Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to take note of the answers from earlier today. We have heard that the warnings have been worsening for a long time now and conditions in our economy are going backwards. There are many voices, not by any means from the fringes of debate; rather, voices have come from right across our community. They have come from the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, from many business executives from a lot of successful businesses here in Australia, from state and territory governments and from all manners of various industry groups, but, most importantly, they have come from ordinary Australians—working families who are now finding it tougher and harder to make ends meet than ever before.

Earlier this week we heard the news from the International Monetary Fund that they were sharply downgrading the forecasts for our economy. In the IMF's view Australia's economy is tipped to grow by just 1.7 per cent this year, down from the previous estimate of 2.8 per cent. To put that into perspective, Australia's economy is predicted to grow at a rate smaller than that of Greece—a clear sign that the tax cuts the government had insisted would provide a boost to the economy have actually not worked. Meanwhile, here in Canberra, we have a government that is asleep at the wheel. They would rather talk about the opposition than make the important decisions that are needed to get our economy moving again. Let me give advice to those opposite: attacking Labor won't fix our economy, nor will it improve the wages and living standards of hardworking Australians. You need greater fiscal stimulus to tackle the collapsing confidence and weak economic growth.

We know from the release of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, HILDA, just a few months ago that, under the Liberals, ordinary Australians have gone backwards. After six long years of economic mismanagement, real median household income is lower now than it was back in 2013. Falling household incomes now mean that the percentage of our population living in relative poverty has increased to 10.4 per cent. In fact in the last year of the survey it was shown that household income reduced by around $500. That difference may not seem a lot for many of us in this place, but, for a lot of Australians outside the Canberra bubble, $500 is a lot and is a big hit to family budgets. It can mean the difference between sending the kids to school camp for the year and having them stay home. It's the difference between being able to afford to have the heaters on over winter and staying cold. These are just a few examples of the real life impacts for working families when our economy is floundering in the way it is at the moment.

To top it all off, in the time that this government have presided over one of the most significant slowdowns in decades, they've also presided over cuts to penalty rates and devastatingly low rates for Newstart and other social security payments. Australians have a right to know what this government is doing to help them make ends meet. They have a right to know what the government is doing to lift their wages and address the weakness in our economy. Unfortunately, despite all of these conditions, all of this struggle, all we get from this government is a few not-so-snappy attack lines against Labor and, 'Let's wait and see.' Australians, who are doing it tougher now than they ever were before, deserve more from this government; they deserve a government that is prepared to recognise the troubles ahead and to take action to safeguard their welfare, as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Labor did when the global financial crisis hit back in 2008. I'm sorry to say that this government is not doing that at all. They would rather attack Labor than ensure that our nation's prosperity is secured for the future.