Paul Scarr (Queensland, 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 by opposition senators today.

I will traverse a number of answers that were provided during question time, and I'm very mindful of the fact that my very good friend Senator Brockman is going to be making a contribution to this debate. I did appreciate the questions he asked with respect to the live export industry in his good state of Western Australia.

There's one point I want to allude to in relation to the response of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to the question from my good friend. The minister for agriculture said, 'It was a Labor Party election policy to abolish the live export trade.' But who voted for that policy at the last election? The communities most directly impacted by that decision did not vote for that policy change. The communities who are going to suffer the economic disadvantage arising from that decision did not vote for that policy change. It's their jobs, their small businesses, their communities and their farmers who are going to be impacted by that policy change, and they did not vote for the Australian Labor Party. Once again we're seeing the government apply policy outcomes to communities who did not vote in favour of those policy outcomes—on the contrary, they voted for this side of politics, who represented something else. That should be noted in relation to the minister for agriculture's response.

Senator Gallagher responded to a few questions from my good friend Senator Hume in relation to the figures that were released by the ABS today on gross domestic product and related matters. It was staggering that the finance minister of this country was unable to answer a question about the national figures released today in relation to productivity. The finance minister was asked a direct question on what the national figures released today said about productivity and was unable to answer it. For those in the gallery, and for those listening at home, there are only about 10 of those national figures, so it shouldn't take long to get your head around them. But the finance minister was unable to provide a direct answer to the question of what the productivity figure was in the national accounts released today, so I'll tell you.

Productivity went backwards. That's a major issue in terms of this country and this nation. Productivity has gone backwards: minus 3.6 per cent for the year and minus two per cent for the last quarter. Australians are producing less, in terms of goods and services, for the same cost. We're going backwards. That has a direct correlation with our standard of living, and you can see that in another figure from the national accounts that was released today: real net national disposable income. Treasury—not Senator Scarr, Treasury—says that this is the best figure to determine what is happening for the average Australian working family out there in the community. Real net national disposable income is how much income the average family has, to buy goods and services or to save. What's happened to that figure under the Albanese Labor government? Again, it's gone backwards: minus 1.4 per cent for the quarter. From an economic perspective, Australians are going backwards under this Labor government.

Senator Gallagher also referred to the fact that this side of the chamber is opposing Labor's extreme, draconian industrial relations agenda. Yes, we are, but it's not just people sitting on this side of the chamber. Let me quote the chair of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, Matthew Addison. This is what small businesses—the biggest employer in our country—say about Labor's IR agenda:

Small businesses reject the proposed legislation.

They say:

The cost to implement any changes, the cost of advice, the loss of productivity and workforce flexibility are challenged by these changes.

They also make the point:

Small businesses will need to spend time and invest money in obtaining advice to ensure they are not captured if these changes were to become law. This comes at a time when 43% of small businesses in Australia are not profitable.

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

The national accounts did come out today. They certainly do show that there's uncertainty in the global economy today, but they show that our economy is steady. We do have an ongoing inflation challenge around the world, and we all know that. We have ongoing supply chain challenges around the world too, and we know that Australia is not immune from those challenges. That's why it is so important that the Albanese Labor government became the government last year. It's why it's so important that, since May last year, we've had our shoulder to the wheel to build a strong economy that Australians can rely on. That's why, when it comes to our economy and when it comes to the standard of living for Australians, it's so important that Australia has now ended the completely wasted decade of the coalition government. For a decade, the former government was absolutely missing in action for all of the fundamentals that matter to our economy and to our people. They were completely missing in action for a decade.

We all remember the former government choosing to push Australian manufacturing off a cliff instead of investing in it. We all remember the former government pretending that they had an energy policy 22 times while doing absolutely nothing empowering our nations with cheap, clean energy. Of course, it's Australian families and businesses who are paying the price for that today. We all remember the way in which the coalition government treated Australian workers. I remember the Prime Minister saying that if you think you're not earning enough in your job to then just go and get another one. The problem was, of course, that the coalition government chose low wages as a deliberate design feature of their economy, with the slowest wage growth on record under those opposite.

But they come in here and lecture us about the economy and they lecture us about economic management. The former government chose to ignore women as economic actors in our society and in our country. We would struggle to find a single policy that advanced women's economic security from those opposite. What we can remember from those opposite is that when women stood up and protested for their rights, their Prime Minister told them they were lucky not to be met with bullets! We choose a different path.

We're getting on with doing exactly what we said we would do. We're dealing with the fundamental problems and challenges that Australians face. We're bringing people together to find the opportunities of the future. We came into office just over a year ago and, yes, we came in and found challenges—challenges of global economic uncertainty, of broken supply chains and of inflation already on the rise. What we also came in and found was a zero long-term agenda from those opposite to set Australia up for the future. A zero long-term agenda. Our job is to get on with meeting the challenges of this particular moment in time. Our job is to get on with seizing the opportunities in front of us in the decade ahead, and that is absolutely what we are doing.

There was discussion in the debate today about our closing the loopholes legislation. I, for one, am very proud of that legislation, which was introduced into the House this week. That's because we were elected on a promise to get wages moving and that's exactly what we're doing. Wages are now moving faster than they had been over the last decade. But to maintain that we have to close the loopholes that are undermining people's wages and working conditions. That's all this bill is about: making wage theft a crime. How can anyone argue with that? It introduces minimum standards for gig workers, closes the forced permanent casual worker loophole and closes labour hire loopholes. That's because we believe that everyone deserves a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.

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

I too rise to take note, and I will focus mainly on the answer to my question to Minister Watt. Before I do, I'm going—as I usually have to in this place—to correct the propaganda and misinformation from those opposite with the truth about wages under the previous Liberal government. Real wages went up; until the COVID pandemic struck, real wages actually went up under the coalition government. And real wages are plummeting under this Labor government. They're plummeting in the face of a high inflation rate. That is the truth and the Australian people should know it, regardless of what those opposite say time and time again. It's misinformation and it's propaganda.

My question was about my home state of Western Australia, particularly about the agriculture industry—which I hold very dear—and the sheep industry, which I have been a part of through our family farm. I mentioned a number of communities in Western Australia. I talked about Wagin in Cranbook. I talked about Kojonup, Katanning, Beverley. I talked about Williams and Darkan and there are so many more that I could name. Towns, families, farming families, family owned businesses that are having their future threatened directly by this Labor government.

I asked about the flights from Western Australia because this minister, this government, have said, 'Oh, well, but the industry can transition to chilled and box meat.' Not if the flights aren't there. This chilled and boxed meat has to go out in the belly of an aircraft. If the flights aren't there to the Middle East, it can't happen. It's not a realistic transition pathway for the industry. In fact, if you know anything about this industry, which clearly this minister doesn't, you would know that the nature of the industry, the time you turn off stock in Western Australia is very different to any other state, which is why the live export market by ship is so important to the industry in Western Australia and so important to those regional communities I have talked about today.

Minister Watt talked about how they took it to an election—well, to two elections. They did, but let's just go through that. The first election they lost, so they can't justify anything on the basis of the first election. The second election, they kept this policy extraordinarily quiet. The local regional newspaper in my home state of Western Australia asked every Western Australian MP and senator from my home state of Western Australia what their position was on the phase-out. Silence. They didn't get one answer in response. They were ordered from headquarters not to respond. In fact, the now minister—the shadow minister at the time—kept silent on the issue. I can show you the headlines. The media were writing articles saying, 'Is Labor still opposed to the live export trade?' We don't know. Minister, tell us.

The only reason it came out during the last election campaign was because at Labor campaign headquarters a junior staffer got a survey from an animal rights group which had a check-the-box: Do you support the ban on live export of sheep? That box was checked and that's how the policy actually came into the public domain. Until then, radio silence from the Labor Party. You've got no mandate for this policy. You have no mandate to take the livelihoods of Western Australian sheep producers, Western Australian truckies, Western Australian vets, Western Australian stockies. You don't have any right to take their livelihoods away from them. The minister for agriculture stood up in this place and tried to defend the indefensible, tried to defend a policy which so directly attacks the heart of the sheep industry. Not that long ago Australia rode on the back of the sheep industry. If we had not had a sheep industry in the sixties and seventies, there would have been no Australian economy. So to have a Labor government attacking that industry in this way is a disgrace.

Linda White (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Labor Party went to the last two elections committing to phase out live sheep exports via sea. I have heard a bit of discussion today in take note that Western Australians didn't know about it, that Western Australians didn't vote for it. In fact ,we had a record number of seats won by the Labor Party with this policy and we won a third unprecedented Senate seat. This policy was out there in front. So there were four extra seats in Western Australia and a 10.5 per cent swing. As a numbers person myself, I look at the numbers; I look at the facts. The reality is that we went to two elections with this as a policy—it was certainly there before, people—and in Western Australia, in unprecedented numbers, they voted for the Labor Party. I know it's a bitter pill to swallow. As I recall, a teal won a blue-ribbon Liberal seat as well, so it was five seats that were lost. The Labor Party went to the election committing to phase out live sheep exports, and people voted for it.

Here's the thing: the government is focused on implementing this commitment to the Australian people in a considered, orderly way. Why? Because industry change is extraordinarily difficult. Having lived through and represented workers during industry change, I understand that totally and completely. It is incredibly important, when industry change is to be implemented, that you take a cautious and proper approach to how it will be implemented. So what is the Labor government doing? We have a four-person independent panel that has been employed to consult with farmers, communities and supply chain participants on when and how to implement this policy. This panel is going to provide its report by 30 September. We don't want to rush this. That's why the phase-out of live sheep exports by sea will not occur during this term of parliament. The Albanese government supports strong animal welfare standards and believes all animals should be treated humanely. We want to partner with industry to shape a strong and sustainable future for the Australian sheep wool and sheepmeat industries.

But let's look at what the sheepmeat industry is. Live sheep exports now contribute 0.7 per cent of agricultural exports from Western Australia and just 0.1 per cent of all agricultural exports from Australia. In Western Australia the current trade in live sheep has reduced to around 13 per cent of the exports at its peak in 2001-02 and 30 per cent of exports prior to the introduction of increased regulation in 2017-18. Live sheep exports as a proportion of Western Australian sheep turn-off—that is, live sheep versus sheep for slaughter—decreased from 49 per cent in 2001-02 to 12 per cent in 2021-22. Those are the facts. The live sheep industry has been decreasing progressively since 2001. In 2021-22 approximately 489,000 live sheep, worth more than $85 million, were exported from Australia, with the majority exported to Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Oman. Live sheep exports have declined annually from more than 1.9 million in 2017-18 to around 489,000 in 2021-22. ABARES predicts numbers will increase slightly in 2022-23, but not markedly.

It's really important to look at the facts and also to focus on what Labor are doing about this. We are taking a measured approach. The minister is meeting with farming industry and animal welfare groups regularly, as he said yesterday. Last time, he met with Western Australian farmers. We understand that industry change is difficult. It is significant, and that is why there's this measured approach—to make sure that we consider all options and how to implement this policy that we went to the election with.

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

I'm going to give the call to Senator Duniam. Set the clock for three minutes. Then I intend to put the question. I will then give the call to One Nation for two minutes, and then I'll come to the Greens.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are in a caring and sharing parliament, Mr Deputy President. I'm pleased to be a part of that and I'm pleased to be able to take note of the so-called answers provided by ministers today in response to questions from the coalition.

I want to focus on economics. Senator Hume, the shadow finance minister, asked questions today of the Minister for Finance, representing the Treasurer, about the impact of Labor's policies on the economy.

There was absolute disregard from the government for what their policies are doing to our economy—that is, the economy in which Australians work and live, the one in which they are expected to pay bills and make ends meet and keep the lights on. There was no regard whatsoever from the minister who answered these questions—or tried to answer these questions, because frankly they do not care. That is apparent in the policies that are being brought forward by this government, including on industrial relations, and we see that typhoon of terrible policy coming towards us, barrelling towards this nation, because this government has gotten drunk on power in such a short period of time.

They don't understand what impact these policies are going to have on the economy and the capacity for Australian households and businesses to do what they need to do in this great country to which people come from overseas. Immigrants strive to get here to be able to take advantage of opportunities that are afforded to everyone in this country, but the longer this crew are in government, in partnership with the Australian Greens, the more policies like their industrial relations laws are going to strangle this country's ability for people to take advantage of these opportunities.

The national accounts today bear that out, but if you had listened to the minister's answer, you'd think it's all happening around us, there is nothing we can do—

Opposition Senator:

An opposition senator interjecting—

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, easy peasy: 'We can walk and chew gum. We'll fix that and we'll do this.' They're doing a lot of things, as we know, strangling the economy and making these things far worse than they ever had to be. We must remember that these are things that weren't talked about at the last election. We are going far further on industrial relations policy than the Australian people were ever promised. We knew it was coming, though, because every time they sit on that side of this chamber or the other place we know exactly what they will get up to, and that is to pay their pieces of silver to their union paymasters to give unfettered access to workplaces to make sure that they can control what is happening in this country and deny people opportunities, because that apparently is a bad thing. It is Labor policies that are driving the economy south. It is Labor policies that are causing the results we are seeing in the national accounts. This government should start to take responsibility and develop policies and plans to address these issues, rather than focus on the past. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.