Doug Cameron's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
Valedictory | Parliamentary Representation | Senate debates
I also acknowledge the Ngunawal and Ngambri people and acknowledge their leaders past and present. I rise tonight to make my final contribution to the Senate, which I have had the honour of...
I also acknowledge the Ngunawal and Ngambri people and acknowledge their leaders past and present. I rise tonight to make my final contribution to the Senate, which I have had the honour of serving in since 2008, while representing the citizens of New South Wales and the great Australian Labor Party. My work as a trade union official and senator has given me the opportunity to meet wonderful and interesting people throughout the length and breadth of this huge country. The overwhelming majority of Australians who I have met have been working people. They would probably describe themselves as 'ordinary Australians'. However, the working men and women of this country are anything but ordinary. In the main, the Australian working class are industrious, loyal, intelligent, politically engaged and big hearted. They are not xenophobic, ultranationalistic or racist, as some on the crossbenches would have people think. The men and women who work in factories, in hospitals, on building sites and in classrooms are the people who make this country great. These workers, many of them union members, build and maintain our great nation. Knowing that I had to make this final speech got me thinking about why I'm here, what brought me to this place and what I have tried to achieve while I was here. In reality, it all comes down to one thing: socialism. I know those opposite have just about fainted! I'm a proud socialist. The first leader of the British Labour Party, Keir Hardie, was born in Holytown, a stone's throw from my birthplace of Bellshill. Keir Hardie said this: Socialism is at bottom a question of ethics and morals. It has mainly to do with the relationships which should exist between a man and his fellows. Therefore it is the equaliser in the position of the rich man's too much and the poor man's too little. The former member for Parkes, who I never met, Les Haylen, provided another take on socialism, and it's also one to which I subscribe. In 1961, Les Haylen described socialism in these terms: anti-war, anti-poverty, anti-monopoly, anti-greed and anti-race discrimination, and forever opposed to the savageness of capitalism which has kept the world in fear and misery for centuries … Socialism is a standard of shared goods, jobs and opportunities. It's another word for equality—fair shares. To this day, those opposite view this alternative economic program, one that has served so many of our allies so well, as inferior to capitalism and neoliberalism. Well, I'll let those opposite in on a little secret: you've got socialists in your ranks too; they just won't admit it! My old mate Wacka Williams is an agrarian socialist if I've ever seen one. Nobody that's been kicked in the guts by capitalism and the banks, like Wacka has been, could be anything else. What other reason could there be for a farmer and a trade unionist to get along so well? But it was the late, great Leonard Cohen who provided probably the most poetic metaphor for inequality, unfairness and corruption, in his song 'Everybody Knows'. While I'm not going to test the standing orders, or your sensibilities, and sing, I'll read the first verse: Everybody knows that the dice are loaded Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed Everybody knows that the war is over Everybody knows the good guys lost Everybody knows the fight was fixed The poor stay poor, the rich get rich That's how it goes Everybody knows I grew up in Bellshill, where there were a lot of poor people—a small working-class town a few miles south-east of Glasgow, in North Lanarkshire. Bellshill was a steel town, an engineering and mining town, a tough town. It was home to a large Lithuanian migrant population, which included my mother's family. I grew up in Scotland in social housing, colloquially known as the schemes, with my brother, Andy; my sisters, Marilyn and Sandra; my mother, Anne; and my father, Dougie. My father was a sergeant major in the British Army. He served behind Japanese lines in Burma with the British expeditionary forces, and then in India. He was a man stricken by the ravages of malaria and war. Like many returned soldiers, he ended up abusing alcohol and dying young. He was a strict disciplinarian, as sergeant majors are, and an authoritarian, which I think engendered in me a keen sense of civil disobedience. I am not a pacifist, but I hate war. We never had much money, and my mum had a tough time making ends meet. I entered the workforce at 12 delivering newspapers. I left school at 15 to take up an apprenticeship as a fitter. I joined the union on my first day at work and, apart from marrying Elaine, it was the best call I ever made. In 1973, aged 22, Elaine and I left Bellshill with our 14-month-old daughter, Lynn, and migrated to Australia in search of a better life, one free from sectarian conflict and hardship. Because I had a trade certificate as a fitter and machinist, we had a choice of countries including the United States, Canada and New Zealand. However, Australia had a reputation as being an egalitarian, multicultural country where a worker would get a fair go and a fair day's pay as a result of large, effective trade unions. Upon our arrival we stayed at the Endeavour Migrant Hostel in South Coogee. I was, in reality, an economic refugee—the sort loathed by some of the crossbenchers. As I've looked across this chamber in recent times, I've done so in the knowledge that there are some people in here who would have denied my family and me the opportunity to make a life in Australia if the decision had been theirs. Fortunately, those with xenophobic and racist views are in the minority, and their bigotry will never ever be accepted by mainstream Australians in this proudly multicultural country where about 30 per cent of residents were born overseas. As a fitter, I was able to secure employment at General Motors Holden in Pagewood, at Garden Island dockyard and at National Springs. And Elaine was one of the first women to work on the production line at General Motors Holden as a spot welder—because we had $80 when we arrived in Australia, the equivalent of a week's wages. I had to work, Elaine had to work and we had to make a life in this country. I worked with other migrants, many from non-English speaking backgrounds who shared my dream of living in a bountiful, peaceful country, free of the poverty and divisive politics that had afflicted Europe. In 1975, I accepted a job as a maintenance fitter at the Liddell Power Station near Muswellbrook. It was a heap of rubbish then; I don't know what it's like now—this lot want to keep it going! It was at Liddell that I became a union activist and convener. On arrival at Muswellbrook with Elaine, Lynn and our newborn daughter, Fiona, we discovered that the house provided as part of the job had been vandalised. When I raised this with the bosses, they just shrugged their shoulders. So here I am with a wife and two young children and nowhere to live but a dilapidated, dirty, unsafe worker's cottage. Fiona was only a few months old. Luckily for me, I was a member of the union. As soon as I spoke to the shop steward, he took it up with the bosses and we were given a different house, one fit for a family with a new child. I have never forgotten that act of support, strength and solidarity and I never will. In 1982, after seven years on the tools at Liddell and after many industrial disputes, I was elected as a state organiser for the Amalgamated Metal Workers and Shipwrights Union. In 1986, I became the New South Wales assistant state secretary of the union before becoming the assistant national secretary. From 1996 until I commenced my first term in the Senate in 2008, I was National Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers and the vice-president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. A union is only as strong as its weakest shop, and we would use the strength of our 'hot shops', the well organised sites, to raise standards across the industry. Pattern bargaining, as it was known, is the most effective way for working people to get decent pay and conditions. WorkChoices essentially outlawed pattern bargaining, and, as a result, workers' pay and conditions have stagnated while company profits have soared. Under the current industrial system, workers would have been unable to achieve shorter hours, career paths, superannuation and industrial democracy, free from complete managerial prerogative. John Howard's war on workers and their unions culminated in the waterfront dispute and the introduction of Work Choices, the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the Registered Organisations Commission. In 2007, when the workers of this country rose up and countered these unprecedented attacks on their rights at work, I was very fortunate to be elected to the Australian Senate. I was encouraged to seek preselection by my friend and comrade Greg Combet—so you can all blame Greg! I was strongly supported by Sally McManus, a great trade unionist and a fantastic leader. We often hear about the shortcomings of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years—more often than not from the Murdoch press. We hear about the internal fighting, the removal of a sitting Prime Minister and the endless cycle of payback. And, yes, that all happened. I opposed the removal of Prime Minister Rudd, and I think my position has been vindicated. The only thing worse than engaging in that sort of nonsense would be to witness it, ruthlessly exploit it and then immediately repeat it as soon as you got into power. And that's exactly what the Liberal Party has done. Less spoken about are some of the great achievements of the Rudd-Gillard years, starting with the long-overdue apology to our First Nations people. Indigenous Australians continue to pay a heavy price for having their country stolen and their culture attacked. Rudd's apology started a healing process, and I firmly believe this important work must continue if Australia is to ever reach its full potential. Another enormous achievement of the previous Labor government was guiding Australia through the economic turmoil of the global financial crisis without the widespread job losses and foreclosures experienced around the world. Some of this lot over there were saying that there was no global financial crisis—that it was an American or European crisis. I don't get it. How these people were ever seen to be good economic managers beggars belief. It should not and will not ever be forgotten that it was a Labor government that shielded the people of this country from the excesses of capitalism. This was real economic leadership by Prime Minister Rudd and Treasurer Swan. It stands out compared to the economic vandalism of the Howard and Costello years. While this Senate has faced some serious headwinds throughout my time here, it's the recent contributions by neo-fascists masquerading as patriots that have caused me the most concern. I'll make this point very clearly. It is not Australia's Muslim community that is a menace and danger to our society and to what we collectively hold dear. It's not Australia's Muslim community who invited a toxic foreign entity like the NRA to buy our democracy and expose our community to semiautomatic weapons. It's the extreme Right; they are the incubators of hate and intolerance. It's One Nation, people like Fraser Anning and the extremists on the far Right of the Coalition that would destroy this great country if given half a chance. The very wealthy, self-serving, anti-union former Liberal Party candidate, Pauline Hanson, pretends to be a voice for those without financial or political power. One Nation does this while voting with the Liberals on key legislation including the ABCC, penalty rates, free trade agreements and tax cuts for the wealthy. They pretend to love this country while dispatching their idiotic minions to sell us out to the NRA. They pretend to care about everyday Australians while subscribing to imbecilic conspiracies about the Port Arthur massacre. And now they want us to believe they were all taken out of context with their half-baked plan to hijack this parliament with US gun money. I strongly urge working-class Queenslanders, working-class Australians, to give this treacherous, treasonous rabble the boot at the upcoming election. I say to the Australian Muslim community: you are welcome here. You are an important part of our multicultural society. You contribute far more than Senator Hanson and her poisonous policies. You belong here as much as anyone else, and don't let anyone tell you any different. One of the most important trips I made as a senator was to the Wilkins aerodrome in Antarctica with the environment and communications committee, where scientists explained to me the impact climate change is having on our planet. How our opponents became so wedged on this important issue is beyond me. I do take comfort, however, in the knowledge that a Shorten Labor government, if elected, will take meaningful action on climate change to safeguard future generations. Over the past six years I've been honoured to serve in Bill Shorten's shadow ministry as Labor's spokesman on, firstly, human services, housing and homelessness, as well as skills, TAFE and apprenticeships. Unfortunately, Australia's housing market is failing. Home ownership is at record lows, rental stress is preventing young people from saving for a home deposit, and homelessness is skyrocketing. There are very few social outcomes that so unambiguously and shamefully expose our failure to live up to the promise of being a fair and decent society than the persistently high number of young Australians and older women either at risk of or experiencing homelessness. We must stop viewing housing purely as a source of investment and wealth creation and recognise that a society as wealthy as ours should view having a roof over your head as a human right. I also believe that, given the social and economic importance of housing, it should be part of the infrastructure portfolio. I am deeply concerned that too many politicians argue that 'equality of opportunity' is the key to resolving social and economic disadvantage. This rhetoric belies the massive difference in opportunity available to the children of the wealthy compared with the children of working-class and disadvantaged Australians. Young people under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government have faced high rates of unemployment and underemployment, wage stagnation and penalty rate cuts, underinvestment in vocational education, and increases in the proportion of young workers relying on the minimum wage. This hopeless and dysfunctional coalition government has also decimated our TAFE and apprenticeship systems by cutting more than $3 billion from the sector. There are 140,000 fewer apprentices since they were elected, and TAFE enrolments have plummeted by 24.5 per cent. Last night's budget did nothing to address this terminal decline; rather, it was a pea-and-thimble trick designed to fool voters into thinking they are investing more money when, clearly, they are not. Among the highlights of my time in the Senate was the delivery of my proposal to establish the National Workers Memorial in Canberra. The memorial serves the dual purpose of honouring those killed at work and reminding us all of the need for occupational health and safety in the workplace—and, Wacka, thanks for your support on that committee. If there is one small thing I hope I am remembered for when I leave this place it's consistency. I've consistently backed progressive causes, even when they have been unpopular. Sorry, Penny, but I've never voted for a free trade agreement in the caucus. I've never believed in the magical power of the markets and I've remained extremely sceptical about the virtues of privatisation and competition policy. Privatisation has not worked in health, in education, in the electricity market or in the vocational education sector. We've seen countless big government instrumentalities handed over to the private sector, who more often than not have profiteered while reducing services. One of the most consistent criticisms levelled at me by the Murdoch press and others is that I engage in class warfare. Apparently, defunding public schools and hospitals, cutting legal aid, closing TAFE campuses, allowing wage theft and cutting penalty rates are not class warfare. If protecting the working class from the excesses of the wealthy elite and the coalition is class war, I plead guilty to class war. When I was first elected to the Senate, a colleague told me that I was no longer a trade unionist but a senator in the Australian parliament. Like many other pieces of unsolicited advice, I ignored this. I have always been and always will be a proud trade unionist. Many great men and women have served the Labor Party over the years—people like Senator Bruce Childs, a fantastic individual, a fantastic senator. But there is one New South Wales senator that I'd like to single out as having left an indelible mark on democracy, society and the law—that's Lionel Murphy. The former Attorney General's many reforms were driven by a visceral sense of social justice and a fierce determination to pursue equality for all. Lionel sought justice for women in the mid-1970s through his abolition of the Matrimonial Causes Act and the introduction of no-fault divorce. His establishment of Commonwealth legal aid provided many Australians previously shut out of the legal system with rights and access to legal support. Lionel's well-placed concern about the accountability and transparency of our national security agencies remains of fundamental relevance to Australian democracy today. This parliament needs more oversight—such as the UK parliament, the Canadian parliament and the US government all have in place—over our security services. If you want to give them more power, they must be more accountable. Lionel is credited with establishing the Senate committee system—an innovation that has contributed so much to democratic accountability in this country. There are far too many good comrades in the Labor Party for me to mention today, but I will single out my Senate colleagues for special mention: thanks, comrades; you've been great. They have been an inspiration and tremendous support for me over the years, and I thank each and every one of them for this. In the other place, I want to make a special mention of deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek. I believe Tanya will make a truly great deputy prime minister and I hope she gets that opportunity very soon. I want to acknowledge Jenny Macklin, one of the most talented, hardworking, intellectually precise people I've ever met—a fantastic contributor to this nation. I want to just say that my Queensland colleague Murray Watt has been a forensic interrogator in Senate estimates, and I know for certain he will make a significant contribution to Australian public life over the coming years. The same goes for my New South Wales comrades: Deb O'Neill, Kristina Keneally and Jenny McAllister—three remarkable women who will continue to serve this nation very well. Claire, you and I are going out at the same time but you have made a remarkable contribution to the Senate and to the parliament. One of the most formidable and intelligent politicians I have ever met is my leader in the Senate, Penny Wong. Penny, you and I have had our differences on a range of policy issues. You have always argued your position with strength and integrity, even though your remarkable powers of persuasion failed to change my mind on trade and competition policy. I could not leave this place without special mention of my mate Albo. What can you say about Albo? Self-made, raconteur, DJ—my goodness!—and not a bad numbers man. He is the ultimate political warrior. He dominated the House of Representatives as Leader of the House, and his contribution to Labor, allowing us to now be a genuine alternative government, should never be underestimated. And finally, to my successor and AMWU brother, Tim Ayres: I wish you all the best for the future. I know you will serve the people of New South Wales well. Good luck, comrade, in the future. I leave this place in the knowledge that the labour movement and the Labor Party are in great shape. Sally McManus and Michele O'Neil have reinvigorated the union movement with their uncompromising leadership style. I've been extremely impressed by the way Bill and Tanya have united the Labor Party, leading us out of the wilderness and into contention to form the next Australian government. Under Bill's leadership, the Labor Party again feels like the Labor Party I joined many years ago. It is unashamedly progressive, pro-worker, pro-women, outward-looking and confident. I am quietly confident myself that Australians will give Bill the opportunity to lead this great country. He will make a great Labor Prime Minister who will govern for all Australians, particularly those without access to wealth and power. In closing, I want to thank the Parliament House staff, who do a tremendous job in keeping this place running. I'll just adopt the thank yous that Claire gave, and I think that'll save a bit of time! I might mention the cleaners. The cleaners in Parliament House have been subjected to wage theft, and if the cleaners in Parliament House are subjected to wage theft, how can workers out in the general community be confident that their wages will be looked after? The cleaners do a tough job. The cleaners do a great job. Yet this rabble of a government allowed their wages to be cut. It defies belief. In closing, I want to say that my own personal staff, both past and present, have been absolutely fabulous. They have provided me with the resources, support and advice that I have needed to do my job properly. Helen, Siobhan, Rebecca, Jason, Justine and Michael—a talented team—thank you. I must mention Phil Morgans, who worked with me for near on 20 years as my chief of staff in the union and is a friend and adviser without peer. Phil will be shaking his head, because I think this is the first time for a long time I've actually written a speech and stuck to the speech—probably because Wacka Williams and The Nationals have behaved themselves! I want thank my wonderful wife, Elaine, who has given me the love and support I've needed throughout our time together. We have been married for 48 years—shit! I was going to say she's a lucky woman, but she'll shake her head. Actually, Elaine saved my life. Elaine supported me as I recovered from alcohol addiction. To my beautiful daughters, Lynn and Fiona; their partners, Rick and Perry; and my beautiful grandchildren, Amy and Scott: thanks for being so great. Thank you for turning into reality your mum's and my hopes when we emigrated to Australia: to have a great life, not only for ourselves but also for you, in our adopted country. You have been a credit to us. We love you and we thank you for being so good. Thanks, everyone. This is the last time you'll hear from me—but I liked the battle.
Treasury Laws Amendment (North Queensland Flood Recovery) Bill 2019; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
The Treasury Laws Amendment (North Queensland Flood Recovery) Bill 2019 clarifies that specific disaster recovery grants that relate to flooding between 25 January 2019 and 28 February 2019,...
The Treasury Laws Amendment (North Queensland Flood Recovery) Bill 2019 clarifies that specific disaster recovery grants that relate to flooding between 25 January 2019 and 28 February 2019, primarily in Townsville, are to be exempted from income tax. It clarifies that specific storm assistance payments relating to storm activity on or around 25 October 2018, primarily in the Fassifern Valley in Queensland, are to be exempted from income tax. It implements an announcement made by the Prime Minister on 1 March 2019 of a loan scheme to provide financial assistance to primary producers affected by the Northern Queensland floods. According to research from the Parliamentary Library, currently under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018 grants to businesses are taxable but grants to non-profit organisations are not. The North Queensland floods devastated the primary industries surrounding Townsville. It's estimated that half a million head of livestock were killed during the flood event. Small businesses and households in urban areas have also suffered lingering effects. The bill will clarify that category C or D disaster recovery grants made under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018 to small businesses, primary producers or non-profit organisations within the time period specified are non-assessable, non-exempt income for taxation purposes. The amendments apply to the 2018 financial year and the later financial year for qualifying grants. The bill will also make grants to primary producers non-assessable, non-exempt income if the grants are for repairing or replacing farm infrastructure, restocking or replanting and if they are made as part of an agreement between the Commonwealth and state or territory governments. This covers agreements entered into between 1 February 2019 and 1 July 2019 that are outside the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018. Schedule 2 of the bill deals with the damaging storms of 25 October 2018. Those are the storms that hit the towns of Oakey and Boonah in South-East Queensland and in the Fassifern Valley and Darling Downs region. Primary producers in the Fassifern Valley estimated that the hail cost was $10 million worth of damage to crops on more than 20 farms. The bill makes payments made through the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal—a private, not-for-profit organisation that is based in Bendigo, Victoria—exempt from income tax. The payments have been made by the foundation, under grants totalling $1 million from the Commonwealth, to support primary producers in the Fassifern Valley. The amendments apply to the 2018-19 financial year and later financial years for qualifying grants. On schedule 3, the Prime Minister on 1 March 2019 announced: … the Government has offered ADIs low-cost loans which they would be required to pass on to eligible farmers in lower interest rates. This will help those farmers to stabilise their financial position—and is estimated to be worth up to $2 billion. The bill implements a loan scheme that will see the Commonwealth give a total $1.75 billion in loans to participating authorised deposit-taking institutions. The bill makes a special appropriation for that money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the purposes of making loans to financial institutions under the program, known as 'Urgent assistance for eligible primary producers affected by floods in Northern Queensland'. According to the bill's explanatory memorandum, the money will be given to the ADIs as a low-interest loan, which will enable the ADIs in turn to offer low interest on new and existing loans to eligible primary producers. It's estimated that the impact on the underlying cash balance between 2019-20 and 2022-23 will be $0.7 million. Labor supports this bill. We want to ensure that as much assistance as possible is provided to these communities in North Queensland who have suffered terribly because of the ravages of the floods. This is an extremely important bill. It's a bill that will provide assistance, and that's why Labor supports this bill. We are seeing too many storms, too many floods and too many droughts in this country. The sooner the coalition actually get on with dealing with climate change, the better it will be for this country.
Treasury Laws Amendment (Increasing the Instant Asset Write-Off for Small Business Entities) Bill 2019; In Committee | Bills | Senate debates
Treasury Laws Amendment (Increasing the Instant Asset Write-Off for Small Business Entities) Bill 2019; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
I've got to say, Senator Williams, any government that would put Senator Cash in charge of anything, especially small business, is not looking after the interests of small business. It's...
I've got to say, Senator Williams, any government that would put Senator Cash in charge of anything, especially small business, is not looking after the interests of small business. It's particularly good to see the Liberal and National parties adopting our policy. As we know, it was the Australian Labor Party that first legislated for an expanded instant asset write-off from the $6,500 threshold in 2012. The coalition subsequently abolished the instant asset write-off, returning it to a $1,000 threshold before reintroducing an expanded instant asset write-off with a $20,000 threshold in 2015. The government has since renewed it, in 2017, 2018 and again now, in 2019. Of course, Labor supported the original measure and supported its two previous renewals and will support this one today. While there's no difference between Labor and the government on taxes for small business, the principal difference at the moment is in relation to the Australian Investment Guarantee, announced last year. It will allow businesses to deduct up-front 20 per cent of all new investments, with the remaining amount depreciated in line with normal depreciation schedules. Assets such as machinery, plants and equipment—for example, things like trucks or utes—and intangible investments such as patents and copyrights will be eligible for the immediate deduction. This investment guarantee promotes investment in local economies. The investment guarantee is well targeted, fully funded, cost-effective, fiscally responsible and funded by Labor's reforms to the tax system. I want to make it clear to everyone that under a Shorten Labor government 99 per cent of businesses will receive a tax cut, no business will have its tax rate increased and all businesses will be able to plan and invest with confidence and certainty. Let me turn to the amendment. Yesterday in the other place we debated this bill on the understanding that it would increase the instant asset write-off to $25,000, yet today the government has announced budget measures that increase the instant asset write-off again, to $30,000 for businesses of up to $50 million in turnover. This is just more policy chaos from this rabble of a government. The real challenge for small business in this country is this government and its hopeless policy development and relentless instability. How can you concentrate on doing the right thing by small business when the minister is in personal crisis and the government is in collective crisis? It just doesn't work. Labor has been leading the way on small business policy, with our Small Business Access to Justice policy passing into law in the last parliamentary sitting period. Small businesses are less likely to seek help from our court system to stand up to big business. Small Business Access to Justice will make sure they get support to defend themselves against anticompetitive conduct. It's a policy which the small-business sector have wanted for a long time but which the coalition have repeatedly voted against—and you know why? All their mates are up there at the big end of town. Only with Labor and the help of some renegade Nationals did this important reform pass through the House. Labor will provide the stability small business needs. Labor will support small businesses with the Australian investment guarantee. I commend the bill to the Senate.
I rise to indicate Labor's support for the Treasury Laws Amendment (Increasing the Instant Asset Write-Off for Small Business Entities) Bill 2019. I'm pleased to see a great Labor initiative...
I rise to indicate Labor's support for the Treasury Laws Amendment (Increasing the Instant Asset Write-Off for Small Business Entities) Bill 2019. I'm pleased to see a great Labor initiative debated in the Senate and pleased those small businesses across the country will continue to benefit from it. It's particularly good to see the Liberal Party and the National Party once again adopting sound Labor policy in favour of small businesses in this country.
Treasury Laws Amendment (Medicare Levy and Medicare Levy Surcharge) Bill 2019; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
I must say Senator Williams has not covered himself with glory today. He's had a good parliamentary career, but, towards the end of it, he's really slipping. To defend Tony Abbott, to defend the...
I must say Senator Williams has not covered himself with glory today. He's had a good parliamentary career, but, towards the end of it, he's really slipping. To defend Tony Abbott, to defend the cuts during that 2014-15 budget that caused so much damage in rural and regional Australia, is an absolute joke. Senator Williams, you're a mate, you've been a good parliamentarian, but, man, you have dropped the ball today. Whether it's making Medicare more expensive, cutting funding to public hospitals or putting health insurance profits before patients, Prime Minister Morrison can never be trusted on health. Labor created Medicare, and only Labor will ensure that Australians can access the health care they deserve. Although Labor will support this bill—a bill that is largely a product of convention rather than passion—we must emphasise the existential threat that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison/Hanson government and its recklessness pose to our valuable and cherished universal healthcare system. Only Labor will protect Medicare.
Labor supports the Treasury Laws Amendment (Medicare Levy and Medicare Levy Surcharge) Bill 2019, which will amend the Medicare Levy Act 1986 and the A New Tax System (Medicare Levy...
Labor supports the Treasury Laws Amendment (Medicare Levy and Medicare Levy Surcharge) Bill 2019, which will amend the Medicare Levy Act 1986 and the A New Tax System (Medicare Levy Surcharge—Fringe Benefits) Act 1999 to increase the Medicare levy low-income thresholds for individuals and families, along with the dependent child-student component of the family threshold, in line with movements in the CPI; the Medicare levy low-income thresholds for individuals and families eligible for the seniors and pensioners tax offset, along with the dependent child-student component of the family threshold, in line with movements in the CPI; and the Medicare levy surcharge low-income threshold, in line with movements in the CPI. The measure applies to the 2018-19 income year and later income years. This follows the practice of dealing with this annually, as per the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (Medicare Levy and Medicare Levy Surcharge) Bill 2018. This is a regular process that ensures that the most vulnerable Australians are not disadvantaged while maintaining their access to Medicare, our world-class universal health system. I want to make a few brief points, reflecting upon what my colleagues in the other place said this morning. The shadow minister for health and Medicare, Catherine King, noted this morning that the 2019-20 budget has locked in the Prime Minister's cuts to public hospitals in a too little, too late health budget full of reheated announcements that don't make up for six years of Liberal chaos. As Treasurer, Scott Morrison cut hospitals in every budget he wrote, and as Prime Minister he has now locked the cuts in. For six years, the Liberals have prioritised an $80 billion tax handout for the top end of town, and they've done that over prioritising Medicare, schools and hospitals. This is a Prime Minister who is completely out of touch and only cares about the top end of town. Prime Minister Morrison has refused to restore the $715 million he cut from hospitals under the current funding period and he's persisting with his plans to rip billions more out of our hospitals over the next six years. Patients will suffer because of these cuts, as they are confronted with longer emergency department and elective surgery waiting times or are forced to travel far from home for treatment. Bill Shorten and Labor will deliver a fair go for Australia by reversing these cuts and making massive new investments with our $2.8 billion better hospitals fund. While Labor will always welcome new investments in general practice, this budget doesn't come close to making up for the five-year rebate freeze that has ripped $3 billion out of Medicare. This is a freeze the Liberals first imposed in 2014. Now they're promising to lift it, matching Labor's long-held commitment, and they're doing this just six weeks out from an election. In the other place this morning the shadow Assistant Treasurer said that the Australian people are far too smart to fall for this spin. They know that the cost of going to the doctor has risen, and that's why so many of them have been delaying going to the doctor. Last year, Labor noted that the official Bureau of Statistics figures showed that one million Australians delay or avoid seeing their GP each year. They do that because of the cost. With another 1.7 million Australians skipping specialist appointments, this means that the health of Australians is not being properly dealt with under this government. Yet the Liberals make the laughable claim that Medicare has never been stronger and that their commitment is rock solid. Remember all of Tony Abbott's promises before he became Prime Minister? Well, this is certainly a similar position, from this government.
Social Services Legislation Amendment (Energy Assistance Payment) Bill 2019; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
I'm just trying to remember where I was up to when I last spoke. It was something about the government being an absolute rabble—I think that's where I got up to, and I think I was dead on...
I'm just trying to remember where I was up to when I last spoke. It was something about the government being an absolute rabble—I think that's where I got up to, and I think I was dead on when I gave that position. I was talking about the budget falling apart overnight. It didn't last from Lateline to lunch. This is a government that has just lost it completely. This government has got no focus. It is still trying to deal with the division and the dysfunction that has epitomised a government now with three Prime Ministers. It's just a terrible situation that we're in. This budget won't be the silver bullet that makes people forget about how bad this government has been over a period of six years. Here we are after six years—we're probably six weeks out from an election—and I can tell you that a $75 tax cut won't undo the cuts and cruelty that this government has been dishing out over the last six years. As I said, we sought to move an amendment in the House to see the payment extended, because there's no good reason for people on these payments to be excluded. They face the same cost of living and, in many cases, are, in fact, on a lower payment. While Labor supports this payment, make no mistake that, after six years of chaos and cruel cuts, the Australian people will see right through this cynical and desperate attempt from this rabble of a government to save its own skin. This government must take the Australian public for fools. They must think that pensioners have forgotten what the government tried to do to pensioners. What the government will do today with this one-off payment doesn't undo the fact that this budget is being propped up by vulnerable Australians. Shamefully, this government has built almost a quarter of their projected budget surplus on underspends in the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The Prime Minister has counted a $1.6 billion underspend towards the budget bottom line next year. This is a disgrace, not an achievement. It's $1.6 billion in services and support that people with disability will miss out on because the government has botched the NDIS and underspent at every turn. It comes on top of a shocking $3.4 billion underspend in the 2018-19 financial year and over $6 billion to date. This is a direct result of delays in the NDIS rollout, with over 77,000 people missing out on the NDIS this year alone, and it's a consequence of people being unable to use their plans because services and support are simply not available. People are waiting months and, in some cases, years for basic equipment. People are going without the right therapy and personal support. The NDIS has fallen into crisis under this government. People are getting poor-quality plans, they are not being treated with respect, services are being pushed to the brink and waiting times are completely unacceptable. After six years of neglect, the government's kneejerk announcement on NDIS prices, six weeks out from an election, is too little too late. The bottom line is that Australians with disability are the ones paying so Scott Morrison can bolster his books. For 834 days, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government tried to cut the pension for over 1½ million pensioners, as well as recipients of Newstart, youth allowance and other payments, by scrapping the energy supplement. The energy supplement was designed to help vulnerable Australians with the cost of power bills. Scott Morrison's plan would have cost a single pensioner $14.10 per fortnight, or around $365 per year, and cut $21.20 a fortnight, or around $550 a year, from couple pensioners. This wasn't a plan for a one-off cut; it was a cut every fortnight, every year for decades. Labor opposed this cut and committed to reversing it. Pensioners will never forget that in every single budget the Abbot-Turnbull-Morrison government has tried time and again to cut the age pension. In 2013, Prime Minister Abbott promised that there would be no cuts to the pension. Yet in 2014 the Liberals tried to cut pension indexation—a cut that would have meant pensioners would have been forced to live on $80 a week less within 10 years. In that very same 2014 horror budget, the Liberals slashed $1 billion from pensioner concessions designed to help pensioners with the cost of living. In 2015, the Liberals did a deal with the Greens political party to cut the pension to 370,000 pensioners by as much as $12,000 a year by changing the pension assets test. In 2016, the Liberals tried to cut the pension to around 190,000 pensioners as part of a plan to limit overseas travel for pensioners to six weeks. For over three years, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government has refused to review and adjust the deeming rates, while the Reserve Bank cash rate has fallen from 2.25 per cent in February 2015 to 1.5 per cent today. For two years, the Liberals planned to scrap the energy supplement, cutting the age pension to 1.5 million pensioners. For four years, the Liberals tried to raise the pension age to 70. Labor has fought each and every one of these cuts to the age pension. We have fought them tooth and nail. Meanwhile, over the past three years, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government has cut and outsourced over 2,500 jobs from Centrelink. During this time, we have seen a blowout in call wait times to Centrelink and wait times to get onto the pension. This government has made it even more difficult for pensioners to contact Centrelink and to access the pension. Labor will boost Centrelink with 1,200 jobs. We will improve the services, reduce the wait times and make income support available and accessible as and when Australians need it. Try as they may, the government can't gloss over their gaping lack of energy policy with their energy support payment—this miserly energy support payment. After six years, they continue to be at each other's throats over energy policy, with 13 energy policies over six years. They're more interested in tackling each other than tackling climate change or energy prices. Since the Liberals formed government in 2013, wholesale energy prices have doubled. In contrast, Labor have a comprehensive plan to boost renewable energy and put downward pressures on prices. We do have an energy policy. I would love to know what happened to this bill. How did something that wasn't in the budget last night end up in the parliament this morning? Was there a crisis meeting? When was the crisis meeting? Who was there? Did they deliberately leave out Newstart and other payments or was it an accident? And in the House this morning, the Minister for Social Services, Paul Fletcher, said, 'You're either fair dinkum or you're not. The numbers are either in your budget or they're not.' Paul Fletcher doesn't set the world alight but, I have to tell you, this just shows you all you need to know about this government. The government aren't fair dinkum about people on Newstart or youth allowance or the double orphan pension, because they weren't in their budget last night. Labor is of the view that it's well past time that the Australian public get a chance to pass their judgement on this rabble of a government, on this government who don't care about families, who don't care about young people, who don't care about the underprivileged, who don't care about the vulnerable in our society. This is a government that are simply about the big end of town, because they were prepared, rather than deal with the issues that are important to the vulnerable in our society, to hand over $80 billion of tax cuts to multinational corporations, to the banks and to the richest corporations in this country. Again, that tells you all you need to know about this disjointed, discredited rabble of a government. We need a government who understand the pressures that are on ordinary working families. The reason they don't understand is that most of them come from privileged backgrounds, not all of them, but most of them. Those that haven't come from privileged backgrounds have abandoned the working class and formed an alliance with the powerful and the privileged. I've got even more contempt for them than I have for these privileged ponces who sit over there lecturing workers about having to lose their penalty rates. They don't understand what it's like to roll up to the checkout at Woolworths, Coles or Aldi and just pray that your MasterCard won't bounce so that you can pay for your groceries. I've been there. My family's been in that position. We understand how tough it is for people to be in that situation. Blue-collar workers earning 40 grand a year are doing it tough. The cost of living's going through the roof and all this lot want to do is hand $80 billion over to the big end of town. That's exactly what they would do if they could get away with it, because we heard Senator Cormann during question time again raising the lowering of tax and getting the economy moving—trickle-down economics. They are a pathetic mob. They are an absolute pathetic mob. Working-class people need better. Working-class people deserve better. When this government come in and spend the bulk of their time changing leader, attacking each other, how could they ever get it right to actually look after the people who deserve to be looked after in this country? They talk about equality of opportunity. How can a poor family in, say, Mount Druitt in the western suburbs of Sydney, faced with institutional poverty, faced with intergenerational unemployment, have equality of opportunity? How can their kids get equality of opportunity when this mob want to cut funding to public schools, when they want to hand more money over to private schools, when they won't put proper money into the health system? How can any working-class family in suburbs like Mount Druitt around this country get a fair go? They can't do it under this terrible government. And this is the government that wants to cut penalty rates. Those opposite were in here, day in, day out, arguing that penalty rates were old-fashioned, that penalty rates were not appropriate anymore. Yet, when I worked, my penalty rates at least gave me the opportunity—maybe not every year, but once every couple of years—to save up to take my family on a holiday, if I was lucky. And they just think penalty rates are an old-fashioned institution. No, penalty rates actually put food on the table for working-class families. Penalty rates actually put shoes on children's feet and school uniforms on their back. But, given that those opposite are so remote, so privileged, on a $200,000-a-year base rate, how could they ever understand how hard it is for working-class families to battle? If there's one thing we need to do, it's to get rid of this coalition government. The National Party, who supposedly represent rural and regional Australia—some of the poorest regions in the country—talk a big game when they're up in the bush, but when they come in here they back cuts to penalty rates; they back tax cuts for the millionaires, the billionaires and the multinational corporations. And then they wonder why they're being abandoned by traditional National Party voters. I'll tell you why they're being abandoned: the public have had enough of them kowtowing to the Liberals. They're the doormat of the Liberals when they're down here. They're not taking the right steps to protect rural and regional Australia on welfare, on wages, on climate change. It's time for a change. It's time for a new government. It's time for a Labor government that looks after working people in this country.
Economy | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
Maybe we can do better this time. Last month the Minister for Finance argued that record-low wage growth was a deliberate design feature of the Australian economy. Is the coalition government's...
Maybe we can do better this time. Last month the Minister for Finance argued that record-low wage growth was a deliberate design feature of the Australian economy. Is the coalition government's decision to cut wages, and continued failure to do anything to address record-low wage growth, a part of its deliberate design to leave Australian workers worse off?
Mr President, this minister doesn't have a clue. What we've asked, simply, is: how does cutting penalty rates relate to higher wages? The minister should be drawn to the question. If she doesn't...
Mr President, this minister doesn't have a clue. What we've asked, simply, is: how does cutting penalty rates relate to higher wages? The minister should be drawn to the question. If she doesn't know, she should just say she hasn't got a clue.
In addition to overseeing record-low wage growth and a cut in forecast wage growth, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government has voted eight times to cut the wages of over 700,000 workers relying...
In addition to overseeing record-low wage growth and a cut in forecast wage growth, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government has voted eight times to cut the wages of over 700,000 workers relying on penalty rates. How does cutting wages reflect a commitment to higher wages?
I raise a point of order on relevance. I simply asked: can the minister confirm that, in addition to overseeing record low wage growth, the government last night cut forecast wage growth? That's...
I raise a point of order on relevance. I simply asked: can the minister confirm that, in addition to overseeing record low wage growth, the government last night cut forecast wage growth? That's the question. The minister should be drawn to the question.
My question is to the minister representing the Minister for Jobs and Industrial Relations, Senator Payne. I refer to the Treasurer, who last night told Australians: … every one of us wants...
My question is to the minister representing the Minister for Jobs and Industrial Relations, Senator Payne. I refer to the Treasurer, who last night told Australians: … every one of us wants to see wages growing faster. Can the minister confirm that, in addition to overseeing record-low wage growth, the government last night cut forecast wage growth? If so, by how much?
Yesterday Labor circulated a second reading amendment for what we expected to be an earlier version of this bill to the House crossbench, proposing the government should expand the payment to...
Yesterday Labor circulated a second reading amendment for what we expected to be an earlier version of this bill to the House crossbench, proposing the government should expand the payment to those on Newstart, youth allowance and other payments. Never in our wildest dreams did we anticipate it would be so successful so quickly. Labor called on the government to extend the one-off payment to other people on means-tested income support, including Abstudy, Austudy, double orphan pension, Newstart allowance, parenting payment, partner allowance, sickness allowance, special benefit, widow allowance, wife pension, youth allowance and veteran payment. Of course it was good to see that this bill has been changed, but it seemed that even the Treasurer was taken by surprise. On Nine News last night, when he was asked directly about extending the payment to people on Newstart, he didn't say yes; he said: Well, Newstart does go up twice a year when it's indexed. But, importantly, the majority of people on Newstart move to another payment, or off Newstart, within 12 months. They hopefully go into work, and many have been doing that. But it was a totally different script this morning. The Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, told ABC Radio: Well, a couple of things. Firstly, the energy supplement will be extended to people on Newstart. Sabra Lane said: It will be? Josh Frydenberg said: It will be. What a turnaround! This budget hasn't lasted overnight. It didn't last from Lateline to lunch. This just shows you how bad this rabble of a government is—an absolute rabble of a government, with a Treasurer who can't even get his budget to hang in overnight. What a rabble! What a terrible government! You are terrible! You need to go quickly. You should call an election soon and let the public determine that this rabble won't last any longer. You are pathetic! They are a rabble—that's what they are. They know they're a rabble. Look at their heads—hanging their heads in shame. Their budget doesn't last overnight. You are a pathetic joke—an absolute rabble of a government. You must go quickly. Go quickly!
Supply Bill (No. 1) 2019-2020, Supply Bill (No. 2) 2019-2020, Supply (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2019-2020; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
by leave—Could I just indicate that it did seem like a valedictory speech from Senator Macdonald. Senator Macdonald and I have got a long history in this place—as long as I've been...
by leave—Could I just indicate that it did seem like a valedictory speech from Senator Macdonald. Senator Macdonald and I have got a long history in this place—as long as I've been here. I just indicate that he is the ultimate Liberal warrior; there is no question about that. I think that, at times, he's been cantankerous, he's been curmudgeonly, but he has always run the Liberal line. I wish him and Lesley all the best for the future. I don't want him to come back!
Labor supports these supply bills. We will not block supply.
Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2018-2019, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2018-2019, Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2018-2019; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
This package of bills is required to ensure that the ordinary functions of government continue for the remainder of the 2018-19 financial year. The bills appropriate a total of around $3.3...
This package of bills is required to ensure that the ordinary functions of government continue for the remainder of the 2018-19 financial year. The bills appropriate a total of around $3.3 billion in the 2018-19 financial year. This amount is already incorporated into the budget bottom line, as presented in the 2018-19 MYEFO. Labor will not block supply. Despite all their talk about being better economic and fiscal managers, debt is at record highs and growing under the Liberals. Net debt has more than doubled on their watch and is now a record $360 billion, and gross debt has crashed through half a trillion dollars for the first time ever in the country's history—it has reached a record $543.3 billion—all on the coalition's watch. Both kinds of debt have been growing faster under the Liberals, in rosy global conditions, than they did under Labor, which had a global financial crisis to contend with. Scott Morrison and his Liberals have no-one else to blame but themselves for their record and growing debt. In the last year alone, the Liberals have blown $200 million on political ads to distract from their cuts and chaos and the division and dysfunction that has consumed this rabble of a government. Every week, the government spends $100 million on cash refunds for excess franking credits for people who don't pay any tax—an unsustainable tax loophole that the vast majority of Australians don't access. The budget is a mess, and debt is at record highs because of the Liberals' twisted priorities, including giving unsustainable tax breaks to those who need them least and spraying around hundreds of millions of dollars on political ads. Scott Morrison and the Liberals aren't managing the economy or the budget in the interests of ordinary Australians. Under the Liberals, the economy is not working for all. Everything's going up except people's wages. A strong economy needs a stable government. The Liberals are so divided, so dysfunctional, so much of a rabble, that they can't manage themselves. Five years of the Liberals' cuts and chaos have damaged the economy. Under the Liberals, wages growth is the slowest on record, childcare costs are up 24 per cent, power bills are up 15 per cent and private healthcare costs are up 30 per cent. Company profits are growing six times faster than wages. Can you believe it—profits going up six times faster than wages? Around 1.8 million Australians are underemployed, meaning they can't find enough hours at work. Living standards are stagnating and household debt is at record highs. The Liberals' only plan has been cuts to Medicare, cuts to schools and massive tax cuts to the banks. Labor has a plan to give all Australians a fair go, not just the banks and the top end of town. We will pay for our plan by making multinationals pay their fair share of tax, closing loopholes mostly used by the top end of town and not giving the big banks a tax cut. We have a Fair Go Action Plan to fix our schools and hospitals, ease pressure on household budgets, stand up for workers, invest in cheaper, cleaner energy and build a strong economy that works for all. Our Fair Go Action Plan fixes schools and hospitals, delivers bigger tax cuts for workers and puts money back into the pockets of everyday Australians. That's good for the whole economy. Labor has led the way when it comes to budget repair, and we will continue to display the fiscal and economic leadership the government has been incapable of. The budget that the coalition brought down last night fails to reverse cuts to schools and hospitals, and fails to reverse cuts to TAFE and apprenticeships. In the past six years, the Liberals have cut $3 billion from TAFE and skills, and cut 150,000 apprenticeship places. They promise a surplus that is subsidised by short-changing people with disability through a massive underspend in the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The budget also confirms that the economy is not working for everyday Australians—everything is going up except wages. Wages growth has again been cut. Economic growth is slowing, downgraded from MYEFO. Household consumption is down, downgraded from MYEFO. The budget confirms that net debt has more than doubled under the Liberals' watch. That's nearly $15,000 for every person in Australia. After doubling the debt, their promise to pay it down is laughable. Look, the Liberals will say anything over the next six weeks to cover up for six years of cuts and chaos. Labor will support the tax cuts that begin on 1 July for working and middle-class people. This is essentially a copy of what we proposed last year, and they are simply catching us up. A Shorten Labor government—through our Fair Go Action Plan—will fix our schools and hospitals, ease pressure on family budgets, stand up for workers, invest in cheaper, cleaner energy and build a strong economy that works for all of us. We will pay for it by making multinationals pay their fair share of tax and closing tax loopholes used by the top end of town. Bill Shorten and Labor will deliver a fair go for all Australians, not just the top end of town. And the sooner Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister, calls an election, the better, because the sooner we will get this rabble of a government off the government benches and into opposition.
Parliamentary Transparency Charter | Motions | Senate debates
This is not about the Greens. This is about racism. This is about a situation where we could have this society deteriorate to the same situation as we have in the worst areas of the United...
This is not about the Greens. This is about racism. This is about a situation where we could have this society deteriorate to the same situation as we have in the worst areas of the United States. For the Greens to stand up here and do as they always do in that they are purer, they are better, they have got all the knowledge and all the wisdom is just another example of why they will never get more than seven, eight, nine or 10 per cent of the voting public in this country—because they just don't get it. You want to turn this into being about you. It's not about you. It's about making this place a better country. I'm just sick and tired of the Greens at times, getting up here when we could be making clear and unequivocal statements about where we head as a nation. That the Greens suddenly turn it into a political position to try and promote their deteriorating electoral position in this country is just disgusting. It's absolutely disgusting. We had an opportunity today to be a combined Senate—a Senate that was dealing with the issues. But you couldn't let that go. I've watched you now for 11 years. It's always about the Greens. It's always about some political advantage. It's just not good enough today. You should have actually accepted that the Senate was certainly considering this in an appropriate way and made the appropriate points—but it wasn't good enough for the Greens, not pure enough for the Greens. Senator Di Natale interjecting— Senator Di Natale, if you could get your own house in order then you might have some credibility when you come in here. But the Greens political party has got no credibility. If you could just get your house in order then maybe someone would take you seriously, because no-one does at the moment.
| Matters of Public Importance | Senate debates
Senator Duniam talks about madness, and I think that's quite appropriate for talking about climate change in the coalition. The madness that has dominated the coalition for over 10 years about...
Senator Duniam talks about madness, and I think that's quite appropriate for talking about climate change in the coalition. The madness that has dominated the coalition for over 10 years about climate change and coal-fired power stations is just a disgrace. The situation we now have is this hypocritical proposition from the Greens: 'The impacts of climate change are ravaging Australia right now'. We know that. Labor understand that. Yet it goes on to say, 'yet the Liberal, National and Labor parties are intent on propping up coal.' A purely political position adopted by the Greens! Hypocrisy just oozes out of them. In 2009 there was an opportunity to have a carbon pollution reduction scheme, but, because it didn't meet this pure standard that the Greens wanted, they voted with Mr Abbott and the Liberal Party to kill a price on carbon. It's crazy for them to stand up here. Phil Coorey in 28 June 2014 wrote this very interesting article about climate change, which said: The only mainstream party never to have taken a risk, never to have put any skin in the game, and never to have lost a vote over it, is the Greens. Throughout the entire eight-year saga, they have chained themselves to the altar of policy purity and watched others suffer for their ideals. The result is a big fat nothing. … … … Because they believed the CPRS to be inadequate, they voted it down twice. The second time was the day after Abbott knocked off Turnbull. Liberal senators Judith Troeth and Sue Boyce realising the need to establish a foothold for carbon pricing, crossed the floor to vote with Labor. The Greens helped the Coalition kill it. That's the record of the Greens when it comes to climate change. They have absolutely nothing to be proud of. When we lost government, we produced a report on its implications and how it affected the Labor Party. The report said that dealing with the Greens caused great harm to both Labor and environmental policy objectives. The raison d'etre for the Greens party over the last decade has been to attack, undermine and/or colonise the Labor Party's policies with an increasing ferocity in an attempt to win over one or two inner-city seats in Melbourne and Sydney. The effect has been that these policy objectives have themselves been undermined, attacked and turned into political footballs. Had the Greens supported the CPRS, Australia would have transitioned to a carbon pricing scheme years ago and with the support of the Australian public. Rather than seize this historical opportunity, harness the mood of the nation and build on the momentum the Greens party set in train a bitter and divisive political storm. I think if you cut this back to what it really means, it was the Greens' political stupidity, their political purity, their self-interest and, deep down, a lack of care for the environment. If they actually cared about the environment they would have done something about it. I have said on many occasions in this place that I brought my family up on the back of coal. I worked at Liddell power station. It was a piece of crap back in 1973 when I started work there, and it's even worse now. There's absolutely no reason why we should be putting any public money into Liddell power station. But the hypocrisy of the Greens is absolutely huge. I looked after families in the Muswellbrook-Singleton area who relied on coal to bring their families up, but the reality is that coal, as a baseload proposition, is now not the modern way to produce power. That's the reality. We hear lots of talk about coal. We heard Senator Duniam talk about the coal for the cement factory in Tasmania. The reality is, unless there is some new scientific revolution about how to produce either steel or cement without coking coal, we've got a problem. Coal will be around for a long time to come, producing coke, producing steel and producing cement. That's why you produce metalliferous coal, coking coal. There's a big difference between coking coal and steaming coal. Even the CFMEU understand that there is an issue with the long-term viability of steaming coal, and that's why we have indicated that we will take steps to reduce carbon pollution in this country. We will probably do it without the Greens support. If the Greens continue to run this ideological purity, this nonsense that they talk about all of the time and use as an excuse not to deliver a decent scheme in this country, then my view is they will pay a big price for it in forthcoming elections. You can tell the Labor Party that you won't be supporting our policy, but that will have repercussions for the Greens in future elections. I think the public are over it. I won't be lectured by the Greens on climate change. I won't be lectured by the Greens on any issue where they are running ideological purity over common sense. It's common sense to actually deal with this issue. Workers will be working producing coking coal for years to come. Steaming coal will decline. What we need to do is to make sure that we have the technology and the jobs to look after the workers in the Hunter Valley, in Queensland and in Victoria. I was in the Latrobe Valley last week, and the workers down there don't know how long their jobs are going to go. Good, working-class families are concerned about their future, and they're entitled to be. We need a government, a Labor government, who will look at ensuring that we have a modern industry in renewable energy in this country and provide opportunities for coalminers around the country. That won't be achievable if we continue to support the nonsense that the Greens spout about coal in this country. There is always going to be a need, unless there is a massive change, for coking coal in this country. I want to make sure that we have alternative jobs for workers in coalmining areas in this country. I don't want them to be treated the same as the workers in the Appalachians in the US, where they are thrown on the scrap heap and left to rely on nothing but a terrible social security system in the United States. We want to have new skills and new jobs, and only a Labor government will deliver that. It's only Labor that understands these issues. The Greens patently do not. They are too busy carving each other up. They are too busy attacking each other. They are in chaos and disarray as a political party. You've only got to look at what they're doing. I wish they would, for once, consider what we need to do to actually change the situation in this country.