Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers to questions asked by Senator Wong and Senator Gallagher. Before I go to that point, it's good to follow Senator Hughes—perhaps she should have lost another couple of pages of her notes and winged it a bit! She certainly does better on her feet than reading puerile notes. In question time today, it appears to me that we asked a question about the economy to the Minister for Finance and the other appropriate minister, and the answer from the government was, 'Were you elected, things would have been worse.' I hardly see that that is an answer to a question that's legitimately asked. It is a legitimate question asked not only by the Labor Party but also by every section of economic commentary—that is, what should we be doing right now?

Senator Kitching went to a very valid point. The disasters that have happened to Vale have certainly impacted on the iron ore price, and we are the world's largest iron ore exporter. The contribution to GDP was 13 per cent growth in the year to the March quarter. So we're certainly doing very well out of metallurgical coal, thermal coal and iron ore, and rightly so. We've got the most efficient production systems in the world, and we've got access to very big markets. So our quality product is buoyant, and it is keeping the economy going.

But when you look in this chamber and see the type of legislation that comes through this chamber and you say, 'What is the government's agenda since its victory on 18 May?' you find the government saying: 'Oh, I think we're going to improve the economy by bringing in some drug testing for some welfare recipients. I know: we'll do some more robo-debt. That'll boost the economy.' These are things which governments need to prudently do, but they're not going to bounce the economy.

The argument is that the tax cuts haven't washed into the economy yet, and that probably is a fifty-fifty argument. Harvey Norman are saying they haven't seen it come into their accounts. Maybe people didn't take that tax cut and go and buy a new TV. Maybe they put it aside because they know things are getting a bit tougher. Maybe their earnings are a bit flatter—and we do know that real wage growth is stagnant and declining. So maybe the boost that Senator Cormann and others are waiting for after the $15 billion is paid into the economy by the ATO isn't coming. Maybe people are saving that money. Maybe they're paying it out in higher electricity bills, higher school fees or higher transport costs—all manner of things.

We do know that young Australians are in danger of being the first generation in memory to have lower living standards than their parents' generation. Think about that. The Grattan Institute's Generation gap: ensuring a fair go for younger Australians report found:

Today's young Australians are in danger of being the first generation in memory to have lower living standards than their parents' generation.

It's not hard to look around to see young Australian who are working not one job or two jobs but three jobs to make ends meet. There is massive underemployment, particularly for under-30s. If you do get out into the suburbs and places where young people talk and share their experiences, it's extremely difficult to find regular employment outside labour hire companies. There's a lot of casual employment and labour hire employment, and people are struggling to make ends meet. They don't get 50 or 55 hours of work; they get 15 to 20 hours of work, which doesn't sustain them, and then they have to go and look into other opportunities.

So it's a curious argument when we have three speakers on the other side who are asked: 'What are you doing about what looks like a flatlining economy being bolstered by a buoyant minerals sector? Are you looking in the looking glass or down the road to make sure that we don't come into a crash and don't have a recession, which would throw lots of people out of work?' We have 750 jobs about to go at Virgin. You don't have to look around too far to know there are testing times in the economy, but the answer from the government and the government senators over there is, 'Oh, if you were in there, it would be a lot worse.' Well, I've got to remind you: you're the government. You need to have policies in place that protect the Australian public. You need to have far-sighted policies. You need to look at the infrastructure pipeline. What is the point of having a surplus in a stagnant or declining economy? You're contributing to more stagnation and more decline. If you have a surplus in a growing economy, everybody can clap and cheer, but a surplus in a declining economy is not right.

Question agreed to.