Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I begin, I want to put some more truth around the statements that Senator Canavan came into this place to make today, when he skited about the consumer confidence index. It was up 0.7. If we take 100 per cent as the break-even point, it was 0.7 above that, so it is hardly something to brag about. Actually, if Senator Canavan had bothered to read beyond the glossy headlines, he would have found that it is a most peculiar increase in consumer confidence and is wholly reflected by Labor supporters. The reason for that is that the survey was undertaken during the leadership debate but before the spill motion. The confidence amongst coalition voters is at all-time low, and that is well and truly reflected in the polls that we have had this week. So I suggest that, if government senators want to come in here to brag and say that consumer confidence is up, it was up slightly and it was up due to Labor voters, who at last thought, 'Perhaps we are going to be rid of a harsh, cruel Prime Minister and his budget.'

This week, we have seen the Prime Minister admit that his government has been bad, and I agree with that. He is certainly a Prime Minister who, along with his Treasurer, is now on probation. Sixty per cent of the Abbott government members, including, if we believe the media, some of his ministers, told him on Monday they would rather have anyone other than him as the Prime Minister—anybody. Joe Hockey has apparently vowed to avoid major changes that would damage business, rejecting calls to lift tax rates or scale back tax concessions for the rich, ruling that this would hurt business confidence. But this morning the media described our Treasurer as 'a dead man walking'. So how long will it be before we have a new Treasurer, parroting yet another phrase? Really, how much credit can we give a Treasurer described as 'embattled'. The dysfunction, the chaos and the division within the Liberal Party have been well and truly on display this week; they are out in the open and there is no going back.

Still, I guess what we can be certain of is that, no matter who the leader is, or who the Treasurer is, or whatever role the foreign minister might bid for, or how many votes are bought in return for loose, open-ended promises on submarine tenders, or any other leadership secret contender or pretender, the message from the Abbott government is the same and the policies of the Abbott government will not change—and they are harming business and consumer confidence in our country.

The first Abbott government budget was full of damaging changes. Since the election, business confidence is down along with consumer confidence, despite Labor supporters being somewhat gleeful that there might be a change in leader this week. Consumer confidence is down 16 per cent, all as a result of the Abbott government's chaos, backflips and broken promises, and now a warning from the RBA that lower growth is looming—the real and harmful consequences being higher unemployment and more difficulties for young people trying to find their first job. It is the dysfunction and chaos of the Abbott government which is worsening unemployment in this country. It seems we have to call Mr Abbott our current Prime Minister, but the best that even Senator Canavan could do to shore up the Prime Minister was hope. He said he 'hoped' that there would not be a change. That is not a great, ringing endorsement that the current Prime Minister is going to be there for very much longer. Again, this dysfunction and chaos will harm the Australian community. It will harm business and it will harm consumer confidence.

Our current Treasurer believes that avoiding cutting taxes for the rich is the way to look after the average Australian, rather than actually supporting economic growth and jobs. The real truth behind their reluctance to pursue negative gearing or loopholes is that they do not want to upset their mates at the big end of town—that is the truth of it, but even the business community, particularly the big business community, is well and truly sick and tired of the dysfunction and chaos of the Abbott government. The chamber of commerce, usually good friends of the Liberal Party, agree with Labor on this. Kate Carnell said earlier in the week: 'This sort of leadership instability is actually poison for business confidence and for consumer confidence. It is essential the government focus on running the country.' This is from their mates. This is from business. So they cannot come in here and pretend that everything is hunky-dory in their parallel universe, because, in the real world of business, it is not.

The budget actually reduced economic growth by its impact on consumer confidence. The Liberals think that, if they say 'confidence is up', enough Australians will believe it. I am glad I have this opportunity to get this on the record: confidence is way down since the last federal election. We had Senator Back in here this afternoon trying to pull down penalty rates. If the government think that reducing penalty rates on the weekend is somehow going to lift business confidence, they do not have a clue—clearly, they have not got a clue. You do not attack penalty rates on business. There is a cost to running businesses on the weekend: it is a penalty rate for workers who are forced to work unsociable hours. That should be a given. If the government think that reducing the minimum wage or reducing penalty rates is somehow going to instil business confidence or consumer confidence, they know nothing. How do you increase consumer confidence when you shrink take-home pay?

I would have thought it was fairly obvious. If you reduce take-home pay people have less money to spend in the economy. It is not rocket science, but apparently it is something the Abbott government does not believe or does not understand, as their attack on penalty rates, saying it will be good for business, continues absolutely unfettered despite our being told that good government started last Monday, although we are still waiting on that.

We know that when people are optimistic, when they have money in their pocket and when their penalty rates or the minimum wage is not being attacked they are more likely to spend, and that leads to economic growth. We also know that when people are pessimistic they are more likely to save. I do not know why the Abbott government does not understand that. This is not a government that feeds optimism. The Prime Minister has the lowest poll rating of all time. It is time to listen, Abbott Government, time to act, time to stop pretending. If you are going to put in a new leader, get on and do it, but this chaos and dysfunction is now hurting our country.

Chaos and dysfunction has been a consistent trend since this government came into power. The latest chaos over leadership and the competence of the Treasurer will plunge any last scrap of confidence consumers had in this government even further. The Abbott government's budget strategy—if you can call it that, it seemed just to attack working Australians—did not pay any attention to the economy. Again, if you make people poorer they will not spend money. When you hit everyday Australians in the way the Abbott government did in its unfair, harsh budget it does impact on confidence. Confidence will continue to go down until the Abbott government, or whoever is the Prime Minister, comes to its senses. In the meantime, the damage to business and consumer confidence will continue.

Mr Abbott has given Australians a government that cannot settle on one economic message, on one economic policy, and now they cannot settle on one Prime Minister. This is a government that tells us one thing while in fact doing another. It is a government of smoke and mirrors, a government of no substance. The RBA, the chamber of commerce and consumers all tell us that confidence is down, as are the polls, which have no confidence in this government.