Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

After six long years of the Liberals being in government what we have seen is that the Australian economy has slowed substantially. Australians are struggling under the lacklustre leadership of the Morrison government. The government was re-elected without a real plan for the country, and there is plenty of evidence to back up my statement.

We have seen wages growth at record lows. That's what we're seeing. That's what Australians are confronted with. Net debt has more than doubled and gross debt has crashed through the half-a-trillion-dollar mark under the watch of those opposite. We will have countless senators come in after me and talk about how wonderful the government is, but the reality is that Australians are struggling. Living standards have stagnated. We know that the wages growth they talked about has not eventuated.

We've now had the IMF talking about the economic growth slowdown. They are lining themselves up with what the Reserve Bank has already done by cutting interest rates. Even the Reserve Bank governor has called on this government, countless times, to stimulate the economy. But what response have they had? Nothing. This is because what Mr Morrison was interested in—his economic plan for the future of this country—was all about giving $80 billion to multinational companies and $17 billion as a handout to the Australian banks.

People in my home state of Tasmania are feeling it. There are families now, right across my state—and, I believe, right across this country—who are resorting to only having one meal a day because they can't make ends meet. We know we have a health crisis in this country—again, particularly in my home state—with cuts by this government and the Liberal state government.

What we have seen is people resorting to going to accident and emergency because they can no longer afford to see their GP—that is, if they can get in to see the GP. We've got thousands of Australians dropping out of their private health insurance because they can't afford the increases. These are issues confronting families day after day. We only have to look at people in receipt of Newstart allowance. I don't know how anyone on that side of the chamber—I know they're out of touch, and they probably don't speak to many people who are on Newstart in this country—can ever expect people to exist, let alone live, on $40 a day. It is not enough.

What have we seen from this government in stimulating the economy? We haven't seen anything at all. What we've seen is power prices escalating in this country. That's what we've seen. Look at how much money Tasmanian families are paying for their power bills—over $1,979 per year. The average wage in Tasmania is a lot less than what it is in the rest of the country. So a family that's bringing home $50,000 a year is paying four per cent of that money—after tax, I might add—to ensure they can put their lights on. We know right across this country, in regional and rural areas, that the lights have been switched off because people have not been able to afford their power bills. That's the reality of what's happening.

It's not about the delivery of speaking notes that the government are relying on, which they kindly submitted to all the media outlets this week. What they are doing is trying to put out spin, because the Prime Minister is the master of spin. What Australians are looking for is real leadership. They want to have electricity prices brought down. They want to be able to see a GP when they need to. They don't want to have to line up at accident and emergency, because we already have our hospitals in crisis. We want to see those people who want to work get the help that they need. What we need is more investment in TAFE so that our young people who can't get into university and want to get a trade can get an education and the skills they need to contribute to our economy. (Time expired)