Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I am delighted to follow on from that speech. When we are talking about accountability and responsibility, clearly those on the other side do not understand the meaning of those words. What have we seen from the government over the last three years and, in particular, the last year? They have been preoccupied with their own self-importance and division; they are dysfunctional. What have they actually achieved? Well, there are a couple of things they have achieved: a long list of ideas and a long list of thought bubbles which, unfortunately, most of the time just burst into thin air. But on Monday it was 100 days since the federal election—it is hard to believe; in some ways, it has been a very long 100 days—and, as usual, the Turnbull government is still trying to figure out which way is up. Internal division and dysfunction are rife within the Turnbull government. We do from time to time hear that it is 'the Barnaby Joyce government'. And just recently Mr Abbott spoke in the UK about how he is going to come back as Prime Minister. So it is not just about what we on this side are reading in the media and what we hear around the corridors in this place; the former Prime Minister himself says he is coming back.

But I have to say that there is nothing that demonstrates more clearly the dithering, incompetence and division of this government than their burst bubbles. Let's take a trip down memory lane. Let's talk about superannuation—that was one of Mr Turnbull's thought bubbles. The Prime Minister promotes himself as an economic lion, but in fact he is just a pussycat; and he has had more backflips than a gymnast when it comes to superannuation. In September a journalist asked Mr Turnbull what his greatest achievement was, and he said: 'Superannuation and the big business tax cuts.' What a joke! The only problem is that Australians are not laughing when it comes to wanting to give the big end of town more tax cuts. Superannuation is another issue on which we have seen the backbench dictating to the Prime Minister what the government policy should be. If he cannot control his own backbench, if he cannot govern with the support of a united caucus, how can he govern this country? That was another surrender, another stuff-up and another policy trashed by his own party. We have a Prime Minister who said 'I give an ironclad commitment that we will not change superannuation' but did not even have the courage to turn up to the press conference where the humiliating surrender was announced. No wonder Australians are saying: 'We voted for Mr Turnbull to be Prime Minister. Now we do not know who we have.'

Let's turn to another issue that they have stuffed up—which has affected not only my own state of Tasmania but right around this beautiful country—and that is the backpacker tax. What has this government done? There was another thought bubble floating in front of them. They thought: 'Let's grab this. Let's start taxing the backpackers who come to this country!' The tourism industry depends on them. The agriculture industry depends on them. The berry industry and fruit growers right around this country rely on them—and nowhere relies on them more than my home state of Tasmania. So what did they do? They waited for over 12 months. They continued this whirlwind of turmoil after turmoil, not knowing which way was up. Even now, there is still division with the fruit growers in my home state. They are now saying to the fruit growers: 'If you don't accept the 19 per cent tax, then it will go back up to 32 per cent.' This government, as I said, chases those thought bubbles. Then they burst and what do we have? Nothing but turmoil in this country. We are not seeing any leadership at all—none at all.

Then there is aged care, my area of responsibility. I was at LASA's congress on the Gold Coast on Sunday. I had to sit through Minister Ley's speech where she said absolutely nothing. What she did say, though, was that the cuts that they have made—over $3 billion worth of cuts to aged care—are not cuts but savings.