Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Tomorrow, it will be 1,000 days since the election of the Albanese Labor government. The Prime Minister promised Australians he would halve migration numbers. Instead, the Prime Minister is bringing 1.8 million more people into Australia over five years, during a housing crisis with higher rents and fewer homes being built. Why won't this Prime Minister apologise to Australians for his weak leadership, bad decisions and wrong priorities?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her congratulations on our 1,000 days in office. The Leader of the Opposition, along with those opposite, wants to present himself somehow as a fresh new face during the campaign over the coming months, no doubt—just like his predecessor, Scott Morrison, did. The truth is that he was a part of it all.

A thousand days ago, tomorrow, we inherited a fair bit. We inherited a crisis in aged care that had been summed up with one word: neglect. We have now done what those opposite said couldn't be done, which is to put a nurse back in nursing homes 99 per cent of the time. We're paying workers properly. Our older Australians are getting the care and dignity that they deserve. It's all in place. Those opposite said it couldn't happen. In Veterans' Affairs, we inherited a system where literally those men and women who had defended us, our nation, our democracy—

Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order on relevance. The question was focused on levels of migration—nothing that the Prime Minister's referring to. The Prime Minister needs to explain why his record migration program in a housing crisis is justified.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If it were just on that topic, you would be correct. But when you phrase a question about the Prime Minister's leadership and the priorities and ask for an apology, the Prime Minister is obviously going to take an argument as he sees fit with that part of the question. So he's directly relevant and he'll continue.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much. He's new, Mr Speaker. He's new to the job. In Veterans' Affairs, there were 60,000 people waiting for payments that they had earned due to their service for our country. People died waiting to get entitlements that they deserved. That's before we get to the human impact of the robodebt scheme.

A thousand days ago, we inherited a crisis in skills—the worst skills shortage in 50 years. We inherited inflation that was rising. We inherited wages that were falling. We inherited a crisis in health, with Medicare bulk-billing in freefall. We inherited a crisis in the NDIS, with rorting and rip-offs and packages being cut. We inherited a fiscal crisis, with a trillion dollars in debt and deficits, including $78 billion being forecast in that first year. We inherited a crisis in accountability as well after the Prime Minister had sworn himself into multiple portfolios, in some cases without anyone knowing, including the bloke he shared a house with at the Lodge. The Treasurer didn't know that there was another Treasurer. It was extraordinary!

That was the chaos that we inherited from those opposite. There were no cabinet processes, just overheads in the cabinet room. We inherited a crisis in energy and an ageing grid, with four gigs out and one gig in. And we inherited a crisis in our immigration system presided over by those opposite—a crisis exposed by three separate reports.