Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

The Excise Tariff Amendment (Fuel Indexation) Bill 2015 is an important bill to speak on. It is important to explain to the Australian people why we are here and why we are debating this particular bill. It is one that I think Australian consumers and motorists would be looking at very closely and asking themselves how we got ourselves into this position. This bill and the agreement that the government has with the Labor opposition are a triumph of common sense over ideology and of Labor making the best out of what is a very bad situation created by the Liberal Party in government for Australian consumers and for motorists. As such, we have moved very quickly to be able to address some of the mismatch of what this government has done in fuel excise.

Labor has sought and the government has agreed to an additional $1.1 billion in Roads to Recovery funding for regional roads as part of a compromise to pass the government's reintroduction of indexation for fuel excise. So much so did the government know that this was bad policy and that they needed to be saved that they immediately accepted Labor's solution to a very bad situation. The best we could do was to face a circumstance where taxpayers had paid extra indexation and that money would not be kept by Treasury but would be passed back to oil companies, not to consumers—and that was unacceptable. That is not something that could be acceptable. It is a substantial amount of money. Instead, that money will go to benefit all Australians through the Roads to Recovery program. This is good news for the regions and for local roads.

The Abbott government's cuts to local government have had a devastating effect on economic activity in regional areas, with unemployment high and many regions currently experiencing youth employment of over 20 per cent. In fact, if the government were to have the mind or the care to look at what is happening in some of their own backyards in the regions, there are some real problems, some really big and deep problems, under their watch right now. They do not seem to be too concerned. They do not seem to be putting in place the sorts of projects and the sort of spending that you might expect when we see some of our regions in deep pain over economic activity.

This $1.1 billion boost to the Roads to Recovery program will stimulate regional economies. It will generate much-needed jobs and be a boost for vital local infrastructure. Again, what is curious about this is that it was Labor that had to do this, and we did this from opposition. It was not the government. The government is responsible for the smashing of confidence since it came to office and has undermined our economy, which is still in transition.

In the government's first budget, the Prime Minister froze local government assistance grants for three years, cutting $925 million from communities over three years. This was very, very painful and deeply felt in regional communities right across the country. If anyone cares to have a look at economic activity in some of the latest statistics and data, they will see that Australia is in pain in a range of areas—maybe not so much so in Sydney, where there is still strong economic activity; maybe not so much so in Melbourne and in the other capital cities; perhaps less so in Brisbane. But when you get out to the regions, when you get out of those economic centres in the big cities, there are some really big problems.

You would think that a Liberal and Nationals government would care enough about their own backyards and electorates to be doing a little bit more, just a little bit more, whether it is talking up the economy or perhaps doing more than just talking—perhaps actually doing something concrete. That would be something that would be welcome in this place. And—more important than this place—it would be welcome in country towns and rural and regional areas, where they are experiencing the real impact of the very vicious cuts that the Abbott government have imposed on them.

When Labor left office, unemployment was too high, with a five in front of it. It is now too high with a six in front of it. I do not think that is a good economic number or a good economic record. There is currently $15 billion worth of local government infrastructure deficit that would make an enormous difference to local communities. It is a lot of money. It would make a big, big difference. It is really important to local communities. You would think that a government that promoted itself and put itself forward as the infrastructure government—apparently, every minister is an infrastructure minister and every backbencher is an infrastructure backbencher—would do something, but we are seeing none of that happening. The Australian Local Government Association estimated that 11 per cent of roads managed by councils were in poor or very poor condition, and overall councils manage something like 670,000 kilometres of roads, which is about 75 per cent of all roads by length.

As a result of a trick to bypass the Senate on the excise indexation, the Abbott government has threatened to return the additional fuel excise that it has collected from Australian motorists over the last eight months to oil companies. It almost beggars belief; it really does. It almost beggars belief. Out of ideology and a trick, the Abbott government would see itself returning over a billion dollars of motorists and consumers' money to oil companies. This is unacceptable. It just is unacceptable, and it has left Labor with very few options. It was certainly unacceptable to the Labor Party that this would be the case.

This was a difficult decision for us to make, but the prospect of billions of dollars of consumers and motorists' funds being returned to oil companies was clearly something that Labor could not allow to happen. We much prefer that this money be spent on roads in regional and outer suburban areas rather than be handed back to multinational oil companies. The fuel excise indexation will be difficult for some people, but we are left with very little choice—in fact, I would say no choices—when it comes to this.

The Roads to Recovery program, as we all accept, is very important. We know there is a huge backlog and that local government have pulled back on works because financial assistance grants were cut last year by $925 million over four years. Experience shows that these additional funds—available, in fact, from next week—will quickly be applied to that road backlog. These are good local councils in regional areas that are ready to go. These are shovel-ready projects. These are things that will happen very, very quickly and will make an enormous difference.

In November 2014, the Australian Local Government Association estimated that 11 per cent of roads managed by councils were in poor or very poor condition. Again, a lot more work needs to be done. The Australian Infrastructure Audit, released last month, made the following points with respect to rural roads:

Rural roads owned and operated by local councils are important for local economic activity, and are an important part of the nation's transport network, providing the 'first and/or last mile' of many land-based supply chains. There is evidence of a maintenance deficit across many of these roads. This is a particular issue for local governments in rural areas with large road networks and declining income bases.

Of course, you would think that a Liberal government that promotes itself as a friend of business and regional areas would acknowledge that what it is effectively doing by not investing in infrastructure and local roads is killing small business. That is the bottom line. That is where it really hurts. It is the small businesses, not in the big capitals—not in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth—but in rural and regional areas, that feel the worst impacts of the cuts made by this Liberal government. It is those small businesses, the backbone of this country, the ones that mortgage their houses, the ones that take the risk to employ people, the ones that are 'energise enterprise', that are paying the price for this Liberal government's vicious cuts. It is them that have a downturn in activity, a downturn in confidence, which flows across the economy and in turn reduces revenues back to government. Worse than that, it means that young people who would be looking for employment cannot find it in regional communities, and the reason they cannot is that small businesses are failing because the Liberal government will not invest. They will not even invest in confidence.

One thing I remember all too well is that for six years nobody in Australia was as good as Tony Abbott or Joe Hockey at talking down the economy—nobody. In the Olympics of talking down the economy they were both gold medal recipients. The only problem is you are supposed to stop when you get to government. That is the only problem. You are supposed to start talking the economy up, but they just cannot stop. They are addicted to ruining the economy. Every day we hear more talk of Greece—not about Greece, but that Australia will become the next Greece. Joe Hockey loves to go on about how Australia will become the next Greece.

I met with some small business people today, yesterday and the day before that and they said to me, 'Can we do something about confidence?' I said, 'Yes, we can. Tell the Treasurer to stop talking it down.' Stop talking down small business, stop talking down the economy—give them a go. In a 'have a go' economy and in a 'have a go' government give small business a chance to pick itself up by its bootstraps, so that they can compete, not against international players and the market, but compete against their own government, who is determined to just attack Labor. That seems to be the most important thing this government has on its agenda—priority one, attack Labor, priority two, attack Labor and, by the time you get to priority 28 or something down the line, it is, 'Oh, yeah, and there is an economy we should perhaps worry about at some point in time or unemployment perhaps at some point in time.'

If this were just rhetoric I could be excused for making some of this stuff up, but it is not. In the last 18 months the Liberal government has doubled the deficit. What happened to the emergency and the crisis and 'The barn is on fire'—and Tony Abbott was driving the fire truck? The problem is he turned up with fire truck full of fuel and just kept dousing the fire with more fuel. What did we have after we had an emergency in 2013? What would you call it today when the deficit has doubled from $17 billion to more than $35 billion? What do we do about that deficit, or does it not matter if it is a Liberal government deficit? So a $17 billion Labor deficit is an emergency but a $35 billion Liberal deficit is okay—another gold medal, well done! Debt seemed to be the biggest thing. We were being crushed under the weight of debt, so much so that the government decided, in its wisdom, between budgets to add a further $35 billion of debt. Who is paying for that debt? Small business, I would have to guess, and probably every other Australian—the consumer. This is a government that likes to come onto the record in here and spray fuel around the place, fan the flames of fire, and all the other things it does. But where are the real policies? Where are the things that affect small business in regional and rural communities?

But it seems that even on a really bad piece of policy and legislation from the Liberal government occasionally they can be saved from themselves. That is what we are debating here tonight. Labor will pass these changes because the government have agreed that we can save them from themselves. So we will do that. We will save them from themselves, because we are saving consumers and we are saving motorists. We do not want more than a billion dollars of consumers' hard-earned money, small business' hard-earned money—in a trick from the Liberal government—to go back to the oil companies and not back to them. The only option that is available is that it goes to the Roads to Recovery program, because at least we know there will be some equity and fairness and that that money will be properly spent by local government on things that will boost the economy, help small business, help families in the regions and help the regions.

I do accept that the government has very, very quickly accepted our offer on this. I have never seen a government move so fast to save itself. Perhaps while it was fanning those flames of fire it realised it was doing a little bit too much damage to itself along the way and that some of its own small business supporters might think that there is actually something wrong with what the government is doing.

Australia faces many, many issues right now, but the largest one it faces is a Liberal government determined to continue to make life hard not just for ordinary people. For example, there is the new policy idea that they have got—mind you, which they have not yet rejected, it is still there on the books—where somehow they are going to take away federal funding for schools and hospitals and we are going to let the states do all of that and the federal government will abrogate itself from its responsibilities to all Australians. This seems to be the new mantra. This seems to be the new ideology that is coming forward. That is not acceptable either. Just like this was not acceptable, just like the doubling of deficit is not acceptable and just like continuing to not invest in roads and infrastructure and regional and rural communities is not acceptable, we do not believe that returning $1.1. billion of consumers' money to oil companies is acceptable.

I cannot see how this government could have ever thought that was acceptable. With its little game of playing politics and its trickery in trying to get around the Senate and do a whole range of things, it thought it would be really clever and that is what it would do. We are going to go out and talk to people and make sure that they understand what led to this bill tonight and what led to their money being redirected not back into their pockets but back into local government funding, which we applaud but only because the government could not get its own bills right.

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