up. People are really hurting in this high inflationary environment, with high interest rates, high rents, if you rent your home, high grocery prices and, of course, extremely high energy prices, which were meant to be $275 cheaper for every Australian family. RepuTex did the modelling on that one—they staked their reputation on it, so possibly a name change could be recommended for that company—saying that this government was going to drop our power bills by $275. Well, of course, the absolute opposite has occurred.

This leads to really difficult decisions for Australian families because they have had to cut back on some of the things that they had always been able to afford with everything else going up—cancelling family holidays, making difficult decisions when they're buying groceries. I met someone the other day who can't afford to buy fresh vegetables any more. She's buying frozen because the fresh is too expensive. This is Australia. This is Australia, and you're hearing those kinds of heartbreaking stories. It's because the government is wasting money on completely unnecessary things. Our taxes are higher than they need to be. And, of course, all that unnecessarily high government expenditure fuels inflation, and it's inflation that's hurting Australian families right now.

The solution to that is a change of government to get this country back on track. When the average Australian thinks about how they're going to vote at the ballot box in the weeks ahead I think it's a pretty simple proposition: Do you feel better off today than you were three years ago when the Albanese Labor government came to power? Have things gotten better for you or worse for you? Is this country on the right track under this government, or do we need to change direction? A Dutton coalition government is the change that this country needs.

In my own electorate of Sturt, when I think about the appropriation bills before us, I lament the lack of investment particularly in the vital Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass corridor, which has a number of components, which when completed will divert heavy freight out of the suburbs of my electorate of Sturt—getting them off Portrush Road and the future risk of them going down Cross Road through my electorate and the seats of Adelaide and Boothby—and get the freight around the back of the Adelaide Hills.

I was very proud to be a part of the government that put money into the Truro bypass with the South Australian Liberal government, which was the first part of building that freight bypass. Unfortunately, that project was the victim of the cruel and nasty infrastructure cuts implemented by this government last year. That has really hurt my community, and it's really hurt my city, because that investment was going to not only transform the economic efficiency of freight movements throughout South Australia and around Adelaide but make a dramatic difference to the safety of commuters and pedestrians, who don't feel it's reasonable to live in a city of 1.2 million people and have Highway 1 running through their suburbs. Small country towns, happily for them, had bypasses built around them decades ago, but we've still got a situation where heavy freight going from Melbourne to Perth travels through suburban Adelaide. It's completely ludicrous. We need to fix that. We were on the pathway to doing that, and, regrettably, that was cruelly ripped away from my community and other communities in Adelaide by that callous decision to cut that project.

We've learned, on that project, that the South Australian government has submitted to the federal government a new business case, which, it seems, based on the Labor state ministers' commentary around it on radio, is a positive cost benefit. Even the state Labor government are hoping that the federal government will decide to reconsider their cruel cuts and again partner with them on that project. Having heard that revelation this week, I call on this government to release that business case and show people what that plan looks like, what it will cost and how it will benefit the people of my electorate of Sturt, the people of Adelaide and the state of South Australia. Burying that thing and hiding it from everyone is completely unacceptable and cannot possibly be tolerated.

To hear that the state government have given it to the federal government and said, 'Well, we've given it to the federal government; it's really up to them to decide what they're going to do next with it'—if this federal government refuses to release that plan, it will be an indictment on its lack of interest in investing in that project. An election is about to be upon us, and it is a very helpful and important debate to be had, equipped with all the necessary information, to compare the major parties' offerings on that project, like on many others, in the lead-up to the election. I hope Minister King is on the cusp of releasing that Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass business case which the state Labor minister said he provided to them. It's in their court to release it. We want to know what it says and we want to get on and build this thing. It needs to happen. We should have started by now. We've lost years because of this Labor government's cruel decision to defund one of those projects, but we're not giving up on it. We've got to get on with it. We want to see it get done.

The other thing that's very relevant in this appropriation bill that the Labor Party is going to have to confront and take very seriously is defence expenditure. We've recently had the confirmation of what we already knew: the Greens political party have said that their policy position at the next election is to scrap the AUKUS agreement and to scrap submarine construction for the Royal Australian Navy. They've already said they want to scrap the Hunter frigate program as well—so they want to shut down naval shipbuilding in Adelaide. Most importantly, this is disastrous for our national security. To take that capability away from the future of the Royal Australian Navy is absolutely treasonous. But the double whammy in South Australia is the collapse of one of the great bright shining future industries of our state—shipbuilding.

This is very relevant for the Labor Party because they've got to decide what they're doing with their preferences in the state of South Australia. If a candidate on a ballot paper has a policy position to shut down naval shipbuilding, they should be put last on that ballot paper. I'm sure that decision is forthcoming. It is very serious; we have not had this circumstance in a federal election contest in South Australia before.

The Greens party also want to shut down the oil and gas industries—so that's the end of Santos and Beach. With the difficult circumstances facing the steel industry, the concept of a political force like the Greens, who want to get rid of shipbuilding and oil and gas—the overall impact on the South Australian economy would probably be approaching around 100,000 jobs, as those decisions flow through the entirety of our economy. That is an economic Armageddon for my home state. Even though we sometimes think the Greens are a joke of a political party because that happens to be the truth, this has to be taken very, very seriously, and no credible political force and no major party, no party of government, can possibly countenance indulging such a dangerous, reckless outlook for the people of South Australia and, frankly, the people of the entire country.

We support the funding for the government, obviously. We look forward to this bill supporting the operation of the government through the election period that is upon us. We look forward to that campaign and to debating the significant issues that face the future of the entire nation and, as I have outlined, particularly the future of my home state of South Australia, the future of my constituents in the seat of Sturt. With that, I commend the bill to the House.

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are at a crossroads. Australia is struggling under the weight of the Labor government's economic mismanagement. Today, as we bring these appropriation bills to the chamber, bills that allocate $12 billion to keep the country running, we must also confront the dire truth: this is a financial mess of the Labor's own making. The coalition supports these bills because we believe in ensuring essential services continuing but we cannot and will not ignore the shocking economic failures that have made this spending necessary. The reality is clear—everyday Australians are paying the price for Labor's economic incompetence. Australia is being plundered to keep this government afloat, a government that sees regional Australia as nothing more than a cash cow.

Since Labor's election in 2022, they have splurged an additional $347 billion in taxpayers' money. What do Australians have to show for this uncontrolled spending? Families in my electorate are struggling to keep up with the cost of everyday essentials, with the prices on basics skyrocketing. Inflation remains stubbornly high, well above the Reserve Bank's target range. The price of food alone has increased by 12 per cent, and energy prices have risen by 32 per cent despite Labor's hollow promise of cutting power bills by $275. In just 2½ years, we've seen a 66 per cent increase in the number of hardworking Australians seeking assistance with their energy bills. Pensioners who have worked hard are making the decision: do they heat their homes during the winter and cool them in the summer, or do they eat?

Families in Capricornia tell me they are paying hundreds of dollars more each quarter for electricity, yet the government remains silent on real solutions. Labor's reckless energy plan is a disaster for Australian households and businesses. Just last week, Moody's confirmed it could cost up to $230 billion over the next decade and drive electricity prices up another 25 per cent. This is yet another independent warning that Labor's renewables-only approach will hurt Australians, forcing families and businesses to the wall. Peak industry bodies like the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia are sounding the alarm, yet the government refuses to listen. In just one year, wholesale power prices have skyrocketed by a staggering 83 per cent, placing an unbearable financial burden on families and businesses. Despite Labor's promises, the cost of electricity continues to climb, leaving Australians struggling to keep up with soaring energy bills. The Minister for Climate Change and Energy assured Australians that wholesale power prices would be just $51 per megawatt hour by 2025. Instead, reality has seen prices soar past $100 per megawatt hour, more than double the promised figure. This failure to deliver affordable energy is yet another example of Labor's empty rhetoric, not matching real-world outcomes. Adding to this betrayal, Labor promised households a $275 reduction in power bills, yet families are instead paying up to $1,000 more. These rising costs are hurting everyday Australians, who are already feeling the strain of increased mortgage payments, grocery bills and fuel prices.

Labor's reckless energy policies driven by their ideological war on coal and gas have weakened the reliability of our power grid. By sidelining dependable base load energy sources, they have left Australians vulnerable to an unstable system that relies too heavily on expensive and unreliable renewables, with no proper backup in place. This mismanagement is not just a failure of policy; it is a failure that directly impacts every Australian household and business. Labor has no plan for affordability, no plan for reliability and no plan to keep the lights on. Meanwhile, Australians are paying the price. Interest rate hikes have added thousands of dollars a year to mortgage repayments. Young Australians who once aspired to own a home are now being priced out of the market entirely. The great Australian dream of homeownership is slipping further and further out of reach due to Labor's reckless economic mismanagement.

Labor's policies are directly hurting regional Australia. Their war on agriculture, their attacks on the resources sector and their anti-small-business agenda have made it harder for industries in Capricornia to thrive. Farmers tell me they are struggling with rising input costs, with fuel and fertiliser prices hitting record highs. This is not just a problem for them; it's a problem for every Australian who relies on affordable food and strong supply chains. Despite the Treasurer's assurances that relief is on the way, everyday Australians are seeing none of it. Labor's approach has been to throw billions at bandaid solutions rather than addressing the root cause of inflation. Handouts and subsidies may provide short-term relief, but they do nothing to fix the long-term structural issues that are driving up costs. While roads in my electorate were left to crumble from funding cuts and lives were lost on the Bruce Highway, Labor splashed $450 million on a failed referendum that did nothing but divide communities. Just months out from an election, billions of dollars were finally found for the Bruce Highway in a last-ditch attempt to appease disgruntled voters.

The Labor lies and the incompetence of this government don't stop there. Independent analysis from the Parliamentary Budget Office has now revealed a massive $11.1 billion black hole in Labor's budget, further exposing their economic mismanagement. While Labor claims it will maintain the Public Service at its current level of 209,150 employees, they have failed to budget for the cost, leaving a multibillion-dollar shortfall over the next four years. This is yet another example of their reckless spending and inability to properly manage taxpayers' dollars. So how exactly will Labor fill this gap? Will they hit hardworking Australians with more taxes, making life even more expensive for families already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis? Or will they cut vital frontline services, further neglecting the very people who rely on government support the most? The reality is that Labor's bureaucratic blowout is out of control. Since coming into office, they have expanded the Public Service by an astonishing 20 per cent, with wages surging by 11 per cent, all while ordinary Australians are being told to tighten their belts. It's time for the Labor government to explain why they're on this bureaucratic binge while ordinary people bear the burden. We have been clear that the Public Service must be efficient, effective and sustainable. For every new Public Service job, hardworking Australians face higher taxes to foot the bill. The coalition will sensibly consolidate the Public Service, protecting essential services while making smart reductions where there's duplication or excess capacity. It's about ensuring value for taxpayers, not more waste.

Instead of this government offering transparency or real solutions, all we get from Labor is denial, spin and empty promises. The coalition are committed to strengthening our economy and getting our country back on track. After years of economic mismanagement under Labor, Australian families, businesses and communities need real leadership and a government that delivers results, not more spin and broken promises. Our plan is focused on restoring confidence, easing cost-of-living pressures and ensuring a better future for all Australians. We will bring inflation under control by putting an end to wasteful government spending that continues to fuel price rises. By cutting unnecessary taxes, slashing red tape and reducing the stranglehold of union bosses over small businesses, we will create an environment where families and businesses can thrive. Cheaper energy is also a key priority, and we will deliver it through a balanced mix of power sources. Housing affordability has become a crisis under Labor, but we have a plan to turn things around. We will fund the critical infrastructure needed to support new housing developments; help first home buyers enter the market; restrict foreign investors, who are driving up prices; and restore a sustainable migration intake to ensure housing demand does not outpace supply. At the same time, we'll make our communities safer by cracking down on violent crime committed by noncitizens, strengthening our defence and border security, and enhancing online safety measures to protect children. A strong and reliable healthcare system is essential for every Australian, and we would deliver it by increasing funding for GPs, boosting bulk-billing rates and expanding Medicare-subsidised mental health services. Under our leadership, health care will be more accessible, ensuring that no-one is left behind when they need medical care.

Right now, Australians across the country are asking important questions: are you better off today than you were 2½ years ago? Do you feel safer and more secure? Is our country more united than it was before? And, given all we've seen, can Australians afford another three years of Labor's economic failures and social division? The answer is clear: it's time to restore confidence in our economy it's time for a government that gets out of people's way and allows Australians the freedom to succeed, and, most importantly, it's time for a return to strong, decisive leadership that puts Australians first. The coalition have the plan, the experience and the vision to get our country back on track and ensure a brighter, more prosperous future for all. This is our promise to the people of Capricornia. This is our promise to regional Australia, and this is our commitment to getting our country back on track.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2024-2025 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2024-2025 are necessary appropriations to ensure the continued delivery of essential government service funding decisions made since the 2024-25 budget, which was announced in May last year. Now, that said, there is a lot to unpack when it comes to appropriations and this government. I'm always amazed about how many truck drivers listen to the federal parliament whilst they're traversing this wide, brown land. I'm always impressed by the number of truckies who contact my office when I speak in parliament about certain things. Sometimes they agree; sometimes they do not.

What this government did in its early phases and stages of running the nation's finances was to propose a 10 per cent annual increase to the heavy vehicle road user charge, which would see the tax truckies pay on fuel rise from 27.2 cents per litre at the time, up to 36.2 cents per litre by 1 July next year. They were figures produced by the National Transport Commission, and we should be doing everything we can as a parliament to ensure the smooth running of our trucks because they largely, and literally, carry the nation. All the goods that are ferried around our nation are done by a truck, and certainly during COVID, the worth of truckies was writ large because they were getting all those rolls of toilet paper to people. Every time someone went to the toilet, it seemed as though they needed 10 rolls. All of a sudden, we had a lack of toilet paper. Yet, it was so much more. It was groceries. In some instances, it was the vaccines. Our truckies helped to run and manage this country.

At the time, I can remember the then prime minister, the member for Cook, tasked me, as the transport minister, with the role and responsibility of getting our state transport and roads ministers around the table to agree on a national logistics code. I am still thankful to those transport ministers, most of whom were Labor ministers, as they did the right thing in the national interest. I'm afraid to say that the same cannot be said for this federal Labor government because they do not do things in the national interest. They want to whack taxes on our truckies. They want to make our farmers pay for the biosecurity measures of foreign goods coming in to compete with our own products on the supermarket shelves. Could you imagine any other country in the world doing that? Charging our own people, our own farmers—the best farmers in the world, the ones who grow the food and fibre—and making them pay for foreign competitors biosecurity measures so that they can compete on the same shelves in the same supermarkets for the same customers—that is, the Australian people.

When it comes to Australian people paying through the nose at supermarkets, and they are doing that, the Nationals and the Liberals have a better plan. We want to put in a supermarket commissioner as part of a suite of measures to ease cost of living. Cost of living is hurting household budgets. Cost of living is an impost and having such an impact on ordinary everyday Australians, many of whom cannot take any more. They are making decisions based on the disposable income that they have. They are making decisions as to whether they, depending on the season, cool or heat their house as opposed to putting food on the table so that their families can sustain themselves. This should not be Australia in 2025. This should not be happening in a country as wealthy as Australia.

I was amazed some time ago when a volunteer-run van arrived at the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga, down near the beach—the visit was well advertised—to provide free food hampers for people. Wagga Wagga is a good sized city, 70,000-plus people, and the number of people who came out to avail themselves of that generosity was quite remarkable. I regularly talk to my volunteer organisations, namely the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul, which has a care van, and they report to me that the number of clients is increasing. They have not seen this volume, this number of people needing the generosity of the rest of the community, needing the spirit of giving that they are being called upon to provide. It's because people just can't make ends meet. It's because people are finding the cost of living too difficult. This should not be Australia in 2025.

People are getting their power bills—they were promised on 97 occasions by the then opposition leader, the member for Grayndler, the now Prime Minister, that they would receive a $275 saving to their power bill. And do you know what? A lot of people were duped by that. A lot of people fell for that. There's an interesting thing about the tile put out by the Labor dirt unit at the time to say, 'Well, this is what's going to happen if you vote for a Labor government.' It wasn't that many months after the election the tile was slightly changed; an asterisk was placed beside the $275 and a disclaimer added. The disclaimer put the $275 saving off into the never-never. And you know what? That's the Labor way. That's what they do. They say something before an election and then they do the complete opposite after it. It's sad to say, but you can't take the Labor Party at its word. You cannot. You don't judge the Labor Party by its words; you judge the Labor Party by its actions.

People are hurting. They're hurting because they're paying too much for groceries. The Nationals in government would have a better way. We want to make sure, in conjunction with the Liberals, that we do put that supermarket commissioner in. We will ensure that farmers are paid a fair price at the farm gate for the toils of their labour, as they should be. Whether they are providing those supermarkets with vegetables or meat or whatever the case might be, they should be paid a fair price. All too often we know our farmers, the best in the world, are price takers, not price makers. We should also ensure, through this food commissioner, that people are getting value for money when they take their trolley to the cash register and pay for their goods.

Then you have the high power prices, as I mentioned previously, but more than that we've got people in regional Australia hurting because the price at the petrol bowser is going up and up and up. People in country areas use their vehicles much more than those in the city. You have families in country areas who are choosing to not take their children to sport, dancing lessons, dancing competitions, events and the like. Sport plays a huge part in regional Australia. Last Friday, the Southern NSW Women's Australian Football League began its eighth season. It involves 15 teams, from Wagga Wagga through to Griffith, in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. Women's Australian football is the fastest growing sport in the nation. I admire what AFL Riverina has done in trying to consolidate the draw so that there's a series of double-headers. The tyranny of distance is such that they're trying to reduce the amount of away games that teams are playing, but, still, quite often teams will have to travel. When you have to travel in the Riverina, you have to journey long distances to play your games. It's costly. There are women who play in that competition and families who are, unfortunately, having to make that tough decision for their kids—that they just cannot afford to fill the car up and journey to the away games or the away events, or cannot afford to take their kids to the annual agricultural show in a neighbouring town. All too often the neighbouring town is 100 kilometres away.

In the Parkes electorate, which is now more than 50 per cent of the land mass of New South Wales, the candidate for the Nationals, Jamie Chaffey, talks to me all the time about the huge distances that people have to travel for health appointments and business commitments. Mark Coulton has represented that electorate superbly for 17 years. With Mark you got a two-for-one deal, because you get his wife, Robyn, as well. I pay special tribute to them for the way that they have represented that electorate. I say 'they' because it has been a duo, been a team performance, a team effort. I know Jamie Chaffey will continue. He's got the commitment and the dedication to travel the length and breadth of that outstanding electorate. Whether the people are in Parkes, Riverina or in my great friend the member for Cowper's electorate, people have to travel long distances to make those commitments.

When it comes to medical appointments, it should not be so that, when in pain, you have to catch a plane. You should have those doctors, general practitioners and specialists in your home town. It's sad to say that one of the first orders of business that this Labor government introduced was to change the rules around the distribution priority areas. What you saw was doctors in rural, regional and, particularly, remote areas take their shingle off their GP surgery and move to the suburbs. They moved to the peri-urban areas of our capital cities. They moved to the coast. They moved to Newcastle, Wollongong or the Gold Coast, because, according to Labor, those were areas of distribution priority need. I don't deny that people on the Gold Coast or Wollongong or Newcastle need to see doctors too, but what we've been left with is areas of Australia where people can't get in to see a doctor for weeks and weeks. These are people who are in pain. These are people who are ill.

Labor tells a big story about its urgent care clinics. Good luck to those areas that have an urgent care clinic. I appreciate the fact that the member for Cowper received one in his electorate because of his advocacy, I have to say—and also the need. The people of Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and that region of the Mid North Coast of New South Wales deserve as good a health service as anywhere in a capital city. Every part of Australia needs and deserves and wants and expects the same, but urgent care clinics have been given to too many, I have to say, Labor electorates and to not enough of those electorates that are probably in the most dire need.

I know the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network will ease some of the problems of the doctor shortage in times to come, and I'm pleased to say that we're getting upwards of 30 young people—often, locals—going through the UNSW facility in Wagga Wagga. I'm very pleased to say that that is going to be an outstanding success in the future, but the results will take time to take effect.

A lot has been said in this place about child care. I have to say, it's interesting that some rural organisations, grain producers and farmers et cetera placed child care as their No. 1 item, above all other considerations, in their pre-budget submissions. The minister might be interested to know that that is so.

And I appreciate the efforts that she's going to, but it is not just about affordability; it's about accessibility and availability. When we talk about the childcare desert we are being genuine and meaningful, because we are desperately worried there are not enough childcare places in regional Australia.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to have the opportunity to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2024-2025. I want to deal with what is, in my view, a very interesting case study of the issues raised by Labor's wrongheaded decision to employ 36,000 more public servants at a cost of an extra $24 billion. Since we've been talking about this, the usual union bosses and other bloviating bloodsuckers and parasites on the long-suffering Australian taxpayer have been out there complaining that if you cut public servants then service levels will fall.

Services Australia is designated to receive 7½ thousand of these new public servants over the next three financial years under Labor's most recent budget announcement. Services Australia is huge. It now has around 34,000 people and it has the largest call-centre operations of any organisation in Australia. But its service outcomes have collapsed over the last two years, and what has happened under the disastrous leadership of Bill Shorten is a very informative case study. The number of public servants has gone up, while the customer service performance has gone down. Let's have a look at some of the data.

One of the core jobs of Services Australia is to process claims made by Australians to receive a government benefit. If you made a claim for the age pension in financial year 2021-22 under the coalition, on average it took 35 days. In financial year 2023-24 under Labor, it was 76 days. If you applied for dad and partner pay in 2021-22, it took 14 days; under Labor, in 2023-24, 63 days. For the disability support pension, in financial year 2021-22, it took 40 days for Centrelink to process your claim; on average in 2023-24, under Bill Shorten's tender care, it took 93 days.

How long does it take you if you are so unwise as to call Centrelink seeking assistance? Well, if you called the families and parenting line, under us, in 2021-22, on average you waited 24 minutes and 45 seconds. That's not a great performance, but that's what it was in 2021-22. In 2023-24 under Bill Shorten, it was 50 minutes and four seconds—more than double the wait time. If you called the older Australians line, under us, in 2021-22, you waited 21½ minutes; in 2023-24, it was 44 minutes 31 seconds—more than double. So productivity under Bill Shorten collapsed. Services Australia has more staff doing less work, processing fewer overall claims. Service delivery outcomes have become worse.

Mr Shorten was asked about these issues in a media interview and he had this to say:

But the other thing to mention is demand is up. Demand is up on previous years. So not only do we have that, it's like the two jaws of the snake, we've got a decreasing number of people and we've also got more people than ever asking.

This is flat out wrong. Let me go through the data. Compared to the years in which the coalition was in government, customer demand faced by Centrelink is trending down. In the 2021-22 financial year, customer demand was 106.9 million; in 2023-24, it was 99.3 million. So demand is down. Mr Shorten said demand is up; demand, in fact, is down.

Compared to the coalition years, fewer claims are being processed by Services Australia under Labor. In 2021-22, under the coalition, 517.6 million claims were processed. In 2023-24 that number was 468.5 million. So it has gone down. Under the coalition it was 517.6 million; under Labor it was 468.5 million—fewer claims being processed under the Labor government. Yet what has happened to the number of Services Australia staff? That has gone up. On 30 June 2022, just after we left government, the total Services Australia APS headcount was 32,310. On 30 June 2024 it was 33,554—up, not down. The number of staff has gone up under Labor; the total amount of processing work has gone down. In 2021-22, under the coalition, 7.99 million hours were spent on processing. Under Labor, in 2023-24, this fell to 6.54 million hours.

So what is the actual picture? What does the data say, compared to Mr Shorten's explanations in the media? The data says the number of staff is up, the amount of customer demand is down, the amount of processing hours is down and productivity is significantly down. And what does the customer, the citizen, the end user, see when they interact with Services Australia, as millions of Australians do? They see that the average time taken to process an age pension, as I've explained, was 35 days in 2021-22 under the coalition. In financial year 2023-24 it was 76 days—more than double. There are more staff dealing with fewer claims, with wait times in many cases more than doubling. That is a textbook example of a collapse in productivity.

What it tells us is that there is no simple, straightforward, linear relationship between the number of staff and the performance. What it tells us is that, when all of those bloviating, bloodsucking parasites on the Australian taxpayer—all of those union secretaries—get out there and whinge about the disastrous idea that we should in some way wind back on Labor's profligate use of additional public servants, their essential premise that there is a relationship, and that more public servants means better service, is directly contradicted by the data. It is directly the opposite of what we have seen in the last nearly three years in which Services Australia has been under the care and management of Bill Shorten. Bill Shorten has now left the building, but the damage that he has done is going to last for a long time.

Let's have a look at some of the factors behind this disastrous collapse in productivity that we have seen at Services Australia, which means more public servants and more money being spent by the poor, long-suffering taxpayer, yet worse service being delivered to Australians. The first thing Mr Shorten did was, where he could, dump external specialist providers and replace them with generalist public servants. Why? Because, of course, as a former union boss, and because Labor is the political arm of the union movement, he wanted more public servants who are union members. That was his overall priority. Customer service was a long way down the list of Bill Shorten's priorities. One of the things that's happened, therefore, is that 3,000 previously outsourced roles at Services Australia are now being done by permanent public servants. In December 2022 there was a decision taken to get rid of more than a thousand specialist ICT—information and communications technology—contractors from Services Australia. This has gutted the agency's capacity to continue to develop its information technology systems.

Another example was in June 2023. Services Australia axed a $343 million contract with a specialist external call centre provider, Serco, and got rid of their 600 jobs. This happened even though Serco's call centre operations were much more productive than Services Australia's in-house operations. Don't ask me; ask KPMG, who did an assessment and found that Serco staff took, on average, 34 per cent more calls than the full-time public servants employed by Services Australia.

The second thing that Mr Shorten did, which has disastrously reduced the output, the capability and the productivity of Services Australia, is weaken the digital capability of Services Australia. According to the agency's assurance statement there has been a conscious management decision taken to pause automation processes, from late 2022. The stated reason for this decision is a 'revisiting of their risk tolerances'—whatever that particular piece of bloodless bureaucratic jargon means. It's a very odd decision because we know that Services Australia demonstrated under the coalition that it could improve customer service using automation.

After the ATO, the Australian Taxation Office, introduced Single Touch Payroll, Services Australia built on this by providing pre-filled online forms to Australians receiving JobSeeker and other benefits, making it easier for people receiving benefits to meet their requirement to report to the government the amount of income they receive from employment in a given week. It turned out that these pre-filled forms were very well used. Over 3.5 million income support related reports were made in 2022-23 using Single Touch Payroll pre-filled data.

We also know that Services Australia is grinding to a halt on the IT transformation work that was underway under the previous coalition government. Labor inherited six major ICT projects from the coalition, the biggest being the Welfare Payment Infrastructure Transformation Program. Today only two programs are still underway.

The third problem with what former union secretary Bill Shorten did is that he engaged in a ferocious politicisation of the income compliance program carried out under the previous government—a program, I might say, which in the 2016 and 2019 elections, when Labor was led by Bill Shorten, Labor submitted policy costings which assumed the continuance of the income compliance program. But, of course, Mr Shorten then turned around and engaged in a ferocious political attack. A clear consequence of what he did, including dragging a whole range of public servants before a royal commission, is going to be to make the Public Service more risk averse and less likely to think creatively and ambitiously about how best to serve the government of the day and in turn the Australian people.

Consider the rollout of voiceprint, digital assistants, digital identity and video chat appointments—all reforms delivered under the coalition. Consider in New South Wales the scrapping of the old motor registries, replaced by the new Service NSW model, which had been very successful and which was led by Victor Dominello, the former New South Wales minister, who did an amazing job. These new ways of service delivery at the Commonwealth and at the state level required innovative thinking from the public service.

It is clear from the royal commission's report that the central idea for the income compliance program was developed by officials within the Department of Human Services. They were generating ideas, which is, after all, what we want public servants to be doing. Now, let's be clear. There were mistakes made with that program. It was initiated based on the clear advice of the Public Service that the program was lawful. Once that advice changed, those mistakes were acknowledged on our government's watch, and we fixed it on our watch. But to take away from this, as Mr Shorten did, the idea that algorithms should not be used, that technology is bad, that innovation should not be encouraged, is a very bad thing, and it contributed to the collapse in service levels under Bill Shorten, under Labor, at Services Australia.

People in this place such as me use jargon terms like 'productivity is falling', which doesn't mean much to ordinary Australians. But I'll tell you what does mean a lot to ordinary Australians—when you apply for a benefit that you're entitled to, like the age pension, and you are waiting twice as many days to get that application processed because of the collapse in productivity and performance at Services Australia. When you call the older Australians line to ask, 'What's happening to my age pension application?' rather than waiting an average of 20 minutes and 30 seconds, as you did under the coalition, you now wait more than twice as long: 44 minutes and 31 seconds. That is what a collapse in productivity means to ordinary Australians.

I say to the House: we have seen a collapse in productivity and a collapse in performance at Services Australia under Bill Shorten. More public servants have been employed, but waiting times have blown out and the performance of Services Australia has collapsed. Australians have been grossly let down as a result, but it also gives the lie to this claim, made by union officials and other supporters of this government's agenda, that, somehow, more public servants means better services to Australians. The data shows exactly the opposite.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Facts matter in politics. As we head into the election campaign, there are going to be a lot of facts which are thrown around. I want to make sure my electorate understands loud and clear the facts around discretionary grants. What has happened since 2016 in the electorate of Wannon is that we have received $694 million in grants. Now, what has the neighbouring seat of Corangamite received in that period since 2016? Corangamite has received $454 million. So remember that as opponents go about trying to use disinformation and misinformation to get away from that fact—Wannon, $694 million; Corangamite, $494 million.

What have we been able to achieve due to the fact that we have been able to get our fair share of grants funding? If you go to Ararat, you've got the Alexandra Oval Community Centre, the Ararat Boer War Memorial Fountain, the arts precinct and the Gordon Street Recreation Reserve.

In Colac there's headspace, the Colac Central Reserve netball courts, construction of the new cycling track at Elliminyt, the western oval drainage improvements and much, much more.

In Hamilton there is headspace, the Hamilton Regional Livestock Exchange, Melville Oval, the Pedrina Park netball courts and other sports facilities, and, now, we've just got a regional university study hub. Plus there are the Lake Hamilton community and aquatic facilities—that is, the playground.

In Port Fairy there was the waterfront development. There has also been the Tarrone Lane Bridge upgrade and other community investments as well.

In Portland there's headspace, the Portland Bowling Club, Bayview College, the Alexandra Park upgrade and the Portland foreshore.

In Warrnambool there are, obviously, the funds that went into saving Deakin University, into Hycel, into the golf club, into the racing club and into providing new lights at North Warrnambool. The list goes on and on and on.

So just ask those who are trying to deceive for the facts—since 2016, what has happened with community grants in Wannon versus those in Corangamite? They want to use misinformation and disinformation in their campaigns. The best way to deal with that is to remind them of the facts.

Why is this important for the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2024-2025 and the related bills? Because it is absolutely vital that government gets its spending right so that it actually benefits communities, grows communities, makes communities stronger and benefits the whole nation.

Sadly, what we have seen under this government is the exact opposite. We've seen increased spending at levels that we haven't seen for a long, long time—over $30 billion in extra spending. But we've seen the wrong priorities, and we've seen that spending add to the cost-of-living crisis that this nation is facing right now. Rather than coming into government nearly three years ago and saying, 'Inflation is the No. 1 issue that we must deal with,' this government said, 'We will have other priorities, like spending $460 million on the Voice.' They took their eyes off the ball. What did that lead to? That has led to a cost-of-living crisis in this nation which has been felt right across the electorate of Wannon. How is that playing out? You are paying more for your electricity bills. You are paying more for your gas bills. You are paying more when you go to the supermarket. You are paying more on insurance costs. You're paying more when you go into the local cafe because of what they've done to the cost of business. All those things are a direct result of the Albanese Labor government taking their eyes of the ball.

That is why, if a coalition government are elected, we will make sure that cost of living is our No. 1 priority nationally. And what will we make sure is our No. 1 priority in the seat of Wannon? It will be reversing the cuts to road funding that have occurred under the Albanese Labor government and making sure that that the maintenance budgets of both the federal government and the Victorian state government for our roads is increased, because not only did the Albanese Labor government cut road funding to the electorate of Wannon but also they cut the percentage of the contribution they make to the Victorian state government to maintain important roads like the Princes Highway and the Western Highway. That is why we've seen those roads deteriorate. To double up as to why the priorities of both the Albanese Labor government and the Allan Labor government are so wrong, the Albanese Labor government has had $2.2 billion just sitting there in a contingency fund for the Suburban Rail Loop. We all know that the Victorian state Labor government is too scared to present the business case to the Albanese Labor government on the Suburban Rail Loop because the whole project was cooked up on the back of an envelope. They will not present the business case to the Albanese Labor government. It's wrong priorities after wrong priorities.

What is happening as a result? My electorate of Wannon is suffering. But not only is my electorate of Wannon suffering; the whole nation is suffering. Day after day, people are finding it harder and harder to pay their bills. That is why any government that is elected in a cost-of-living crisis must first as a priority make sure that they address that issue, and this government has not addressed that issue. They have had their eyes completely and utterly off the ball.

It's not just cost of living and roads which are suffering as a result of that. We are also seeing it with regard to our health services. Do you think the number of GPs has increased in regional and rural Victoria and the seat of Wannon during the time that the Albanese Labor government have been in office? No. That's because they haven't had a focus on making sure that we get GPs where we need them. As a matter of fact, they deliberately made decisions which led to GPs being incentivised to move back into outersuburban Melbourne and into the bigger regions. We have suffered as a result. What we have to do is make sure that health for regional and rural Australia and for Wannon once again becomes a priority. Sadly, in the last nearly three years, that hasn't been the case. They haven't been focused on health like they should have been. As a matter of fact, it's very hard to know what this government has been focused on apart from itself and its ideological pursuits.

Let's take Minister Bowen as an example. What has he done? Has he spent his whole time in the last three years trying to drive your power bill down by $275? No, he has not. Even though the Prime Minister said in more than 90 occasions before the last election that he would make sure that your power bill went down by $275, the exact opposite has occurred. How has Minister Bowen tried to dissemble because he hasn't been able to address that commitment that was made by the Prime Minister? He has gone on this wild pursuit of a renewables-only approach to policy. What has that meant? It has meant that communities have been rolled over in his rampant pursuit of trying to get renewables right across the nation.

The worst example of this is what he has tried to do in putting an offshore wind farm off the coast of my electorate between Warrnambool and Port Fairy. He initially proposed it for Portland, and when he thought, 'That's all too hard,' he said, 'I will change the map,' and he put it off the coast of Warrnambool and Port Fairy. Do you think, once the community said, 'Sorry, Minister Bowen, we're not going to stand for that,' he said, 'I've made a mistake and I'm not going to pursue this'? Of course not; he doubled down and he continues to try to pursue this project, which is fanciful in nature and absolutely dangerous in what it might do to the local environment and to the local economy as a result of what it might do to the local environment. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Yet, Minister Bowen will not admit it.

What are the other areas where we've seen huge issues because of this government? Crime in Victoria is now a serious issue. Do you think that there has been any attention or focus given to crime by the Albanese Labor government? Do you think that they've said to the Allan Labor government in Victoria, 'This is now a serious issue which is playing out in communities and we want to work with you to create safety in local communities'? No, they haven't. What did they do at the start of their term in office? They abolished the one program that used to deliver community safety programs. The idea was that you had a program that could provide extra CCTVs, and extra lighting in local communities so citizens felt a lot safer walking home at night, and the Albanese Labor government abolished that program. When it comes to crime, we have seen them do absolutely nothing to help local communities, especially local communities in Victoria, where crime is, sadly, becoming more of a prevalent issue.

As a matter of fact, in my portfolio space, what we saw as a result of their complete and utter bungling of a High Court decision was the release onto our streets of further criminals who were being held in detention. Sadly, we are still seeing the consequences of their bungling of that decision and of ministerial direction 99, whether it's in tying up court processes or by making sure the AFP and the state and territory police are spending time monitoring those released from detention, rather than making sure that they can deal with the lack of community safety that we're seeing more and more on our streets.

I say this, especially to those people in the CBDs at Warrnambool and in other towns—those small-business operators: we will do everything we can to keep local communities safe. We now know and understand that that is a critically important issue. Cost of living, health, roads, security: these are the issues that you know a coalition government, if elected, will make sure are an absolute priority because we want to get back to basics. We understand that you want to be able to go down the street, go to the supermarket and then buy yourself a cup of coffee without having to look at your wallet and wonder how you will be able to go home and afford to pay your electricity bill or your insurance bill. We understand that cost of living is crucial to you. We also understand that if you drive on local roads and that leads to rim damage or punctures to your tyres, that also adds to your cost of living, plus you get worried and concerned about your family's safety driving on roads.

We will go back to basics. We will make sure to focus on and seek to address all the failings that we've seen under the Albanese Labor government as quickly as we possibly can. We don't want the case where you're going down the street, you're going into the supermarket, you're looking at the shelves and you're wondering what it is this time you're going to have to tell the kids you couldn't afford to buy. We don't want Australians facing that reality more and more, and we will fix it.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.