Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Good policy does not live in a vacuum and it is not an 'operational matter'. Under Mr Abbott's government, policy has become a descriptor for repeated slaps in the face to the Australian people. The days of sensible government decision making went with the election of the Abbott government. Government policy announcements are more akin to an ambush or a hit-and-run. The days of working up detailed policies, consulting on them, bringing in the community and building consensus are long gone under Mr Abbott's team of misfits. Good policy might well start in-house, but ultimately it must be owned by the community.

Let us remember what they said they would be like when they got into government just nine short months ago. On 18 September 2013, Paul Kelly, in The Australian, wrote:

Tony Abbott has signalled a new style of Coalition government based on collaborative ties with business, a clearer set of priorities, less frenetic, more predictable and geared to stability, not fashion.

With the exception of being out of fashion, it is hard to see much else that has held true. In his own words, the Prime Minister, on 16 September 2013, said:

The Australian people expect a government that is upfront, speaks plainly and does the essentials well.

That is Mr Tony Abbot's own yardstick. He has, in fact, failed to meet that measure time and time again.

So let us look at the record of failures under this government: the triple backfiip over Better Schools funding; the botched Qantas support plan; pushing Holden off a cliff and daring Toyota to leave Australia too, throwing manufacturing jobs under a bus; handing billions of dollars to the Reserve bank without prompting; doubling the debt; an uncapped increase on the nation's credit card; the radical proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act; the unwinding of Freedom of Information laws; the repeated clampdown on secrecy and a lack of transparency on our borders and to our government; and—this is current—giving us a new foreign affairs policy , for the Middle East, courtesy of Senator Brandis. On each and every occasion the government failed to consult the Australian people, they failed to explain their plans or their policies and they failed their own measure of responsible, adult government.

Then they start just plain misleading, which brings me to the federal budget—the budget of broken promises and mistruths to the Australian people. It started with a scare and ended with horrors. The National Commission of Audit was always going to be ugly. When you put Dracula in charge of the blood bank you get some scary results, and that is what the IPA, the Business Council and Tony Shepherd delivered. The report in essence recommended the wholesale removal of the federal government from the Australian society and way of life.

I challenge any Liberal and National Party member to point to what three-word slogan suggested they would all but wind up the federal government and tell the sickest, the most vulnerable, people with a disability, seniors, job seekers, university students and lower and middle Australia that they are were going to be on their own under an Abbott government. Which three-word slogan covered that promise? Which glossy flyer included that betrayal to the Australian way of life? That is what the Commission of Audit did. We assumed that it would be a scare campaign to soften up the expectations of the federal budget. What we did not appreciate was that it would be an actual blueprint for their actions in government.

On budget night the Treasurer danced in his office to the song Best Day of My Life and then he went into the chamber and danced on the grave of the Liberal Party's election promises. By the time the Treasurer sat down at 8.01 pm there could be no doubt that this was not the government that the Australian people had been promised. Curiously, the budget nasties were not hidden in the back pages, hoping that no-one would find them. They were the centrepiece of the budget. There was not a constituency that had not been betrayed, there was not a promise left unbroken and there was not a group of Australians that had not been misled.

You will remember these phrases from before the election: 'no cuts to education'—broken; 'no cuts to health'—broken; 'no changes to pensions'—broken; 'less taxes, not more'—broken. The dismantling of Medicare, leaving lower and middle income households worse off, punishing young job seekers, adding greater debt to students, and doing away with transparency and accountability reforms are all attacks on the Australian way of life and all part of the coalition's budget of broken promises. When Senator Williams told the ABC that he could not find a single person in the community that supported the government's paid parental leave scheme he could well have been referring to the entire budget.

The Labor Party stands strongly against this budget and against the hurt being inflicted on lower- and middle-income families by Mr Tony Abbott and Mr Joe Hockey. We oppose the attacks and we also oppose the methods that have been used by what used to call itself 'an adult and responsible' government. They have certainly dropped that phrase in recent times.

Let us look at the yardstick again that this government set. 'A new style of coalition government'—nope, this is the Liberal-National playbook used by Mr Campbell Newman in Queensland. 'Collaborative ties with business' was the phrase they used—just ask Qantas, Holden and SPC what they think about that. They said, 'A clearer set of priorities'—this one might just sneak through, because they aim consistently and negatively at lower and middle Australia. 'Less frenetic' was their version—not one but two backflips on Better Schools funding. They claimed, 'More predictable'—who could have seen Knights and Dames coming? 'Geared to stability'—I think that went out the door as Mr Turnbull left the Wild Duck restaurant, quite frankly. A fail mark on every score.

There is another way to develop, consider and implement policy in Australia. The Better Schools, or Gonksi, and NDIS conversations were two high points in policy development. Integrating solid values by government, community ownership of an idea, social media buy-in and a national wave of support, they are two detailed nation-changing policies which are now reality. They both followed similar processes: they started with a set of values expressed clearly by government, followed by detailed consultation and subsequent reports by experts in the field, all released and shared with community. A national debate flowed from those proposals and government listened and moved with the community. Along the way, a national debate and two strong grassroots movements emerged, completely independent of government's own media campaign. They struck a nerve because they treated the Australian people like adults.

The reason that the 'Every Australian Counts' and 'I give a Gonski' campaigns were able to form and support a government policy was because the policy development was conducted incrementally, carefully and in full public gaze. Labor brought the community in and we are all the stronger for it. Both policies were floated and allowed the space to percolate, connect and resonate with the community. Government was confident enough in itself to let the ideas grow outside of its grasp. It showed maturity and the nation was rewarded with policy outcomes.

Labor's policy processes have begun again and we are again showing maturity in our policy processes. The national policy forum is full steam ahead, with local forums being held regularly. New members to the Labor caucus are not being sidelined, like in the coalition, but are actively driving change. Our newest crop of Labor politicians contains serious policy and political grunt. Dr Jim Chalmers, my own local member, sits comfortably in this cohort and is holding regular policy forums across regional Queensland, and I look forward to hosting a few with him.

Bob Hawke used to say, 'If you can't ride two horses at the same time you should get out of the circus.' The two horses that any modern political party needs to ride are day-to-day politics and long-term policy development. Working together and riding in the same direction is something Labor is doing now as we take the fight up to the government and develop long-term strategies for the party and the nation's future. While we are riding two horses, Tony Abbott is looking more like a failed rodeo clown.