Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

In rising today to speak on the Governor-General's address to this place nine months ago, I want to associate myself with the comments of Senator Canavan regarding how surprised I am for it to be Thursday of the first sitting week back of the year and for the government to have already run out of things to talk about. The reason that we have the address-in-reply is so that we always have something to come back and talk to when we don't have anything else to talk about—when we've run out of legislation. That's why we're on this debate today. It certainly seems fitting, because we know that this government is very big on rhetoric and very small on substance. That's why we are here on the third sitting day back of the year with nothing else to talk about—because they have apparently not got much on the agenda that they want to take through this place.

But speaking of big on rhetoric and small on substance, it would be remiss of me to stand here and contribute to this debate today without making reference to my Tasmanian colleague Senator Polley's contribution, where she spent about 10 minutes obsessing about the previous government and only a small amount of her speech actually talking about what her government is seeking to deliver. I think it's all very symbolic and symptomatic of the fact that this government isn't delivering for Australians—that this government doesn't know how to deliver for Australians. The fact that they are obsessing about what happened in months past, rather than focusing on what they want to deliver for the future should be pretty disappointing to anybody listening in to this debate today.

In compiling my remarks for this debate on the Governor-General's address today, it was interesting to look over the address, some months down the track, for what the government was indicating its priorities were back in July when the parliament first reconvened—to look at what those priorities were then and consider what the government has actually done in the intervening nine months. One of the main areas of focus for the government, according to the Governor-General's address, was the cost of living. This is certainly the top concern of many Australians, particularly in my home state of Tasmania. It seems like, every time you go to the supermarket, there's been another big price hike on a staple grocery item. The basic essentials such as fruit and vegetables, breakfast cereals and meat are all costing families more and eating into the family budgets, and of course we know that the electricity bills are forecast to continue rising dramatically.

These are costs that families can't avoid. We can't live with the lights off. We can't not eat food. So it is absolutely appropriate that tackling the cost of living should be a top priority of this government, and I assumed that that was why it was mentioned in the Governor-General's address to this chamber, yet one of the first actions of this Labor government was to ditch its own promise to bring power bills down by $275. In the election campaign, Mr Albanese said that, under Labor's plan, electricity prices would fall from 2022 levels by $275 per household by 2025. $275 off your power bill is a very attractive proposition for many voters, who are dealing with tight household budgets and other rising costs. That promise to Australians to reduce their power prices by hundreds of dollars in this term of government would have been, I think, incredibly influential in assisting the Labor Party to win government. They mentioned this commitment something like 97 times during the election campaign, but, just a couple of weeks after the election, Labor ditched the $275 power price cut promise, and we haven't heard much about it since. It's very strange that a government supposedly devoted to reducing the cost of living—like I said, the Governor-General mentioned it in his address to this place—made its first move be walking away from a promise to the Australian people to reduce their power bills in this term of government. Since then, we have seen the government's own budget forecasting astronomical price increases for electricity. Of course, all of the price increases are occurring in circumstances where interest rates have risen month after month. Indeed, we had another interest rate rise this month, on Tuesday. Inflation remains high.

All these promises that we repeatedly heard from Labor in the election campaign—that your real wages would go up if you voted Labor—weren't true either. In opposition, Labor promised Australians that the cost of living would be lower if they were elected. In government, it's their job to deliver on that promise, not to walk away from it and claim that it's no longer possible. There are, of course, global events occurring all the time which increase cost-of-living pressures for Australians, I absolutely recognise that. Yet these pressures could not have been said to have been unknown or unforeseeable when Labor went around the country in March, April and May last year, promising that they would reduce the cost of living, promising 97 that they would reduce Australians' power bills by 200-odd dollars. It will not be acceptable to Australians for this government to make excuses and claim it is all beyond their control. Their promise to cut the cost of living was unambiguous and without caveat.

The Governor's address outlined a range of serious and pressing challenges: the cost of living, as I've discussed; low wages growth; pressure in health and aged care; global tensions; and an economy in need of cheaper energy. The Governor's address said:

The Government is determined to tackle these challenges in a spirit of unity and togetherness—as well as urgency. It does not want to waste a single day.

These were the words and the commitment of the government, and yet, nine months down the track, families around Australia are waking up. Families are bearing the brunt of skyrocketing cost of living, inflation, low wages growth and energy prices being out of control. The Prime Minister's office was busy planting stories with the media about how he was going to make a speech accusing Australians of starting a culture war. Is this really what your priorities are?

This is the reality of the Labor government that we have. They said they weren't going to waste a day tackling the cost of living, but in reality they aren't going to waste a day without spin and media tactics to try to distract attention away from the real problems facing Australians. Frankly, nothing better summed up what the government's real agenda was than the press conference that the Prime Minister held with an American basketballer six months ago. Was that what the government calls 'not wasting a day' in tackling the spirit of unity and togetherness: having a stunt media event with a basketball player to talk about a local issue?

It was instructive in the Governor's address to look at the major issues for Australia which barely rated a mention. Responsible budget management is going to be the key to the future of Australia, but in that address we got little more than a few lines of rhetoric. So it was no surprise when the government's first budget kicked that can down the road on all of the difficult decisions that need to be made. Goodness me; I'm looking forward to what might be in the May budget, because maybe there will be some answers for the Australian people.

The government said that it would be prioritising spending that achieves the greatest economic benefit in the most efficient way. That is a promise that we in the opposition will be scrutinising very closely when the government hands down its budgets and makes announcements in the future. It is a promise that will be put to the test in the upcoming budget in May. Given what we've already seen from the government, it will be no surprise at all to see that promise, like so many others, being broken.

Another area which barely rated half a sentence in the address was cybersecurity. We have seen so much evidence over the last six months that many of the threats Australians are facing, and will continue to face, occur online in the cyber realm. Millions of Australians have been victims of major hacking and ransomware attacks. This is the domain of not only major international crime gangs but also foreign governments. We know the state-sponsored actors most active in cybercrime and malicious cyberactivity are also the states who are destabilising the international order in other ways—regimes like Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. We know for a fact that Australians and Australian organisations are being targeted by cyberactors affiliated with those states online. Just as we need to be able to defend ourselves in the physical world from nations which seek to use force to their advantage so too do we need to be able to defend ourselves in the cyberworld. Again, it was disappointing to not see that mentioned more in the Governor-General's address.

It's not just cyberwarfare and hacking that Australians need to be concerned about though. It is deeply disturbing to many of us in this parliament that foreign owned tech behemoths have so much influence over the minds, the welfare and the personal data of Australian children and teenagers. We are in an unfortunate period of history where we have allowed so much of our culture to be built around platforms which we know cause depression and anxiety in children and teenagers, particularly young girls. We know that these social platforms facilitate and transmit huge amounts of child sex abuse material. We know that they promote inappropriate sexualised content to young children and teenagers. We know that these platforms allow adults with evil intent to follow, monitor and make contact with children without parents having oversight of who is speaking to their children. All of this is happening openly; it's not a secret or a revelation.

At what point do we ask ourselves how this enormous amount of social harm is justified while these tech platforms continue to be celebrated and promoted? I believe that the welfare of our youngest generation is being severely put at risk by social media behemoths. Yet rather than demanding action on these issues of child abuse and harm, these platforms and governments seem more interested in censoring political discussion and debate. Many experts and I'm sure many of us here in this parliament are extremely concerned about the welfare of future generations, who, on the current trajectory, are going to be raised on a constant diet of social media fads, unrealistic and dangerous expectations, and sexualised content.

Finally, as the shadow assistant minister for foreign affairs, I would like to briefly touch on the relevant portfolio elements of the Governor-General's address. In an increasingly insecure and unstable global environment our relationships with our neighbours and partners around the world are more important than ever. The Governor-General's address rightly highlighted the importance of the historic AUKUS agreement and the strengthening of our alliance with the United Kingdom and the United States. We look forward to the announcements of progress on AUKUS and our submarine capabilities, which we expect from the government very soon.

The Governor-General's address referred accurately to an international environment far less certain than at any other time in recent memory. It's important that the government continues to keep the Australian public informed about and engaged with the reality of this situation. It is ultimately the Australian public who will pay hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming decades to defend our nation, and the public are entitled to be told why that expenditure and effort are essential.

It is widely acknowledged by our allies and like-minded nations that Australia under the former government led the world in standing up to deliberate and sustained coercion by the Chinese Communist Party regime. I am proud to have been part of a government that achieved that aim, and I'm sure many of my colleagues are likewise proud. It is noteworthy that, despite Australia having led the world in this area, this new government has made a point of repeatedly criticising the efforts of the previous government in regard to China policy. A core part of the reason we led the world was that we were honest and we were upfront with the public about the level of coercion Australia was experiencing. We must not fall back into a pattern of being timid to publicly discuss this coercion and other egregious breaches of international order, including human rights violations. For some time now, the demand of the Chinese government has been that Australia rein in open discussion of our concerns, not just at a government level but also in the media and in the parliament. But Australia is an open democracy, and the government is accountable to the parliament and to the people. We are all entitled to openness and transparency. In fact, it is transparency itself which makes coercion by any foreign regime much harder to carry out.