Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the matter of public importance. You only have to look at the title to know what is happening this week and put it in context: this Prime Minister, his leadership, has been an abject failure. The Prime Minister has consistently failed the Australian people over the last two years, during which this shambolic excuse for a government has been in office. It goes back to the disaster that was the 2014-15 budget, which is still with us today as the government continuously tries to reintroduce and pass some of those savage and unfair measures that have been rejected by this parliament numerous times. The coalition, the Prime Minister, just does not get it.

One of the first acts of this government was to bring down a budget that was inherently unfair, full of cuts and wrong priorities. The last two years of Mr Abbott's leadership have been littered with failure, broken promises and bad calls. There was the introduction of the $100,000 university degree, through which Mr Abbott planned to deregulate fees. There was not a word before the election about that one. There were cuts to the ABC and SBS, which he made a point of saying he would not cut funding to. But, lo and behold, we find out after the election that that is exactly what he went about doing. There were cuts to the pension, leaving pensioners who are struggling with less in their pockets.

The government has also tried to force young people to live on nothing for six months which, thankfully, was rejected by this parliament. Just a week ago Mr Abbott tried to pass the same unfair bill but tried to drop it to a month, to see if they could get by with a month. Thank goodness that was also rejected. Their persistence and commitment to unfair policies that hurt those students who can least afford it is impressive if not shameful. Not only were these measures rejected by the parliament, they were also broken promises. Mr Abbott specifically promised not to do the very things that he has tried to do in his first unfair budget.

We saw a $30 billion cut to education and a $50 billion cut to health and hospital services. In doing this, the cruellest part was aimed at forcing the states to ask for an increase in the GST due to the shortfall they would face. Mr Abbott is playing a political game with the states on this. He is playing with the health and education of our families, because he is too weak to tell Australians that his true intention is to raise the GST. Notwithstanding, Mr Morrison is out of the blocks, today, talking about how the states should raise their GST; perhaps Mr Morrison should have a short word in the ear of Mr Abbott. I suspect it is a tin ear, because he certainly has not listened to any of his frontbenchers or his backbenchers.

He tried to bring in a GP tax every time you visit a doctor, undermining our universal health-care system, and is trying to bring about the Americanisation of health care, which is being done without a mandate. He talked so much about a mandate during the last government. He is silent about the mandate of late. It is not in the best interests of Australians, which is the truth of it. During the public debate on the GP tax we saw numerous examples of people having stopped going to their local GP, as they thought the tax was in place. This leads to directly impacting on the health of Australians not to mention the importance of early intervention for certain medical conditions. All this is being put in jeopardy with mere propositions of the GP tax—the awful effects of this we would have had if Mr Abbott had got his own way and passed this draconian policy.

One of the highlights of Mr Abbott's leadership was the knighthood of Prince Philip. He introduced knighthoods after they were abolished decades ago. Yes, it is a little unfair of me to bring it up again but it is staggering how anyone could have thought that would work in the public domain. So who is the first person to be acknowledged with this anachronistic honour? Prince Philip. Not only does he bring back knights and dames but he gives it to Prince Philip—who is living in the UK—and does not give it, firstly, to an Australian. That is Mr Abbott acting alone. His call; his leadership. That is who he chose. It was a bad call not to consult with your cabinet colleagues. I have no doubt that his cabinet colleagues would have said, 'No mate, that doesn't cut it in the Australian community.' Equally, there are many deserving Australians who do need recognition, but not through a knight or a dame.

Another one of his captain's picks was Bronwyn Bishop. It finally came undone. The fact that he could not see that selecting someone so partisan and resistant to embracing the independent stance required of the Speaker's office does demonstrate a lack of judgement. Once again, the truth of it is that he did not trust his colleagues to allow them to make the selection for such an important position; he thought he would do it himself. He chose, again, another bad call that blew up in his face and further eroded the coalition's standing.

Mr Abbott failed again on the question of same-sex marriage. Whatever your view on the subject, he had so little confidence in his own backbench that he refused to give them an opportunity to even discuss the topic in their party room. For months, with mounting pressure, he had to be dragged kicking and screaming to allow an opinion to be expressed by his colleagues. A true leader is not afraid of his team's opinions. You ought to consult and listen. A real leader faces it and deals with it—but not Mr Abbott.

The cost of Mr Abbott's second-rate version of the National Broadband Network has blown out by $15 billion, and we are now paying more for an inferior service. It is extraordinary. In particular, the plight of Australians living in regional and rural parts of our country is highlighted by this government's failure to give adequate access to the NBN.

And let's look at Mr Abbott's economic credentials. The deficit has doubled since the coalition has been in power. After campaigning relentlessly to bring an end to the apparent budget emergency, Mr Abbott has made it worse. The MYEFO forecast a budget deficit twice as large as it was in the PEFO, when Labor was in office. It put paid to Mr Abbott's rhetoric before the election and since. Unemployment is up from 5.8 per cent when Labor was in office. It is now 6.2 per cent. That is 800,000 people unemployed, the highest number in more than 20 years.

What we have seen over the last two years under Mr Abbott is a lack of leadership: this government is not being led by a leader; this government is floundering around. It is a government making bad, stupid mistakes and embracing decisions which with common sense you would shy away from. Mr Abbott is a leader who has lost the trust and confidence of the Australian people as a result of his broken promises, bad 'captain's picks' and the gaffes that he continually makes. He has lost the confidence of his cabinet colleagues. Leadership speculation has been unfolding over the weekend and today—and it will be unfolding for the rest of this week. But it ought to be about trying to find a leader for the coalition—someone who actually can lead a government of any persuasion—because, at the moment, they are leaderless. They have a failed leader running this country at the moment, and some on the backbench and in the cabinet room see that and want to change. It is not up to this side to give you advice about change, but let me tell you that it is up to us to hold you to account. A government should be delivering good policy outcomes for the Australian people, and we have not seen any of that.