Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance and the Public Service (Senator Cormann) and the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Payne) to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

I really think Australians deserve better than this government. When the government becomes an absolute national laughing-stock, it's about time that it goes to an election and gives the people of Australia a choice—a choice between the current government and stability under a Labor government that is actually developing the policies that are important to Australians: policies on health, policies on education, policies on housing, policies on homelessness and policies that benefit working people in this country.

This is a laughing-stock of a government—a government that has gone through a number of so-called economic policies. It started off with an austerity budget that would have meant pensioners in this country would have been $80 a week worse off over a decade. It wanted young people in this country to have access to not one cent of government support for a period of six months. It cut family tax benefit A. It cut family tax benefit B. It just took a wrecking ball to the basis of decency in this country, and after five years it has now been relegated to an absolute laughing-stock.

We have a Prime Minister with no agenda on the environment, who backflips on what he says constantly and who the media are now describing as a fake. This is a government in absolute disarray. This is a government that is divided. It's self-obsessed. It's completely out of touch. Its own members concede that the government is falling apart. Now the latest defector from this rabble of a government, the member for Chisholm, Julia Banks, who was subject to bullying and intimidation by her colleagues in the Liberal Party, says that there were Liberals 'trading their vote for a leadership change in exchange for their individual promotion, preselection endorsements or silence'. What has it come to when the government of the country is simply being driven by ideologues on the other side who are only about their own individual promotion or preselection endorsement?

This is a government that just does not meet the definition of government, because its members can't govern themselves, and when you can't govern yourself you can't govern the country. When you become a laughing-stock, as this rabble of a government has become, confidence declines. We have had a situation where we have not been in a position to reduce electricity prices in this country, because that would require some certainty in terms of policy from the government. We see this mob going from one policy to another, and it's being driven by the extremists in the coalition. It's being driven by the climate change deniers. It's being driven by the ideologues who only think about themselves and don't think about what's right and proper for this country. They are too busy carving each other up and knifing each other in the back. We learnt our lesson on these issues, and I would have thought any sensible government would have learnt their lesson. For Prime Minister Morrison to compare himself with the newly re-elected Premier in Victoria is just a joke. He is not anywhere near the capacity and the position— (Time expired)

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

It's not often that one would agree with Senator Cameron, but, when he described himself and the Labor Party caucus as 'lobotomised zombies', he got it right. He got it absolutely right. And his speech this afternoon shows that he is a classic example of those lobotomised zombies to whom he referred.

The simple fact is that Senator Cameron of the Australian Labor Party will talk politics and play politics with their question time, as they did today. Was there a policy on health? No. Was there a question on education? No. Was there a question on employment? No. And so the list goes on. All it was, was about—

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Because you don't have any policies—that's why!

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

And here we have the lobotomised zombie continuing with interjections, in circumstances where we listened to his drivel in silence—

Senator Pratt interjecting—

The Labor Party are continuing to interject. They assert that somehow we are the bullies, yet their behaviour clearly displays how they behave—not only in this place but, of course, even more so, behind closed doors.

The simple fact is that every party, from time to time, has its difficulties. Today, for us, it was the Liberal member for Chisholm. But a member who rejoices in the surname of Husic might bring the Labor Party back to the ground. We all have these situations.

And do you know what? The Australian people aren't actually interested. What they are interested in is: who has created employment and opportunity?

So, when Senator Cameron talks about the Liberals putting a wrecking ball through decency, is he talking about the 1.1 million Australians who have been taken off the scrap heap of unemployment and placed into the opportunities that are provided by employment? The Labor Party are silent. They cannot believe that, on that which we promised in 2013, which they laughed at, which they scorned, which they ridiculed—that we would create, within the first five years, one million jobs—we came in earlier than the five years with those one million jobs. Why? Because we created the economic certainty—something that the Australian Labor Party could never do.

In my own home state, 8.1 per cent was the unemployment rate when Mr Shorten was finally dismissed as the minister for so-called employment and workplace relations, in the then Rudd government, by the people of Australia—8.1 per cent. Today, it is well below six per cent, if I've got it correct, at 5.6 per cent. That is a transformation for thousands of my fellow Tasmanians who today have a job.

Today, we have fewer people dependent on welfare than we've had for, I think, about 25 years. That is transformational. That is what true decency in a society is all about. It's not all the hyperbole and socialist rhetoric; it is the delivering of jobs—the providing of certainty and capacity to individuals to run their own lives. That is what we concentrate on whilst the Australian Labor Party play their games.

What other things have we done? We've not only created these job opportunities; we've also ensured, for example, that, on the migration front, we have rejected the UN compact on migration. Where does Labor stand on that?

We have rejected paying $400 million to the International Climate Fund. Where does Labor stand on that—more indebtedness to an International Climate Fund? And where would we be borrowing the money from? Undoubtedly, from China. Who wants to reach into this International Climate Fund? China. So we'd borrow money from China to pay into the climate fund, so that they can get it, so we can then repay China, with interest. This is the ALP economic model. And so the list goes on.

That is why, whilst there may have been some untidiness on the government's side—as there has been on the opposition's side—what I would say to my fellow Australians is: don't judge the Labor Party on their rhetoric; judge them on their record. Judge us on our record, and the 1.1 million jobs speak for themselves.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was thinking that the remarks of Kelly O'Dwyer, the Minister for Jobs and Industrial Relations, may have been a little unfair when she said in the Liberals' crisis meeting last night that the Liberals are now viewed as homophobic, anti women, and climate change deniers, but then Senator Abetz got up and made a contribution, and I realised she had absolutely nailed it, because I think we all know the kinds of people in her own party that she's actually talking about.

What a day in the Liberal Party and what a day in Canberra. As I was coming down to Canberra on Sunday for this sitting week, I thought to myself, 'Well, I know for sure that the government is going to have some kind of debacle over the course of the next week.' I just wasn't sure what it would be. I didn't have to wait long. I only had to wait a couple of days to see what the debacle of this sitting week would be. Then again, I suppose the week is still early. We might see more. Just in one day, what we've seen from the government is the former foreign minister, Julie Bishop, out in the media saying that the government should agree to a national energy guarantee and should reach an agreement with the Labor Party on energy policy, in exactly the way that we have attempted to reach an agreement with this government for the last two or three years. So Julie Bishop has heard the message out of the Victorian election and knows that people want to see some action on climate change from her government. We also read this morning that, under the former Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull, the government was about to introduce a national integrity commission. Of course, he was then deposed and the idea of an integrity commission was deposed with him. That was all before we got to morning tea, and then we didn't have long to wait before we saw the spectacular resignation of the member for Chisholm, Julia Banks.

Julia Banks absolutely crucified her party with the things that she had to say about them. She pointed to the fact that they have completely lost touch with what the people of Australia want to see from their government and have become completely obsessed with themselves. She also very much pointed the finger at the 'reactionary and regressive right wing' of her party—those are her words—who talk to themselves rather than listen to the people of Australia. So, whether it be Julie Bishop on the one hand, whether it be nobbling a national integrity commission on the other or whether it be the resignation of the member for Chisholm, Julia Banks, this government is in even more disarray than it was this time yesterday. And that really is saying something.

Haven't coalition senators had a good day responding to all of these incidents? First we saw one of them quoted by the Herald Sun as saying—excuse my language—'the effing place is falling apart'. I think that's a pretty accurate summary of the way this government is operating. Then during question time I noticed on Twitter that one coalition senator texted Alice Workman from BuzzFeed, telling her, 'I hope you're enjoying the dying days of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government.' I don't say this to gloat, because I think all Australians are absolutely dismayed by what they see from their government day in, day out here in Canberra. The truth is that this is a government that has stopped governing. They have stopped listening to what the people of Australia want to see from their government, and all they can do is fight amongst themselves, text journalists, speak to journalists about how embarrassed they are by their own government, all the time ignoring what it is that Australians want to see from them. The losers from this government's disarray are Australians themselves, and, as a senator from Queensland, I'm particularly concerned about what's happening to Queenslanders under this government.

I know for a fact that what Queenslanders want from this government is secure jobs and wages that are increasing. Instead, they get more casualisation, more labour hire and wages that are barely growing—the lowest we've ever seen on record. What Queenslanders want to see from this government is well-funded schools and hospitals. Instead, what they get are more and more cuts to schools and hospitals. Queenslanders want to see more investment in their TAFEs, in their training organisations and in their universities to make sure both young people and older mature-age workers get the skills that they need to be able to compete for the jobs in the future. What do they get from this government? Again, they get cuts to TAFE, cuts to training and cuts to universities. What Queenslanders want to see is a fair taxation system where millionaires and big business do pay their fair share. But what they get from this government is attempts to reduce the tax burden on the top end of town. This government is so divided and so distracted that it has completely lost touch with what Queenslanders and Australians want to see. The sooner we get to an election, the better.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There can be no denying that, when there are state and federal elections, the results of those state and federal elections cause political parties, members of parliament, candidates and party organisations to take a very, very hard look at themselves. There's no doubt that the Victorian state election results for the coalition over the weekend have given us a very fresh opportunity to revisit the way that we are approaching our issues and to revisit the way we're engaging with the Australian community, but that happens to all parties and it happens over time. So my caution to Labor senators on the other side is: don't get too cocky, because you will fall over yourself. There are some important lessons for the Liberal Party in the Victorian state election result, but, in the first instance, I will trust the attitudes and opinions and perceptions of Victorian Liberals before a Western Australian senator like myself will comment on what's happened in Victoria. But it is a unique opportunity for the Liberal Party to take a hard look at itself before we go into the next federal election.

Yesterday, Senator Cormann gave the Labor opposition in the Senate a wonderful opportunity to come back into the Australian Senate today and ask questions about the economic performance of the government. Yesterday, Senator Cormann shared with the Senate what the OECD and the IMF had been saying about the performance of the Australian economy. Why is that important? Because that is the single most important issue that is confronting Australian families. What do their future employment opportunities look like, what do their future growth opportunities look like and how are they going to raise their families and ensure that their children and grandchildren have employment opportunities into the future? But, no, Labor senators today couldn't risk the opportunity to talk politics, play politics and focus on issues that are so far away from the minds of ordinary Australian families and small-business owners; so far away from the minds of Australian families in my home state of Western Australia, in New South Wales and in the Northern Territory. These are the issues that are top of mind to Australian families and small businesses: what does the economic future of our country look like? It is as simple as that. That is not an alternative government on the other side of the Senate chamber. Those people want to play politics—petty-minded politics—when, in fact, when you leave Canberra, the issues that are important to Australian families beyond here are much bigger and more significant than that.

Why do they not want to talk about the Australian economy? Why would Labor senators not want to ask Senator Cormann and other economic ministers about the Australian economy? The answer to that is: Paul Keating. What Senator Cormann shared with the Australian Senate yesterday was what Paul Keating had to say about Bill Shorten. Let's be very, very clear about this: if there is a Labor government, it will not look like the Hawke and Keating governments; it will be a dangerous Labor government. I'll come to that in one moment. What did Paul Keating say about Bill Shorten and the Labor Party? He said that Labor has 'lost the ability to speak aspirationally to people and to fashion policies to meet those aspirations'. That's what Keating said. No-one knows the Australian Labor Party better in this country than Paul Keating, and he said that Labor has 'lost the ability to speak aspirationally to people and to fashion policies to meet those aspirations'. Why would Paul Keating say that? Paul Keating says that because he knows that Labor has no plan for growth. You have a plan for taxes—you have a plan for taxes on retirees, you have a plan for taxes on families and you have a plan for taxes on small businesses—but you have no plan for growth.

When Australian families and Australian small businesses come out of the summer holidays next year, they're going to be presented with a very stark choice, and on that point alone Senator Cameron was absolutely right. Australians will have a very stark and clear choice—a choice between employment growth and economic growth, delivered by a coalition government led by Scott Morrison, or a plan for taxes and no growth, which will impoverish Australian families and small businesses.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Smith. Your time has expired. I remind you in future to refer to those in the other place by their correct titles.

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Families and Communities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So said Winston Churchill, and he was paraphrasing a philosopher from the previous century. You might have thought that the Wentworth by-election would have presented an opportunity to learn something from history, because after the Wentworth by-election they all piled on—all of those conservatives, all of those people in the hard right—didn't they? Despite the fact that voters came to the polling booths wanting to talk about climate change, wanting to talk about the cuts to the ABC and the attacks on the ABC, wanting to talk about our international obligations and wanting to talk about a fair and decent Australia, the conservatives in the Liberal Party learnt nothing from that election. They went away and they determined that what they would do is double down. They would continue with the race baiting, the culture wars and the petty internecine feuds within the Liberal Party that are all about dragging that organisation over into a part of Australian politics that barely has a base, so extreme is it. That was their lesson. There was no teachable moment at the Wentworth by-election for this crowd. They just decided to double down.

They've had another opportunity presented to them in Victoria on the weekend. This same set of nasty, mean-spirited, small-minded attitudes was on display throughout the entirety of the Victorian campaign, and those attitudes were utterly repudiated by Victorians. There is some public reflection going on, and Senator Smith said he'd take the observations that come from his Victorian colleagues. Well, I point him to some of them. No less than our Senate President, Scott Ryan, said, 'Our voters sent us a message, and that is that some of the noise that comes out of this place and some of the noise that comes out of commentators about what it means to be Liberal—Liberal voters want us to focus on their issues.' He went on to say that the party was losing its electoral base, who didn't want conservative views rammed down their throats.

The former Liberal MP, Ms Banks, who's now an Independent member for Chisholm, explained that they'd been led by members of the reactionary right wing and that the coup was aided by many MPs trading their vote for a leadership change in exchange for promotion, preselection or silence. 'Their actions were undeniably for themselves,' she said. She's speaking about a hard core of people who want to use the institutions of the parliament and their party for their own advancement rather than for the interests of the Australian people.

But the thing that comes through most strongly in the public discussion by Liberals in Victoria is a focus on climate and energy. This is the signature failure of this government over the last five years. Ms O'Dwyer is reported to have told colleagues that the Liberals are now widely regarded as homophobic, anti-women climate-change deniers. The member for Goldstein, Mr Wilson, was even clearer, saying, 'If anybody thinks there is a great public sentiment out there that people hate renewables and they're hugging coal, I say: get real.'

The very sad thing for the Liberal Party, if they truly reflected on the history of the last five years, is that they've had plenty of opportunities. As the Labor Party, we wanted to establish a bipartisan energy policy that could deal with climate change. We offered bipartisanship. We offered it in relation to the energy intensity scheme proposed by Mr Frydenberg. We offered it in relation to the clean energy target, which was proposed by Dr Finkel, who spent a great deal of time examining the energy system. We certainly offered it in relation to the NEG, a policy that they put through their party room and then walked away from. And we offer it still, because what business will tell you—business will tell anyone who listens—is that all they need is certainty in relation to energy policy.

There is an investment strike on at the moment. We have ageing energy facilities operating past their use-by date, and they need to be replaced. But no private sector investor wants to act at the moment because this government, over five years, has been incapable of producing any clear energy policy. In that environment, investors have gone on strike. That is what has driven prices up. That is what all of the organisations paid to advise us tell us. And until they take the opportunity to collaborate, they will continue to fail on this front. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.