Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Swan emphasised the importance of facts. The member for Corangamite talked about the importance of numbers. I agree. It's been 173 days since Scott Morrison became Prime Minister of this country. Here are some facts about the number 173. One hundred and seventy-three is an odd number; 173 is a deficient number; and 173, for those who like mathematical terms, is known as an odious number—odd, deficient, and odious. I think that's a pretty good description of this government's 173 days under Prime Minister Morrison.

The Australian economy is not working. Australians are, by nature, hardworking and entrepreneurial, but this economy under the Morrison government is failing people. People cannot get secure employment. People are facing the challenges of underemployment and unemployment. The government is failing weekend workers, who have had their penalty rates cut, and it is failing people who work in essential services. The only plan that this government has is a plan for cuts and chaos. Cuts of $7.8 million to Royal Perth Hospital, which services my constituents, and, at times, services the constituents of the member for Tangney. Chaos: a health minister who is under siege by one of his own former colleagues, now on the crossbench. Cuts of $1 billion to pensioner concessions. Chaos: four ministers for human services, and the current one, the member for Stirling, rushes to get out the door and away from this deficient, odious government. Cuts to the pension for around 370,000 pensioners by as much as $12,000 a year by changing the pension assets test. And chaos, with Western Australia getting the worst, slowest and oldest technology rollout in the NBN. Cuts and chaos is not an economic plan.

But maybe this government just can't see these challenges because its members are too focused on their own economic interests. The Australian, always interested in economic matters, has been digging into the economic interests of the member for Moore, who used LinkedIn to promote his business—and I see one of the biggest proponents for LinkedIn here in the chamber: Ed Husic, the member for Chifley. Using LinkedIn to promote your own business interests on your parliamentary page is terrible. Using it to promote the sale of units in the member for Swan's electorate—

See this speech in context