Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Future Made in Australia Bill 2024 and the Future Made in Australia (Omnibus Amendments No. 1) Bill 2024. Sadly, these bills couldn't be further from the priorities that this government should be pursuing for the Australian people. We are opposing these bills, because, the more we hear about them and the more we hear about the detail, the clearer it becomes how wasteful some elements of this are. The bigger that government gets, the more intervention in the economy there is. That's what we don't need—more intervention.

This is just another thread in the fabric of this government's agenda to slowly break down small businesses in this country and give special treatment to their mates in the union movement and in the industry super funds. It's time to focus on building small businesses, not bringing them down. Labor's policies on energy, industrial relations and tax are all making it harder for Australian small businesses to survive and making Australia a much harder place to do business. This is the opposite of what we need, and this bill just adds to that significant problem.

We are now continually hearing more and more stories about the poor processes, the lack of scrutiny and the double standards that are within this program. The government continues to try to pick winners in the economy. They are spending billions of dollars of taxpayers' funds to do so, and they are pouring these billions of dollars into the economy in this way in the middle of a cost-of-living and inflationary crisis. We speak regularly about the fact that this government has poured $315 billion extra into the economy since they came to government. This is why we have homegrown inflation, this is why we have the problem with the stickiness of inflation in this country and this is why we are laggards when it comes to dealing with inflation compared to our global contemporaries.

Since Labor came to power, Australians have been paying more and more—and far more than people in comparable economies. Our core inflation is higher than the US, the UK, Canada, Japan, the EU, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and New Zealand. We are now in six consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth per capita, the longest per capita recession in 50 years. Think about that. Living standards have fallen by 8.7 per cent, productivity has fallen by 6.3 per cent, household savings are down 10.2 percentage points and personal income taxes are 25.3 per cent higher.

That's not to mention what has happened to the mortgage repayments and rents of the everyday Australian. Gas is up 33 per cent, and electricity is up 14 per cent. That is even after the rebate has been added. Rents are up 16 per cent, health is up 11 per cent, education is also up 11 per cent, food is up 12 per cent and finance and insurance are up 17 per cent. A family with a mortgage of $750,000 is around $35,000 a year worse off. I'll probably hear you say, 'Yes, we've heard you say that a lot.' We say it a lot because it's really important. The average family with a mortgage of $750,000 in this country—just on that basis—is $35,000 a year worse off. That is extraordinary. We should be talking about that a lot more and we should understand the pain that the everyday Australian is feeling every single day as they struggle and juggle to pay their bills. It is unacceptable that Australians are in a full-blown cost-of-living crisis.

I have been calling, along with so many of my colleagues, for this government to address the root causes of this inflation; however, the spending continues. The Future Made in Australia Bill does nothing to alleviate these pressures on struggling families and small businesses. In fact, this big-spending agenda and this big-spending bill are likely to make inflation worse. Just like households and small businesses, governments need to manage their budgets and live within their means, but the Albanese Labor government have shown just how truly out of depth and out of touch they are. This is not just a cost-of-living crisis; it is also a cost-of-doing-business crisis and it is hitting small businesses the hardest. Small businesses across the country, particularly in my state of New South Wales, are employing fewer staff and not opening for as long. Their costs are going up. Their prices are going up. They are paying more for their loans and, sadly, they have fewer people coming through the door to buy their goods and services, so they are shuttering their doors. They are closing down. Small businesses in this country are in crisis. They are closing down because they cannot afford to continue to operate. That is happening under the watch of this government.

What does this bill do for small business? Does it do anything? No, it doesn't. In fact, it will make the problems that small businesses are facing even worse. One could call it another shot in the war against small business. That is unacceptable. Small businesses are the heavy lifters of our economy. They are the accountants, hairdressers, dentists, doctors, pharmacists, tradies, plumbers and electricians. They are people that hold our country together, yet for some reason this government continues to introduce policy mechanisms that make it harder for small businesses to survive in this country.

This legislation puts the Treasurer and his department in the position to decide whether a sector of the Australian economy deserves investment. The Treasurer has never run a business, and he described his private career as 'six long, long months'. He will now be setting the conditions for businesses to operate and seek funding under his plan. 'Six long, long months'—think about that. Every small business operator in this country that struggles to pay their bills, pay their staff and keep costs down should have a think about that and the attitude of this government to what they're going through.

The Treasurer's department will consider the investment against a very narrow set of criteria, and it has provided evidence to Senate estimates that key investments for Australia's energy future and sovereign capability, be they carbon capture and storage, gas, blue hydrogen, uranium or nuclear, will not be eligible and have not been considered as a part of this framework. The analysis to green-light these investments will be guided by a Treasurer who has never worked in business and a department of bureaucrats who, under this government, have shown that they have failed to understand Australian business, particularly Australian small businesses.

Meanwhile, the so-called community benefit principles will entrench union involvement in the workplace and replicate many of the same social procurement policies that have enabled the CFMEU's corrupt conduct to flourish at the state level. We don't need more of that; we need less of that. That is not the way to build a healthy and productive economy where everybody gets a fair go. The Business Council have warned that these procurement rules are at risk of enabling this behaviour, while risking subsiding businesses Australia would never have a comparative advantage in. The BCA rightly points out that it is important because there are taxpayer dollars at stake. We have to remember there is no government money; it's all taxpayer money. All the money that is spent in this place is taxpayer money. The BCA have been clear that this is not the best path ahead.

The coalition are not the only ones raising these serious concerns, along with the BCA. Danielle Wood, the Chair of the Productivity Commission—the government's key economic adviser, appointed by Jim Chalmers—has said:

If we are supporting industries that don't have a long-term competitive advantage, that can be an ongoing cost. It diverts resources, that's workers and capital, away from other parts of the economy where they might generate high value uses.

We risk creating a class of businesses that is reliant on government subsidies, and that can be very effective in coming back for more.

When asked whether Future Made in Australia contained tax reform, Ms Wood explicitly said, 'No, it is not a tax reform.'

There are a lot of issues here. In another example, an eminent economist, Professor Richard Holden, said:

The PM says all the wrong things … And his main argument for subsidies is that other countries are doing it.

He said it's like a primary school teacher being told, 'Someone else started it,' or, 'Somebody else has done it, so we should do it too.'

Steven Hamilton, an independent economist, has said:

There are many problems with industry policy, and this is a big one. It's why I tend to favour more neutral investment incentives like a lower corporate tax rate or accelerated depreciation.

So what is this telling us? It is telling us that across the board there are concerns with this, across the board there are red flags and industry groups and economists are saying, 'You're getting this wrong.'

Australians want and deserve something much better than this. The coalition in government will do three things. We will steer our nation out of this domestic crisis. We will not simply talk about our challenges; we will actually do something about them. More importantly, we will make decisions that will set up our nation for success in generations to come. This bill, the Future Made in Australia bill 2024, and its program are not the way to do that.