Chris Ketter (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

A government that is tearing itself apart cannot be focused on the issues that Australians care about. We know that this Prime Minister is hanging on by a thread. It appears inevitable that, whether tomorrow or in a couple of weeks time, Mr Dutton will become Prime Minister of this country. Before I go any further with my contribution, I want to comment on Senator O'Sullivan's rather unenthusiastic defence of the government's record in relation to this matter. This government is focused on negativity. It has always been the case.

If you go back to the 2014 budget—that disaster of a budget!—we heard the rhetoric of the so-called budget emergency. And today I heard Senator O'Sullivan talk about the fact that they were focused on debt, and they thought that they were going to do a better job than the preceding Labor government, but what have we seen? We've seen debt crash through the half-a-trillion-dollar figure. This is a government that has failed on its own metrics. It's failed in terms of its own goalposts. So let's not hear anything about the achievements of this government, because there is very little to be said about the achievements of the Abbott-Turnbull government. One of the critical things that I think the average Australian is concerned about is the demise of manufacturing in this country, including the demise of the car industry. That is an aspect of this government's record that will go down in the history books.

The contrast between the government and the opposition could not be any more stark at the present time. You have a government that's focused on negativity and tearing itself apart. On this side of the chamber, we have an opposition which is united and ready for government and has been putting out positive policies for some years now. And I'm so proud of the leadership of the federal Labor opposition for not making itself a small target but being bold when it comes to policy development and making some of the difficult decisions up-front so that the electorate is well aware of those before going to an election.

Many people would not be aware that my electorate office is located in the electorate of Dickson. I bump into the member for Dickson every now and then, and I think I'm fairly well placed to observe what's been happening in his electorate over a number of years. I just want to take a few minutes to talk about his record. I think it's worth bringing to mind that, in 2009, Mr Dutton sought to dump his own marginal electorate of Dickson following a redistribution and jump into what he thought would be the safer seat of McPherson on the Gold Coast. He was unsuccessful on that occasion; the Gold Coast members of the Liberal Party chose to support Ms Andrews. I take it that she must have forgiven Mr Dutton, because I understand that she voted for him yesterday.

When it comes to the issue of health, as has been said previously, in 2015, in the Australian Doctor magazine, Mr Dutton was overwhelmingly voted the worst health minister in living memory. That's quite an achievement. He also set up the Medicare privatisation task force. The privatisation of Medicare was the brainchild of Mr Dutton, who got the ball rolling to set up the privatisation through the digital space. He was the health minister who froze the Medicare rebate, and he cut dental funding. Currently, Mr Dutton is supporting $17 billion being ripped out of Australian schools, including around $2 billion from Catholic schools and, in his own electorate of Dickson, taking $13 million out of local school budgets. Mr Dutton supported the measures to freeze funding to universities—measures that jeopardised the future of the new University of the Sunshine Coast Moreton Bay campus. And I want to take the opportunity to again contrast the government's approach to that of the opposition. We've said that we will invest more than $120 million in the University of the Sunshine Coast's new Moreton Bay campus, which is being built at the moment and which would transform the Moreton Bay region into a high-tech education hub—long overdue on the north side of Brisbane.

It's painfully clear from the record of Mr Dutton that he is bad for health, he is bad for education, he is bad for Dickson and he will be worse for Australia. The people of Australia deserve better. Again, I want to contrast that with what is happening on our side. We have been working hard with Labor's fantastic candidate for the seat of Dickson, Ali France, to make sure that we dump Mr Dutton. Ali has been working hard since her preselection. She has knocked on countless doors, talking to local businesses and meeting with struggling workers and families. As an amputee, Ali is a passionate and tireless advocate for the disability sector. She has had the courage to speak out against Mr Dutton on immigration issues, on cuts to health and education, and on the botched delivery of the NBN. Together, Ali, Corinne Mulholland—our candidate in the neighbouring electorate of Petrie—and I have been out there holding the government to account on their failures.

While I’m talking about Petrie, we can look at the representation there and at the record of the current member, Mr Howarth, who stayed quiet while his government prioritised banks over schools. He stayed quiet while his government prioritised big business over hospitals. He said nothing about the cuts to penalty rates. He said nothing about how energy prices and poor internet access have been hurting small businesses and households in his electorate. I know that these issues have been biting in the electorate of Petrie, because I have been there, with Corinne Mulholland, talking to businesses, workers and families—in both Petrie and Dickson. We've had mobile offices and held NBN forums and business round tables. I note that Mr Howarth did find his voice recently and spoke out against his own party's company tax cuts. He indicated that he wasn't in support of those being taken forward. Today, the Senate has voted no to the company tax cuts, and I'm proud that I was here to play a part in that. I suspect that Mr Howarth is also pretty happy about that, too. We see that he has also supported Mr Dutton in the leadership challenge. This is despite Mr Howarth saying in April that he wouldn't support a further leadership challenge. It appears that loyalty is dead in the Liberal Party, and that no-one can be taken at their word.

I want to reiterate a call today from our leader, Mr Shorten: while this government is tearing itself apart, while it is being motivated by self-preservation, suspicion, malice, revenge, personal ambition and fear—while it's engaged in all of that, it should hit the pause button. Out of respect for the people of Australia, it should pause any decisions which are intended to bind an incoming government, in line with caretaker provisions.

Australians are sick of the shenanigans. They're sick of the negativity. They're sick of having the national interest come after the self-interest of Liberal-National Party politicians who are just out there to save their jobs. It's time for some positive politics. While the Liberals and Nationals are focusing on negativity and getting nothing done, we on our side of politics are out there, as I've said, listening, and developing good policies—fair policies. We've already announced 150 policies. Time doesn't allow me to go through those. But, unlike those opposite, we know how our policies will be funded. We've been up-front and transparent. It's time for a Labor government to restore stability to government. (Time expired)