Ross Cadell (NSW, National 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.

What we saw today is just more cover-up. We got to the CFMEU at the end, but let's get to it here. This is not punishment of the perpetrator; this is silencing a witness. This is what these actions are. This is Minister Watt sitting there saying: 'You've been very, very naughty. Please don't dob on us. Please don't tell on all of us. Let's not have an investigation opened. Let's not have a royal commission. Let's not look at everything. Just please go away. Let's park these problems aside so that other names aren't brought out.' Every bribe that has been offered to the CFMEU is a bribe that has been given by a business, by a person. Who are those people? Are they the donors? Are they the industries? Who are the people that preselected these people over on the other side? How many CFMEU people are still part of committees within the Labor Party? This is what we're getting to today. This is not a punishment; this is a parting gift. This is what this is to the CFMEU because they are indelibly linked together. So all this talk about acting tough is misdirection. This is a whole line of little acts and dramas so that the Labor Party look like they're doing something.

We know what really happened here. This is stuff that was allowed to go away. All the wishes of the CFMEU were granted. The Labor Party—and the Greens, in cahoots with them—do not want any further investigation. I note today the tattoo by John Setka, that 'God forgives, but the CFMEU doesn't'. Maybe you can go and get matching tattoos so you're all as one. This is where we're at.

Government Senators:

Government senators interjecting—

Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is how symbiotic this relationship is. I note that those shouting from the other side had preselectors from the CMFEU—

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is 'CFMEU'.

Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can't even spell! Here we go. But this is what it's down to—and the effect for mums and dads out there? It means that everything costs more. We heard about the blowouts. We heard about the 30 per cent increase in costs—36 per cent, I think it was—from an individual source. Everything under these agreements costs more. So, when we look at the cost of living, when we're looking at the cost of housing, when we're looking at everything you pay, it is because of dodgy deals that we never see.

It's not just the CFMEU we want looked at; we want to look at the people who pay these bribes, that benefit from these bribes, because it is one, big, parasitic problem. I'm not just leaving it there, because there are very good unions, very good people, who look after their members, and the CFMEU is just as bad an image for the unions that do look after their members as it is for all sorts. When we hear about bikie crime gangs involved in it—we hear all these things—we don't know what's true. We obviously assume a lot—there are some great things that have come out—but an inquiry is what's needed to look at these things: the cost to the Australian public, the cost of living, the crimes that are being committed. I, personally—I will say this here—have seen video of an assault of a building supervisor on a Newcastle building site by a union representative.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Did you report it to the police?

Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I asked to get a copy so I could report it, I was asked 'please' not to, because, with the threats that came, what would happen to that site, what would happen to that building and what would happen to that developer if it were raised were far more problematic to the developer than the actual incident. This is what has happened. These are the standover tactics that have happened. I've seen this with my own eyes, but we pretend it doesn't happen, because of the fear. If this is happening, where there is a video of this happening and they continue to get away with it, it is because of the fear that's in the industry.

There was a link today to the cost of living, which is real. When we go out there, we've got an economy that has survived two years of COVID but can't survive two years of Labor, because of these deals. We've got people barely holding on. They've used their COVID savings, and they've saved to a point. We're hearing it in all our inquiries—the credit helplines and all of the things that are happening because they can't go any longer. They're using Afterpay to buy gift cards to buy groceries, because there is no care about the money that is spent under this government. It is the money they spend on these things and the free range they give to people like the CFMEU to raise costs that are driving these people to the edge. It has to stop, and the first thing that needs to stop is clarity. We need an examination into the CFMEU to see what has happened—a real thing with teeth, a royal commission—and to see what they have done, who has benefited, who has abetted them and the ways to stop them.

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

What a particularly interesting speech, because I've just heard a political speech from the opposition, talking about bringing back the actual organisation that had criminal gangs working right underneath it and didn't see a thing. They want to come in here and say: 'We've got an answer. Let's put the same people and the same organisation in control.' More of the same thing is what they want. The difference is that we've made firm, direct action to make sure that we can turn around and make sure the criminal element is out of that industry, because they saw it flourish under their proposal, their strategy, and they want to readopt it. Not only was it unsuccessful; it saw productivity collapse in the construction industry. That's how successful they were. But they want to play politics. They want to reinstitute the same lame organisation that failed before.

When you start looking at what they did do with the ABCC, I'll just give you one example—there are so many—of where they turned around and sued the union over flags for half a million dollars while there were issues about organised crime. They sued the union over flags. They sued the union because they wanted female toilets on a worksite. These are the big issues where they want to get the dogs out to turn around and make a change. What you should do is listen to what we're doing, understand why it's being done and understand that working people in that industry deserve the representation they should have, because what they're really about is not having working people getting representation in construction. That's what they're really about.

When they had the ABCC there—I'll give you one of many examples. Back in 2018, the Royal Hobart Hospital was one of the biggest construction sites in Tasmania. The ABCC went out to that site on numerous occasions and never found anything wrong. But what was happening? There were 200 Chinese workers engaged on that site, many of them on student visas or other temporary work visas, who had not been paid for six weeks. They hadn't been paid. Their entitlements were taken off them; they'd been ripped off. There was sham contracting, and the ABCC, despite being at the site multiple times, never sniffed a single thing. Guess what? In 2019, their crap organisation dropped any charges.

So we know what you're about. You're not about fixing this industry up. You're not about making a difference. To hear a criticism—I'll take it as a misstep because I know the good senator. You know, we might disagree on things, but I know his morality is questionable but ethically right.

Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A misunderstanding.

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

A misunderstanding—thank you. But when it comes to this point, saying that we should have an issue about these companies and the ABCC, what the minister has rightly said is that we should be looking at the companies as well. Heaven forbid that the person who does the bribe is not guilty! That's what they're telling us. Have you heard anything more ridiculous in your entire life? The construction industry does need to be turned around and properly dealt with.

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

Senator Cadell, on a point of order, I assume.

Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think I've been misrepresented. I actually said that they were responsible.

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

Senator Sheldon.

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

Thankfully, we're on the same track. I misunderstood what you were saying because of the complicated way you said it. So thank you for agreeing with me. Those companies, just as we are rightly doing, are going to take action, because the ABCC never took action. That goes to my point about what the good senator raised just then, because we put a proposition about how to move forward.

I will also just jump to a critical issue that was raised during the questions on the cost of living. I'm going to run through this pretty quickly. We know people are doing it tough, but on 1 July 2024 we saw tax cuts come into place, and Sussan Ley, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, says she wants to scrap them; 2.6 million low-paid workers will get their third consecutive pay rise, but the Liberals and Nationals oppose it. The Liberals and Nationals opposed the increase to the minimum wage in 2022 and in 2023. The member for New England, Barnaby Joyce, said that someone earning another $110 a week more is just 'window-dressing'. Labor's cheaper medicine policy saved families $63 million in 2023 in my state of New South Wales alone. Labor's 60-day prescriptions will save patients more than $1.6 billion over four years, up until 2027. The Liberals and Nationals opposed cheaper medicines because they said it would cause pharmacies to close. There's been electricity bill relief, and the average family would have been $230 worse off in 2023-24 without Labor's energy price relief, but the coalition voted against it. And the list goes on.

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister Wong made a comment during one of her responses in question time that the sun setting and the sun rising were those certainties in life. Well, I think we know the other certainty in life is that the principles of economics don't change, whoever is in government. However, with all certainty, we know that those now sitting on the government benches don't understand the fundamentals of economics. Supply and demand, the most basic principle underpinning economics, doesn't change. However, when those opposite were asked questions in response to the Reserve Bank's comments around the homegrown sticky inflation, meaning that interest rates are going to be higher for longer, base economic principles clearly vacated the building yet again.

Australians have had over 12 interest rate rises since this government has come into being, and we are continuing to see the cost-of-living crisis have impacts far and wide across the Australian community. Possibly mums and dads are all doing it tough with their kids, trying to pay the school fees, trying to put the groceries in the pantry and food on the table, trying to put their kids in school uniforms. These are all becoming increasingly difficult. But what we have seen as well—and which is probably not getting enough attention; certainly, from this government it's not getting any attention—is that insolvencies of businesses are now at such high levels that we have not seen levels like this for well over two decades. And a quarter of those insolvencies are in the construction sector.

We've been talking about the cost-of-living crisis today as well as the disgraceful behaviour of the CFMEU, and we need to potentially draw the link between housing costs in this country, construction costs in this country and construction companies going out of business, unable to keep up with union demands and the union heavyweights that are coming through and strongarming them into particular contracts. The entire economy is facing significant challenges, significant headwinds, and we know every mum and dad at home is trying to pay the gas bill, trying to put fuel in the car. All of those costs are increasing, and it gets more and more difficult to get in and see a GP. I noticed today that there was an article about how the wonderful new health clinics the Labor Party keeps spruiking are actually taking doctors out of general practice and putting them into those clinics against advice given to them from the AMA and the RACGP. We are seeing this government continue to ignore, at every opportunity, advice from experts in any area, and none more so than the Reserve Bank.

It is time that this government starts to understand what its addiction to spending means for all of us in the economy. We know that the Reserve Bank is trying to put its foot on the brake of the economy; it's trying to slow things down. It's trying to get inflation down, back into the band, so that interest rates can be moderated. Instead, this government, who doesn't understand the basics of economic principles, has its foot firmly entrenched on the accelerator, speeding things up—$315 billion worth of spending that it is just addicted to. We know that the RBA has doubled its forecast of government spending. It was originally at two per cent or 2.1 per cent; it's now over four per cent. This is the ridiculous spendathon that this government is committed to.

To listen to them in here answering questions, to hear them speak—your stomach turns. It's nauseating to listen to them talk about how they genuinely think that they've made things better. They genuinely think they've delivered cost-of-living relief. They genuinely think that somehow or other things are going well for Australian families, that people are feeling comfortable and secure in their jobs and feeling comfortable and secure in their housing, which is the complete opposite of how Australians are feeling. Australians are not feeling safe. They're not feeling secure. They are feeling economically vulnerable. But, to listen to those opposite, everything's just peachy keen. They think they're doing a great job and that they're going to keep sailing through. But all they're doing is putting more and more pain onto Australians every day, and this pain is not going away anytime soon. Every decision this government makes just makes the pain worse, makes the pain last longer and makes the pain go just that little bit deeper.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In they come crying crocodile tears over the cost of living. I just want to remind people that those opposite oversaw a decade of wasted opportunity. They doubled the debt before the pandemic and went on to rack up $1 trillion of debt with nothing to show for it. They failed to get wage growth moving and even admitted their policy settings were deliberately designed to keep wages low. They contributed to flatlining productivity growth and stagnating living standards, overseeing the loss of 85,000 Australian manufacturing jobs. And to top it off, even though there are a whole list of things I could read out, they also oversaw an increase in child care fees of 41 per cent.

I find it quite laughable that the opposition come into this place without a hint of irony and complain about the cost of living. Have they not realised they're living in a glass house? Let's not forget when the current wave of inflation started. In recent years, quarterly inflation heights were reached in March 2022. And guess what? Those opposite were still in government. They created this crisis through almost a decade of wasted opportunities and inaction in government, and now they have the absolute gall to demand that we fix their mess yesterday.

Unlike those opposite, we're actually doing something about it. After almost a decade of failure by those opposite to tackle the housing crisis, we are investing $32 billion in providing more social and affordable homes for Australians and in helping more Australians own their own home. We've made health care cheaper by tripling the bulk-billing incentive, delivering cheaper medicines and rolling out bulk-billed Medicare urgent care clinics across Australia—including five in my home state of Tasmania.

Recently I used one of these urgent care clinics after hours, at nine o'clock at night. Can I say to the Bathurst Street urgent care clinic in Hobart: what a fantastic job you did. I was watching people coming in. It was orderly. People were seen in good time. I was in and out in an hour. No appointment was necessary. If not for the urgent care clinic I would have been at the Royal Hobart Hospital taking up space in the emergency department, but here I was seen within an hour and not taking up space in the emergency department. So please don't come in here and start bagging our urgent care clinics. Just because you didn't think of it and just because you didn't do anything for 10 years it doesn't mean all of our ideas are bad!

One of the other great things we're doing is providing $300 in energy bill relief to every household, and we've provided $3 billion in HELP debt relief and delivered 480,000 fee-free TAFE places. Not only are we helping to reduce household expenses; we're also boosting household incomes. And, since we came to government, the rate of the JobSeeker payment has increased by more than 18 per cent and Commonwealth rent assistance has increased by more than 40 per cent. We've expanded eligibility for JobSeeker and we're giving parents of children aged between eight and 14 access to the single parenting payment.

Labor is also, importantly, getting wages moving again. Thanks to our submission to the Fair Work Commission, the minimum wage has increased 14 per cent since we came to government, not to mention the announcement last week by Prime Minister Albanese. As a former early childhood educator, myself—for nearly 12 years—I was so happy to see that wage increase for early childhood educators. No matter what those on that side say when they say, 'They just play with the kids and wipe their noses,' that's wrong. Those on the other side need to go to an early childhood learning centre and see the work that is done—the preparation, the program planning and the care they take with the children.

Earlier, in two-minute statements, Senator Marielle Smith was pointing out, quite rightly, that the first five years of a child's life are the most important. For these children to be socialised is really important. For them to meet a range of people is really important. My own grandchildren go to child care and, I've got to say, it is fantastic. The workers there do such a great job—

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

Thank you, Senator Bilyk.

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

I rise today to speak about the cost-of-living crisis and in particular inflation. I sit here and listen to the debate in the chamber and it is actually quite pathetic, because, let me tell you, no-one in this chamber, on either side, has any idea of how to deal with monetary policy. For too long, we've relied on just the RBA to think that they can manipulate the price of money on the first Tuesday of every month and that somehow that is going to solve our nation's problems.

We have a productivity crisis in this country because we have forgotten how to build. We have forgotten how to get out of bed in the morning, put our noses to the grindstone and do the jobs that add real value. This has been brought about by decades of reckless management and ideology. I want to, in particular, touch on the financial deregulation that occurred in the 1980s, where, basically, all the restrictions on the way financial transactions could occur were lifted. Over the weekend, I was talking to my father, who was listening to the Country Hour last week. He was talking about the cotton industry and how the physical market in the cotton industry is worth about $42 billion. The derivative market is worth about $300 billion.

When capital controls and financial controls were lifted in the 1980s, it meant that derivatives were no longer required to be hedged. When derivatives aren't required to be hedged, it means you can basically issue unhedged derivatives. Normally a cotton grower might decide to sell 20 per cent of his crop to ensure that he can recoup his costs in advance. He can receive that money in advance to help pay for part of his costs. What you now get, in any market—it doesn't matter whether it's primary production, metals, gold or bonds or whatever—is an exorbitant number of derivatives. That takes the power of pricing away from the producers and moves it to the white-collar paper shufflers. Things like this—and we saw it complemented with the deregulation of the banking system—let them do whatever they like.

I get blowback when I say that I want a public bank again in this country. They go, 'Oh, no. You can't do that, because the State Bank of Victoria went broke.' It went broke because it was allowed to buy Tricontinental—which was an investment bank—at the height of the 1987 stock market, that sent that bank broke. If the Hawke-Keating government had never introduced those stupid neoliberal policies of the 1980s and the Button plan, we'd still have people in jobs, doing trades and creating real value-add products. That's what we need to get back to.

Question agreed to.