Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today, on behalf of the opposition, to speak to the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Bill 2023. The coalition will be opposing this bill. Why are we opposing this bill? It's because the bill is from an arrogant government which believes that it can tell the manufacturers of Australia what they need, rather than addressing with good and proper policy what the manufacturers of Australia are telling the government—because they're out there, I assure you—they require. If the government just listened to the manufacturers of Australia, what it would know is that they are asking the government to put in place the right economic conditions for them to succeed. This of course includes driving down the increasing input costs being felt by businesses and driving down the inflationary pressures that are currently pinching the family budget and projected, unfortunately, to only get worse.

What the Australian people and in particular manufacturers in Australia are now seeing is that our economy and the Australian people are being woefully let down by this bad government. This bill does nothing for Australian businesses struggling to meet ever-increasing input costs. This bill does nothing for Australian families, who, day after day, are telling the government they are struggling to meet the rising costs of living. Inflationary pressures are pushing businesses and households to the brink and electricity prices are skyrocketing, and what's the government's answer? To push radical industrial relations changes and bake in off-budget costs, which the IMF has warned will have an inflationary impact. This bill that we have before us in the Senate does nothing to address inflationary pressures or power prices. In fact, the bill that we have before us in the Senate today will actually make these economic challenges even worse—an absolute disgrace. The International Monetary Fund has explicitly warned the Albanese government to avoid off-budget spending vehicles such as that which will be established by this legislation. Let's have a look at that again: the IMF has explicitly warned the Albanese government to avoid—not go ahead and legislate—off-budget spending vehicles such as that which will now be established if this legislation passes the Senate.

In fact, when asked in Senate estimates if the department had done any inflation modelling, the response by the department was quite frankly startling. This is what they said: 'No, we haven't. It was a very simple response. When asked the direct question, 'Have you done any inflationary modelling?' the department officials said, 'No, we haven't.' When pressed on why, because we went further and said, 'Hold on. If you haven't actually done any inflationary modelling, we now need to ask you why,' it actually got even worse.