Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I second the amendment. This is a really important debate for this parliament. The fact that the government somehow thinks that it has a mandate to completely overrule the processes of this parliament is simply ridiculous. It is the job of this parliament to put legislation under scrutiny, and it is particularly important that we put this legislation, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Relief So Working Australians Keep More Of Their Money) Bill 2019, under scrutiny, because it is a $95 billion proposal on the budget at a time when our economy is absolutely flatlining. The government seems to be completely oblivious to what is actually happening with the economy. Today we had the Reserve Bank, for the second time, lower interest rates. It has lowered interest rates below what they were during the global financial crisis, a crisis that, if it had not been for the intervention of the government of the day, would have left thousands of Australians out of work. That is what a good government does. It looks at the economic circumstances and it makes policy accordingly.

With these amendments, we are putting forward a proposal, a sensible proposal, that stimulates the economy now. It makes sure that every single Australian worker receives a tax cut in this term, because we know we need to put money into the economy now in order to stimulate growth. When the economy is flatlining, do you know who it hits first? It hits low-skilled workers first. It hits workers in our regions. Our regions are the canaries in the coalmine when it comes to our economy. They are where we are seeing, and will see, hits to the economy—in seats like the member for Flynn's, which has such huge unemployment, and in areas like Gladstone, where unemployment is way too high. We should be doing better. That is what happens when your economy is flatlining. But this government does not have a plan to deal with what is happening to the economy now.

Labor is sensibly proposing that we bring forward part of the stage 2 tax cuts. I say to all of those opposite, but particularly to the new members, who are working their way through how this place works and what amendments are doing: if you new members of parliament vote against the amendments we are putting forward you will be voting against a tax cut in this term for every working Australian—that is, for every working Australian in your electorates, particularly those that have substantially high unemployment rates and that need that economic stimulus now.

Also, part of our proposal is to bring forward infrastructure, absolutely critical infrastructure that puts real money, real jobs and real projects into economies today. There are hundreds of shovel-ready projects across the country, many of which the government has promised. We heard the Leader of the Opposition talk about when they have promised them—the Linkfield Road is in 2026. I went to seats all around the country and I don't remember when the government was saying, 'We're going to build this new road, this new train station, a new roundabout or a new tunnel' that, somehow or other, those projects would not be delivered until 2026. That's the reality—or the farce—behind this government's infrastructure spending. We have said that stimulus needs to be in the economy now. We want to work with the government on bringing those projects forward. We know some of them take a long time. We understand that. But we want to bring them forward so we can get that stimulus into the economy now.

The proposals before this parliament are in the national economic interest. What this government is trying to do is completely—and foolishly, frankly—decide that it cannot move, that it cannot meet the times that we're in. Without the government sensibly working with Labor to actually look at what infrastructure projects we can bring forward, we know what's going to happen. The economy is flatlining, and our regions are already suffering. If the government does not accept these proposals, it will be voting against putting money into the pockets of every single working Australian, against stimulating the economy now and against making sure that we don't see the sort of crisis we were going to face under the global financial crisis, where thousands of Australians would have been unemployed or in insecure and low-paid work because of the actions of or the failure of a government. It is on this government's head if that's what occurs.

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