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

Oh, the sweet irony of this place! I was going to stand up today and grieve about a whole range of issues. I was going to talk about all the failings of the government. I was going to talk about all the failings of Tony Abbott. I was going to talk about all the things they have done to make this country worse off—worse off in economic terms, worse off in social terms and worse off in terms of confidence. But I got beaten to the punch! Because no less than about 45 minutes ago, Malcolm Turnbull stood up and said all the things that I was going to say. This is what he had to say—this is what Malcolm Turnbull had to say about his own leader, about the leader of the Liberal Party—

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

And this is what he had to say. He said, 'The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has failed this country on economic leadership.' And Malcolm Turnbull was right.

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

And further, he went on to say that the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has failed the country in terms of confidence. He has failed the country in terms of confidence, and that is why we are having so many problems. His style of leadership is wrong; his style of leadership does not respect people. And that is what Labor has been saying for the past two years. For the past two years, what we have seen in this country is a failing of leadership and a failing of being able to deliver not only jobs for people but economic confidence, and actually being able to compete on the global stage.

What the Abbott government has done is fail to deliver on a number of key economic promises they made prior to the 2013 election. We can all remember when the then Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, ran around this country literally promising everything and anything. At any meeting he would go to, he would promise everything and anything. The problem is that he just cannot deliver. He has failed on economic leadership and he has failed on all the challenges that have been before him. But, in particular, what he has failed this country in is that he said he would fix the budget. He said he would fix the economic circumstances of this country. He said he would make things better. But he has done the exact opposite.

We were told things would be better. Mr Deputy Speaker, do you recall the 'debt and deficit disaster'—the budget emergency—the crisis that we had, apparently, and all of that? At the time, growth was about 2½ per cent. Today, growth is stuck at around two per cent—below trend. And it has trended downwards ever since the first Abbott-Hockey budget. The coalition has not only not delivered on any of its economic promises it has not delivered on growth either.

If they were just numbers you could be forgiven for complaining about it. But what it translates to is people losing their jobs. In fact, if we want to have a look at what the real unemployment figure is, it is much worse than this. When Labor left government, unemployment was 5.7 per cent. Under Tony Abbott as Prime Minister, unemployment is now 6.2 per cent. That means that there are a further 780,000 Australians unemployed today.

Consumer confidence is 15 per cent lower than it was at the election in 2013. Business confidence is at its lowest since mid-2013. There is just no good news—there is just no good news at all. Tax receipts as a percentage of GDP average was around 21 per cent under Labor. But under the last five years of the Howard government this figure averaged 23.9 per cent. So it was actually better under us. And now under Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister, the estimated average in the three budget papers is 22.7 per cent—again worse. Why is it worse under this government?

We hear from the Liberals that this is a low-taxing government. That is a myth. It is completely wrong. What we have is a government that is in complete denial about all of the broken promises and all of the lies—and that is what they were. When you tell someone something that you cannot deliver on, then it is certainly not the truth, that is for sure. Many times we have heard the Prime Minister say that he does not support raising taxes but at the same time that is what he is doing. He is running around the country talking about the GST and putting pressure on the states. If he puts enough pressure on the states, maybe the states will crack. What this Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, wants—and he may not be Prime Minister for very long—

An honourable member interjecting—

That is right; absolutely. When we see him going around the country cutting the budgets of the states, making sure that it is more difficult for the state governments to deliver either on their health budgets or on their election budgets, then we have more broken promises from this government.

ABS data shows that company profits have fallen six per cent since the election, despite the positive cash flow effects of record low interest rates and the competitive boost from the lower Australian dollar. How can that be? How can the Prime Minister run around this country and say, 'Everything is fine; everything is okay; everything is better than what it was,' when it actually is the opposite? This is the bit I just cannot understand. The budget is worse and growing worse. The deficit is bigger. The debt is bigger. When the Liberals get to government they actually make debt. Gross government debt has risen to a record $384 billion. That is $110 billion higher than the level that the Liberal government inherited. Government debt will soon exceed $400 billion—not under Labor but under the Liberals. These figures have been pointed out by many economists and people who have put these figures together.

Sadly, the legacy of broken promises has been repeated in so many areas. Let us take one other area. Let us have a look at industry. Let us have a look at the absolute promises that were made to industry on the submarines. The then Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, said when he went around the country promising everything and anything to anyone who would listen, 'Twelve new submarines are to be built in South Australia'—12 are to be built there—and the former defence minister said he would not trust Australian Submarine Corporation 'to build a canoe'. What sort of a government have we got and what sort of a minister do we have when that is their attitude toward Australian industry and Australian workers?

They said they would not be shutting down any Medicare Locals, but we have all 61 Medicare Locals being shut. They promised there would be no adverse unexpected changes to superannuation. Well, guess what? The super guarantee is frozen at 9.5 per cent and the low-income superannuation contribution has been scrapped totally. That is a massive unexpected change. It is another broken promise. Tony Abbott back then said there would be no cuts. As Leader of the Opposition he ran around this country saying that there would be no cuts to the ABC or to SBS, but one of the first things they did was cut SBS and ABC funding by hundreds of millions of dollars. They said there would be no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no cuts to pensions, no cuts to schools, no cuts to hospitals and no cuts to universities, and it has been the exact opposite.

People today might be wondering why Malcolm Turnbull has decided to challenge the Prime Minister. Why has Malcolm Turnbull decided to do that? He is certainly not the communications minister anymore. That is because he knows, like Australians know, that they have been betrayed by this government. And they have been particularly betrayed by Tony Abbott as Prime Minister. That is who they have been betrayed by. They were betrayed by him when he was the Leader of Opposition and they have been betrayed by him now as the Prime Minister because he has broken every single one of his promises. Every single one of the promises made has been broken.

As I said when I started, there is sweet irony. I thought I would come into this place and make a few comments about the parlous state of our economy and why people in the community and business feel betrayed by this government. No matter what the Liberal Party thinks about business—big, small and medium—I can tell you what they are telling me: they are not happy with any of you. They are not happy with this government. They are certainly not happy with the Prime Minister. They think they have been betrayed because they were given a whole heap of promises that none of you have kept—that not one of you have kept. All you have to do is look at the Mackerras pendulum. Have a look at where your colleagues sit on the pendulum. Have a look at the 10 that are below two per cent—two per cent! Have a look at the 20-plus that are under five per cent. Have a look at those.

I will tell you one thing for sure. There will be some people who choose to leave this place, some people who will be forced out and some people who will have the indignity of actually losing. I can tell you this: there are a whole heap of Liberals right now who will be making a very important decision in this place sometime tonight—the night of long knives. Everyone will be on the phone, talking about their future because, right now, the Liberal Party does not have a future. It does not see a future because it knows, right now, that the revolt is not within the Liberal Party and the caucus; it is out on the streets. It is in every electorate—in every town, every city and every town hall—and it will be at every ballot box.

I am not particularly worried about Canning. Obviously, the Labor Party would love to win Canning, but it is a safe Liberal seat with a 12 per cent margin. They do not come much safer than 12 per cent when it comes to a safe seat, and it is in a conservative, Liberal state in Western Australia. I think that, just as Malcolm Turnbull has called out the Prime Minister today, Australians are calling out the Prime Minister. I think that what they are waiting with is going to be one surprise that the Liberal Party and the National Party are not prepared for. (Time expired)