Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a stark contrast it was to hear the excellent first speech of Senator Mirabella, full of positivity. It was uplifting, it was sincere, it was about service to the nation, from the sort of senator and public servant we actually want and need in this place. That speech was such a contrast to that which we had heard earlier from the Labor Party in this so-called MPI. They want to blame Mr Morrison for everything. In fact, the motion starts: 'Mr Morrison's disastrous summer'. Well, I suppose they blame him that it was a bit of colder summer than usual, that the barbeque gas ran out or that the kids got sunburnt—really?

What are the Labor Party on about when they come into this place, day after day, with their relentless negativity and their commentary on everything that is wrong without pausing to consider they might actually be presenting themselves as an alternative government. There's not a whisper as to what they would be doing differently. What we hear is just this tirade of negativity, including, might I add—because I find it amazing, and we heard it in question time today and again in the contribution from the Labor speaker just before the first speech by Senator Mirabella—about the underpaid workers in aged care. There is no doubt that aged-care workers do a fantastic job. There is no doubt that they are low-paid workers. But who sets their wage rates? It is not the government. It is not the Prime Minister. It is an independent tribunal known as Fair Work Australia. I wonder who set that up and then stacked it with their people? It was the Australian Labor Party. It is the Australian Labor Party's mechanism for wage fixation in this country. So, when the Labor Party come into this place, day after day, complaining about the low wages for aged-care workers, it is a double-whammy criticism of the trade union movement that is allegedly looking after these people and also of the independent umpire who determines the wages.

The Australian Labor Party, like with so many other things, seek to have it both ways. They say, day after day, that the Liberal and National parties cannot change the fair work legislation, and we haven't in this regard. It is the legislation as put down by Ms Gillard, Prime Minister Rudd—remember him?—and Mr Shorten. That mechanism remains in place. So each and every day when the Labor Party complain about somebody's wages and/or conditions they are complaining about the decision-making process of the organisation that they themselves established.

It therefore begs the question: what would Labor do if they were in government? Would they sack the Fair Work Commission for not providing sufficient wages to aged-care people or would they somehow legislate wages and start having this parliament determining who gets paid what and when, how and why? Surely not! So this is a vacuous criticism that they offer, day after day, in a vain attempt to con the Australian people into believing that somehow they might be able to do a better job.

We know that the Labor Party are devoid of any future policy positioning. If they had good future policies, instead of putting up these motions as they do, day after day, full of relentless negativity, they'd be saying, 'We call on the government to adopt Labor policy in this particular area,' and they would set out the Labor policy seriatim—(a), (b), (c), (d) et cetera—and tell the Australian people exactly what they want and what their aspiration is for the Australian people. But they have no aspiration for the Australian people. They only have an aspiration for themselves to somehow cheat their way into government by offering continual criticism of a government that has been, in exceptionally difficult circumstances, delivering for the people of Australia.

Let's be clear: in the three years of this government, we've seen 1.1 million jobs created since the pandemic hit. Do you know what? The Labor shadow Treasurer said that the one test the Morrison government has to pass is the unemployment rate—will it hit a certain level or not? Well, the unemployment rate is well below expectations. So by Labor's standard, the standard, the one standard by which Labor said the Liberal-National government should be judged—namely, the employment level—the Morrison government has passed with flying colours. It is not me, a Liberal senator, asserting this; it is, by implication, the Australian Labor Party asserting this. They set the test, and the test the Labor Party set for the Liberal-National government has been passed with flying colours whether the Labor Party likes it or not.

So, having set us a benchmark, which we as a government have surpassed, what else is Labor to offer than to pick up any little rock that is available and throw it at us. There is no positivity here, there is no vision for the future, there is no policy platform on which to see the nation come out of this COVID pandemic. We as a nation are doing relatively well. Can we do better? Of course we can do better, and that is what the government continually strives for day after day. But what this nation does not need is a group of individuals who have only one vision, and that is for them to be elected to government.

For Labor to be elected to government, the Australian people need the full policy platform—what they would actually do, what they would do differently, and how. It's no use saying, 'We would have done better in this area or that area.' Tell us how that would have been achieved with all the constrictions and restraints that COVID has placed upon us. There have been 1.1 million jobs created, surpassing Labor's test. And I'm sure that the hapless Labor shadow Treasurer, in setting us this task on unemployment, thought we would fail it. He put that benchmark up in lights for everybody to see—only to see us not only match it but overwhelmingly surpass it. So, humiliated, the Labor Party retreats to what it is exceptionally good at, and that is throwing rocks and offering criticism. But they are incapable of providing a positive agenda—and the record of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer speaks for itself.

I have concentrated on that which the Labor Party set us a benchmark, but let's have a look at 1,400 additional nurse placement for the regions; $1 billion to help with Closing the Gap; and 93 per cent of Indigenous children enrolled in preschool, which is up from 77 per cent in 2016. You can go through policy parameter after policy parameter and see achievement by this government in the most difficult of circumstances. The ministry has performed exceptionally well, and the benchmarks set by the Australian Labor Party have been met and achieved—indeed, overachieved. So all Labor does is come in here and provide their relentless negativity and no real alternative for the people of Australia. That is why motions such as this, which are put forward by the Labor Party day after day, should be rejected. If I were in the opposition, I would be putting forward a positive platform; but, devoid of that, all they do is throw rocks.