Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

Today we rise to another deal done by the Labor Party, the Greens and the crossbench. It is another day of a lack of transparency and accountability. We have just listened to Senator Pocock talk about process, but the deal he has done with the Labor Party has meant that due process isn't followed in this place. In fact, the very Senate inquiry that was set up to investigate and to hear from those who are genuinely impacted by these industrial relations changes won't actually be able to be dealt with. Is he actually suggesting we're going to come back in a couple of months time and amend the legislation that's being slammed through the Senate today? I bet he's not, but he talks a big game in terms of wanting to hear from people and wanting legislation to reflect concerns, while simultaneously passing legislation without those concerns being relevantly dealt with.

What we're seeing here today is further proof that Labor's IR laws are bad laws. They've been poorly drafted. That is why we've seen a slew of amendments brought to the parliament, as if Tony Burke didn't have enough time to get it right! This is nothing more than an attempt by the Labor Party to get their failure on border protection and detainees off the front pages of every tabloid, off the front pages of the major broadsheets and off the radio waves in suburbs and regional centres around the country so they can go out on a win. And yet, despite having all the time in the world to get this legislation right, the Labor Party has got amendment after amendment after amendment after amendment. When you're in government, it's pretty embarrassing to have to amend your own legislation. You accept that you have to come into the Senate and maybe deal with some amendments from the opposition or the Greens or the crossbenchers, but to have to amend their own legislation to such a significant level just shows how incompetent the industrial relations minister actually is. Rather than wait for the Senate inquiry to hand down its findings and to therefore incorporate those needed amendments on the basis of evidence, again, they're drafting in the back room on the side chambers of the Senate today in a desperate attempt to get their failure on detainees off the front pages.

What Labor is seeking to do today is to make it harder for Australian's who've put their own capital on the line to run a business, who've put their own homes—mortgaged to the hilt—on the line to run a small business, who have farms that are hot to the hilt, or who are owner-operator truck drivers. They're making it harder and harder for those Australians across the country who believe in their own work ethic, who believe in building a better future for their children. Labor are making their job harder by the legislation that is before the Senate today.

You're going to make it harder for them to make a living and harder for them to employ other Australians. It is absolute anathema in this place. Year on year the Labor Party, the Greens and some of the crossbench seem to think that government employment is the way forward. The fact is, it is private enterprise—small businesses, millions and millions and millions of Australian families—who put down their own hard-earned money and hock the future of their children in order to build a business and employ others. When you make it harder for them to do that, you make it less likely that they will employ other people. They'll just stay small so that they don't actually take on those extra workers, don't actually grow.

The fact that the government is returning to parliament to rush through a further bill to pursue the ACTU's long list of demands is all the proof needed. The fact that the only promises this government has made—the only legislation it's focused on in its 18 months, the only ticks it can have against its report card of 'What have you done for me lately?'—is to the ACTU. Labor premiers were shafted in the infrastructure funding. With the NDIS, tough decisions have been kicked down the road until probably after the next election. Education hasn't improved. The only thing that has been done is the long list of demands the ACTU had for Tony Burke and Anthony Albanese in response to getting them elected.

While they were distracted by the disastrous and divisive $450 million Voice referendum, the government was unable to keep government spending under control. They were all very happy to blame inflation on something happening overseas. Well, sorry: the RBA governor has another perspective; it is absolutely homegrown, and it is because you've added $188 billion of additional spending to the budget. That's not overseas. That is decisions being taken by this government. You've been unable to manage the inflationary pressures. You've got no plan to deliver on the cost-of-living pressures that families are experiencing now. Income has fallen by 6.6 per cent. Taxes have gone up by 27 per cent. Mortgages have tripled. Prices have gone up by nine per cent. They are the facts, on your watch.

Is it any wonder Australians are feeling smashed? And day after day you come in here and make little decisions that accumulate into the fact that it's going to be harder for Australians to get ahead, not easier. You've got no plans to grow the national economy and you've ripped $10 billion out of regional programs from the budget. And after 18 months, no new program funds have been provided to support regional communities. So, you've ripped it out, and for 18 months local councils and regional capitals have had nothing to replace that investment in their future in their communities. You've been unable to deliver on an infrastructure plan. You've got no plan to address congestion, while you're pouring 1½ million additional people into our already-congested suburbs. And you've been unable to deal with the aviation sector, where you've been consumed with protecting your old mate Alan Joyce and a corporate entity in Qantas that does not have the best interests of its customers or its shareholders at heart.

That's what you've actually achieved in the last 18 months, other than ticking the box on the ACTU's Christmas list. Throughout it all, the Labor Party and Minister Burke have remained focused on delivering your union mates' agenda. You're going to deliver on your big corporate mates' agenda, and you're delivering on your union mates' agenda. Do you know who gets screwed over? Small businesses—mums and dads living in the suburbs and dealing with the cost-of-living crisis, which even the Reserve Bank has recognised is homegrown and sits squarely at your feet. Today, on the last sitting day of the year—the last possible moment—you've stitched up a dodgy deal, and it will not have the scrutiny of a Senate committee.

These are laws that threaten to force up the cost of services, especially those that are being delivered by self-employed contractors. That's because you hate that idea; you want everyone to be a potential union member. What about the young apprentice who finally gets their ticket and wants to launch out on their own and set up their own business? You'd much rather they worked for Lendlease or Grollo, or someone else, because then you can have the CFMMEU come in and say, 'Mate, have I got a deal for you!' That is actually the type of Australia you want to see. Walking into the parliament today with this sudden dodgy deal, you're undermining all the confidence that's needed by business to grow the economy. You just keep taking a sledgehammer to people's aspiration and desire to work hard and get ahead, not to clock on nine to five. That's fine; that's an individual choice. But if you actually want to work 18-hour days for 10 years and get ahead then you should be backed in, because that's actually what grows the economy. More government spending here in Canberra does not lift the productivity of this nation. I hope the Treasurer spends this summer writing another thesis, another 18,000-word essay, on what he's actually going to do to lift productivity and grow our economy over the future.

As the National Party leader, I know these laws will impact my community, where small business is the backbone but the farming community is also significant. The National Farmers Federation have been running a national campaign to keep farmers farming, because this government's legislative agenda is making it harder to grow the food and fibre we need not just to put the food on the table of every Australian but to export around the world. They've said that the government's closing loopholes bill is fraught with issues that will make it harder and more expensive than ever to create employment opportunities in farming. I know there are not many farmers in the ACT, Senator Pocock, but there are in Tasmania.