Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

I particularly want to take note of the answer to the question from my good friend, Senator Dean Smith, on the cost-of-living pressures that are facing all Australians.

The cost of living is a real issue because, contrary to the mistruths that those opposite spread, real wages are going backwards under this government. Real wages actually increased under the coalition government, but you wouldn't know that if you listened to what the Labor Party says. Real wages actually increased under the coalition government, but they increased in a way that was sustainable and within an environment of low inflation and low interest rates. Under this government, real wages are going backwards and, at the same time that real wages are plummeting, we're seeing the largest cost increases on Australian families and Australian households—certainly in living memory and possibly in Australia's history.

We've seen increases in interest rates in the last year of this Labor government, putting extraordinary pressure on household budgets through mortgage interest rate rises. Then we saw—and this really bells the cat—the government say in its budget that it was doing the right thing by inflation. But what did the Reserve Bank have to do at their first meeting after the budget was handed down? Clearly, they wanted to pause interest rate rises but they took a look—they sat down and took a long, hard and sober look at what the budget delivered for this country—and they said, 'No, we're going to have to raise interest rates again.'

The Reserve Bank is independent, and it should be. It's a very positive thing for the Australian economy, and it has delivered long-term economic growth and relatively low inflation rates to this country. But this is a point in time where the Reserve Bank has just increased interest rates at the fastest rate in Australia's history for a sustained 12-month period. And then it paused and had a look at this second Labor budget, and had a look at the economy. It had a look at the factors that are driving inflation within the economy. And what was its judgement after it paused and looked at this second Labor budget? It said, 'No, we're going to have to increase mortgage interest rates again.'

That is a judgement on this Labor budget. It's a judgement on a budget that did put upward pressure on inflation and therefore upward pressure on interest rates. It's a budget that increased spending and therefore increased pressure on inflation and the economy. This is undeniable. Every senior economist in this country—bar two or three who work, quite frankly, for left-wing think tanks—said that this budget was adding to inflationary pressures and made it harder for the Reserve Bank to pause. And the Reserve Bank didn't pause; their sole obligation is to look at the structure of our economy and to look at the data and the information coming into their systems, and they have to make a judgement call. They look at all the information they can possibly get.

Back in my past working life, when I worked for the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of Western Australia, I'd regularly get a call from the Reserve Bank operative in Western Australia to discuss cost-of-living pressures—in that case on the agricultural community: the cost to business and the cost of inputs. We would go through the costs and have our input into the Reserve Bank's thinking process. One of those inputs was what the government was doing with its own spending and what it was doing with its economic policy. To do as the finance minister did today and effectively throw their hands up in the air and say that say that interest rates are just for the Reserve Bank and have nothing to do with the government is just a nonsense, because it's the government's budget that will determine how the Reserve Bank views the future economic settings in this country and determines what it needs to do. And so the Reserve Bank, sitting down in a sober manner, looking at the information flowing into its system, said, 'No, we can't pause any longer. We have to raise interest rates.' That's this government's fault.

Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Isn't it interesting. Here we are talking about the economy and talking about the budget, and yet we're not talking—not those opposite—about the fact that we should be celebrating today that we can show the lowest unemployment rate of 3.6 per cent, demonstrating that unemployment decreased by 1.1 per cent. That is a significant change and improvement in the outlook for the economy and for the budget, and for the impacts on inflation and the economy across this country. That's more than 460,000 jobs created, and yet we hear nothing about that when those opposite start talking about the economy, when what the economy is about is the impact on hardworking Australians.

As those opposite do raise, and quite rightly raise, there is deep concern about where interest rates are. They're independent decisions made by the Reserve Bank. We know that. They know that. I heard them say it often enough, sitting on this side. The economic commentators know it, and they know why the Reserve Bank rightly has its independent decision-making process. As frustrating as that is for many of us across the economy, the fact is that there is also good news today. It's something that as a country we should be celebrating—celebrating the fact that we have not only great outcomes on employment but also significant outcomes on wages. The best quarter for wage increases in 10 years under those opposite has been our worst quarter, when we've been in for only 12 months. They get the worst, the worst outcome for wages, where middle-class jobs collapse, and yet we turn around and we see the improvements that have been happening within our economy as a result of aspects and implementation of quality policy and decision-making within this budget—quite clearly, when you start looking at some of the significant figures for the impacts on the economy and inflation.

The significant impacts are also about what's happening in the economy. The number of women in full-time employment has grown by 229,000 in the past year, making up 49 per cent of total employment growth in Australia. Now, that says something about the economy. That's something that we should be celebrating. But those opposite don't care because that has never been an objective of theirs. They've never really thought about the fact that we should be bringing fair, decent, equitable wages into our economy. And, of course, women's full-time employment has grown in 11 of the last 12 months. That's how we've got the significant figure and the significant improvement. Those aspects of the economy, those figures, do need to be celebrated.

The government came to office to remove barriers that were holding women back from participation in the workforce. In the budget and through this economy, we have made significant steps to make sure that happens. We've seen the figures that prove that our objectives, our strategy and our approach are delivering the goods for so many Australians. We've delivered stronger gender pay equity. That helped with making sure that women had the right to pay equity, with better results for them. We also turned around pay transparency laws to help close the gender pay gap—critically important. These are things those opposite voted against. We're talking about impacts on the economy. Things that have actually improved in the economy, things that the government has control over, those opposite voted against. They vote against these sorts of important initiatives that mean that women have a better, more decent outcome within the Australian economy.

When you start looking at, also, the grand improvements and great improvements in the youth participation rate in the economy, it has never been higher. The significant involvement of our kids, our partners and women in the economy—the situation has never been better in regard to those indicators. Those are indicators the government does have influence, significant influence, and control over. The policies that we've been delivering have made that difference. We saw that when we committed within the budget the 15 per cent pay increase for aged-care workers and a better bargaining system to allow for secure jobs and better pay. And, for Medicare, important steps were made. These are to help deal with the effects of the decisions of the RBA and forces outside this country—the issues that have come upon us because of the Ukraine War. When you've got control over things, you make a difference. The differences are they never vote for the difference that makes it better.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll just rebut a few of those comments from Senator Sheldon. One of the reasons why there are so many jobs is that people have to work two or three jobs at the moment to keep up with the cost of living. I should also point out that, when you look at wage growth, you've got to look at net wage growth, not the gross wage growth figure. The fact of the matter is that wage growth is not keeping up with inflation, and I will contrast that with the Morrison era when wage growth exceeded inflation.

But I want to talk about the events of this week in terms of what has been disclosed in this chamber. There have been a lot of misleading statements, but I want to reflect on an answer that was given on 15 February 2021 by my Senate colleague Senator Reynolds when she was asked about what happened with the Higgins affair. She said:

Women should be safe and they should feel safe in the workplace at all times. My only priority throughout this matter was the welfare of my then staff member and ensuring that she received the support that she needed. That included ensuring that she was clear about the support available to her, and her right to make a formal complaint to the Australian Federal Police should she choose to do so. At all times, my then chief of staff and I ensured that we sought advice from and we followed advice from ministerial and parliamentary services regarding the support available. I was at pains to ensure that my staff member felt empowered to determine how she wanted to handle the matter, and that remains the case.

All I can say is, had that answer been taken—I'm replying here to Minister Gallagher's comments earlier today about protecting the women—at face value way back on 15 February 2021, a lot of pain and misery could have been avoided. Instead, what we had was a relentless attack on Senator Reynolds for the next 10 days, eight days of which were estimates. I felt she was bullied. If anyone should be proud of how she's conducted herself, it is Senator Reynolds. I stand here in support of her today. I actually apologised to her, because I felt many times throughout that two weeks I should have stood up and called a point of order. I didn't. Take a bow, Senator Reynolds, because I think, if anyone tried to protect people in all of that, it was actually you.

We should never have had a trial by media or a trial by chamber. The whole thing is a tawdry affair that should never have been allowed to happen, and I hope that everyone can move on from this and look at treating each other with respect, especially here in this chamber.

The other thing I think is worth pointing out with regard to the payout is that I was contacted yesterday by someone who works with alleged sexual victim cases in the Defence Force. Since 1 December 2016 there have been 4,407 reports of abuse in the Defence Force. The ombudsman can take up to 18 months to even consider whether or not to refer a case to the Defence Force, and it can take another 18 months, if not longer, for that issue to be resolved. If Ms Higgins can be paid out in a very short period of time, the question that needs to be asked is: why can't these other payments be paid out in a very short period of time as well?

The other thing I just want to touch on is Senator Pratt's comments about superannuation helping women. That's actually not true at all. The average superannuation balance for women is about 60 per cent of the average superannuation balance for men, and that's because, for obvious reasons, women don't work in the workforce as long as men, in many cases, because they take time off to have children. That is why I've always felt that a fairly indexed pension is a much more equitable way of looking after women in retirement, rather than superannuation, which is geared towards helping the wealthy. We know there's $50 billion in tax concessions for superannuation, the bulk of which goes to the wealthiest 25 per cent. They're the people who don't need the pension; they're the people who already aren't on the pension. Superannuation does nothing for equality for women. If anything, I think it makes inequality worse. I will finish my remarks at that.

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of questions and answers, particularly the questions asked by Senator Dean Smith and answers given by Minister Gallagher. Our government's top priority when it comes to our economic plan is fighting inflation and reducing inflation, and our budget is doing exactly that. Our budget, which I note those on the opposition benches have had very little to say about in recent weeks, has been absolutely responsible when it comes to the inflation challenge. We are focusing on restraint, as we should be in the current environment, and we're also focused on relief for people who we know are doing it tough because of the cost-of-living challenges people are facing today. That's why our budget returned over 90 per cent of enhanced revenues to the budget bottom line. It's why we did the hard yards in the budget, finding over $20 billion in savings. It's why we've exercised restraint in our new program spending and limited that over the forward estimates to $10 billion.

We have been absolutely responsible, in our economic planning, in targeting our spending to those who need relief the most. That is absolutely what we should be doing in this inflationary environment. We have targeted it to those on JobSeeker, to those on single parenting payments, to those who need rent assistance, to those who will benefit from cheaper medicines and to those who will benefit from our tripling of the bulk-billing incentive. This is all part of our commitment to a strong and resilient economy.

We are dealing with the inflation challenge. We are dealing with it head on, and we are rebuilding a strong economy after a decade of neglect by those opposite—in particular, after a decade of neglect from those opposite on recognising the important role of women in the economy. One of the distinctive features of our government's agenda and our economic plan is that we have absolutely put women at the heart of it. We see women as critical economic actors in our country and in our country's future. Whether it's funding a pay rise for our lowest-paid female dominated industries, like aged care, or passing legislation to address the gender pay gap, as Minister Gallagher has led the way on and spoken about today, or expanding paid parental leave, investing in quality early childhood education and care, implementing the recommendations of the Respect@Work report, legislating a better bargaining system to allow secure jobs and better pay, establishing 10 days paid domestic and family violence leave—all these changes are absolutely critical in opening up participation for women in the workforce.

I was incredibly proud to see recent data that showed that women's workforce participation is at an all-time high of 62.7 per cent. Over 200,000 women have entered the workforce since we were elected, and women make up two-thirds of full-time jobs created in the past 12 months. These statistics are no coincidence; they are a result of our work removing the barriers that hold back women's participation in the workforce.

Jobs have grown to an all-time high since we took government. The number of jobs that have been created in just our first year of government is 465,000. That is a record for any government and is in fact six times how many jobs were created in the first year of the coalition government. Wages are moving at a faster rate than they have in more than a decade; and yesterday new data was released that showed almost 76,000 jobs were created in May. More Australians are in work than ever before. When we came to government, unemployment was at 3.9 per cent. It has dropped to 3.6 per cent and has remained at record lows over the past year. We're investing in jobs; we're investing in women in the economy and that is paying dividends.

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will take up the challenge from those opposite and I will talk about the budget, and I will pick up where my colleague just left off. Despite all of the rhetoric that you hear from Labor about the coalition's time in government, if the economy was so bad then there's no way the figures that we're seeing now would be occurring. The reality is that after the pandemic, through the investments made to support the Australian economy but particularly, as has been indicated earlier, the Australian people, the economy was in a very strong position, and fortunately it has continued to be in a strong position.

But contrary to what the Labor Party are saying now and how Mr Albanese promised at the election, 'Life will be cheaper under me'—it's not. They talk about wages increasing at a higher rate. That's true, but they're not increasing in real terms. They're going backwards. And that's what the Australian people thought they were going to get, higher wages, when the now government was in opposition, seeking election.

Australians were promised higher real wages. That is what they were promised but they've got lower real wages. They were promised a lower cost of living; they've got a higher cost of living. They were promised lower interest rates; they've got higher interest rates. They were promised lower power prices; they've got higher power prices. And they're very quickly coming to the realisation that they cannot believe what this government is saying to them. The government can't keep its promises—it hasn't kept its promises—and that is very apparent after just one year of this government.

None of the things the government promised Australians have come to pass. And despite their rhetoric about the coalition's time in government, the strength of the economy and the strength of the post-COVID recovery is a direct result of the support that the coalition provided to Australian businesses and to Australian workers through the pandemic so that they could stay attached to their job, they could keep their job, and that the businesses would survive. I don't know how many businesses I've been into where the proprietor has said to me, 'Our business would not have survived if it hadn't been for the support that your government gave to us through the pandemic.' I'm very proud of our record. I'm proud of the work we did to support the Australian people and the Australian economy through the pandemic. It was bloody hard work, but it has paid off. And you're seeing it in the strength of the economic indicators now.

But what this government isn't doing through its budget is helping by reducing inflation. I was there two weeks ago when the Reserve Bank governor appeared before Senate estimates. He said quite clearly: 'This budget doesn't shift the dial. It doesn't make any difference, in the context of our terms, with what we're doing with interest rates.' If you're not helping, you're hindering.

There is one element of the Labor Party's budget which is assisting with the inflation rate, and that's the support that is going into energy costs. I'm happy to put that on the record. The Labor Party often quote that. I suppose that's fair enough. What they don't quote is the next sentence that the Reserve Bank governor put on the record, which is, 'When those supports end, they're inflationary.' So in 12 months time, the removal of supports for energy costs will become inflationary at the time we'll be looking to see reductions in interest rates through the other efforts of the Reserve Bank. The Reserve Bank is being left to do all the heavy lifting because the government is doing none in its budget. The Reserve Bank is being left to do all the heavy lifting. At the same time the government has the unions out there beating up on the Reserve Bank governor, because it isn't prepared to do the work it should be doing in helping to reduce inflation. It's not just one person's job. It's not just the Reserve Bank governor's job to work on reducing inflation. The government needs to be playing its role too. The Reserve Bank governor said that the government's budget is not shifting the dial—it's not helping; it's hindering—because they're not doing their own job.

Question agreed to.

Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson-Young, the order of business construction prevents me from continuing with the take-note debate. However, by leave you could move a motion and make a statement.