Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Speaking on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2019-2020, Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2019-2020 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2019-2020, I would like to start by saying that the HILDA survey yesterday adds to the wealth of evidence that we've had in recent years that will dispel the myth that Liberal governments are good economic managers. I know this will generate a crisis of identity over there on the other side, because, if they're not good economic managers, then what's the point of them? Every election they peddle this falsehood about their economic credentials. They go out there beating their breasts about what good economic managers they are and what a strong economy they preside over, despite the wealth of evidence to the contrary. They've been peddling it for so long they actually believe it.

HILDA, the household income survey that came out yesterday, is for a period of over 10 years. It wasn't a fly-by-night survey; this is a very comprehensive survey of 17,000 Australians. What it found was that people are actually earning less now than in 2013, when this government came to office. Think about that: after six years of being told what great economic managers they are, Australians have less money in their pockets to spend than they did when the government came to office. What an absolute indictment of their economic record in government. There were two increases of disposable income in the survey period. Do you know what? They were under the former Labor government. The only meaningful increases in disposable income over the period of this HILDA survey—more than $4,000 in a single year in 2009, and another increase in 2012—were under Labor governments. Those opposite will talk about their economic credentials and say what great economic managers they are, but the facts are that Australians do better under Labor governments.

There have been 28 years of economic growth. It is unparalleled in modern world history. We've not had a recession in this country—knock on wood—for 28 years. As we know, the genesis of that was in the Hawke-Keating years—another great reforming Labor government. What have we had for the past six years? Six years of treading water—either doing nothing or going backwards. That's the legacy of this government. It is probably worse than the legacy of the Fraser government back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when nothing happened. The HILDA data shows that people are getting poorer in this country under the Liberals. We've just had the election result. We acknowledge the election result. Of course we live by it and we are disappointed in the result. Australians had their say and they decided to return this government, but we will spend every day for the next three years reminding this government that they need to do a better job managing this economy, because the job they've done for the past six years has been absolutely appalling.

Let's look at some of the data about the economy. This is a report card on the past six years. Economic growth is the slowest it's been for the 10 years since the GFC. Those opposite like to pretend the GFC never happened, like it was some bad dream, like a Dallas episode. Just forget it ever happened. The GFC was real. It absolutely smashed economies all around the world. They were smashed by the GFC, but it was a Labor government here in Australia—with partnership from business, it must be said—that saved this country from going into recession. Labor, in partnership with business, stopped this country going into recession. People were kept in their jobs to prevent mass unemployment and the terrible results that can occur from mass unemployment.

What we've had since then, of course, is relatively good economic times. Things have been bouncing along. What we've seen over the last years since the GFC is that our international competitors—the US, the UK, Europe, Asia—have all been barrelling along quite nicely. Their growth is going up and their unemployment is coming down. But six years of this mob opposite, and it is just absolutely flatlining. Australia is flatlining under the Liberals.

Here is another indicator: the national economy under the Liberals is falling from the eighth-fastest-growing economy in the OECD to 20th today. We have fallen 12 spots. Where is the justification for this? Those opposite will say what great economic managers they are, but they've dropped 12 spots. We are now in the longest per capita recession since 1982. Wages growth has been stuck on or around record lows under the Liberals. There is weak consumption. Productivity has actually fallen for four consecutive quarters. I don't believe that the current Treasurer, who is in love with his own reflection, has seen one-quarter of productivity growth under his so-called economic leadership. Household spending is weak. Unemployment's up. I think the national unemployment rate is around 5.2 per cent, but in Tasmania it's 6.7 per cent. There is 6.7 per cent unemployment in Tasmania under six years of Liberal government in Tasmania and six years of Liberal government in Canberra. Youth unemployment nationally is 12 per cent, more than double the national average. As we know, in regions, certainly in regions in my electorate, youth unemployment is sometimes even double that.

The cash rate is just one per cent. Anybody with a mortgage is not going to complain too much about low interest rates—let's be clear about that—but pensioners who rely on income from deeming rates rely on higher interest. The signal of low interest is that the economy has flatlined. It needs a boost. Interest rates can't go any lower. What is this government going to do about supercharging the economy and getting it going? They've done nothing for six years. Whatever they've been doing for the last six years hasn't worked. They need to try something else.

So we've got all these failures. All this data is about the macro economy. As for the budget figures, they've doubled net debt. They went into the 2013 election talking about a budget emergency. In six years they've doubled net debt. They are the only government in Australian history to have a gross debt of over half a trillion dollars, yet they would like us to believe that they are the economic wunderkinds of the world. They believe their own hype on the economy, but they just can't be believed.

Not only are they not good economic managers, they are poor stewards of society in general, particularly of those elements of society designed to protect the most vulnerable: health, fail; education, fail; aged care, fail. They talk a lot about regional development, but it's a fail. Nowhere are this government's failures on the economy, health, education, aged care and regional development starker than in my home state of Tasmania. In Tasmania and nationally, unemployment is the worst that it's been for a long time. The unemployment rate in Tasmania is 6.7 per cent; the national average is 5.2 per cent. The participation rate in Tasmania is 60.2 per cent; the national average is 66 per cent. Compare those to our closest neighbour, the Labor-led state of Victoria, where the unemployment rate is just 4.7 per cent—better than the national average—and the participation rate is 66 per cent. So whenever the Treasurer gets to his feet in this place to boast about his credentials and whatever economic record he's talking about, he can thank Dan Andrews in Victoria and Anastasia Palaszczuk in Queensland, because they are holding him up. It is their economic prowess and their economic results that are holding up the national average. The member for Kooyong has got nothing to boast about. He should be thanking every day the Labor premiers of Victoria and Queensland and, indeed, of Western Australia for the national figures, because the Liberal states are certainly not holding up their end of the bargain.

The economy in Tasmania is so bad that the state Liberal government is preparing to slash $450 million in expenditure and has warned that the health system will not be spared. This is a health system that after six years of Liberal government is on its knees, with people dying—literally, not figuratively—in emergency waiting rooms, with ambulances ramped for hours and with family members of patients being asked to drive the ambulance so the single crew member can try to keep their loved one alive in the back of the ambulance on the way to hospital. That's how bad it is in my state of Tasmania. They're not crewing the ambulances enough, and family members are behind the wheel of the ambulance. It's just farcical. This is a health system where nurses and doctors are staggering on their feet, exhausted from the overtime, and the government stubbornly fails to employ enough staff on wards. They always promise 'more nurses are coming, we promise'. They're 'gunna, gunna, gunna'. They're the 'gunna' government: they're gunna do this, gunna do that. The health system in Tasmania has the worst code 1 ambulance response time in the country, with response times for category 1 patients at 34.4 minutes. We also have the slowest triple 0 answering times in the country. And this is the health system that the Tasmanian Liberal Treasurer says can afford more cuts.

In Tasmania we have people sleeping under bridges in the depths of winter because there's nowhere else to stay. Government failures to plan for and provide affordable housing are markedly changing the face of homelessness not just in Tasmania but nationally. Homelessness is no longer the preserve of people at the margins—the mentally ill or those suffering from addiction. People with jobs, with kids in school, are sleeping in cars and in parks because they can't find somewhere affordable to live. People who should be enjoying a life of retirement are finding themselves in poverty and out on the streets. And increasingly they are women. The ABS reports there has been a 42 per cent increase in people over 65 paying unaffordable rent since 2011. Do you know what happens when rent's unaffordable? You lose your home. The 2018 Anglicare Rental Affordability Snapshot reveals that less than two per cent of available housing stock is affordable for a single person on an age pension. Women over 55 are the fastest growing category of people experiencing homelessness in Australia. People live from pay cheque to pay cheque these days. There's not much capacity in saved income. We know that to be true. Any of us who lives from pay cheque to pay cheque, who doesn't have savings in the bank or a good deal of equity in property is but one or two pay cheques away from being on the street ourselves. Anybody in this building who thinks they're on a good income and in a good job is one or two pay cheques away from that themselves. There but for the grace of God go we. I don't think that's the sort of society we should be living in.

There are more than 3,500 Tasmanians on the state's public housing list. Some of them have been there for years and have little prospect of getting off because there are people with more urgent needs who are always getting in front of them. Where is the political will and the money to fix this? The state government's response to this crisis has been to offer $5 million to expand crisis accommodation. That will help 70 people. There are 3,500 people on the housing list, and they government are going to help 70. It's not enough. It's not nearly enough. Temporary crisis accommodation for 70 people does not fix a housing crisis. It's not even a bandaid.

Let's talk about infrastructure in Tasmania. There's the airport roundabout on the border of my electorate and the electorate of the member for Franklin that was promised in 2016. They haven't turned the first sod. It hasn't happened. It's not happening. Where is it? Just this morning, the Kentish Council in my electorate was saying that they've been left hanging for the $3.4 million irrigation rollout that they were promised by this government in the election. There's been no word from the government about the $3.4 million for their vitally needed irrigation rollout. There's the Bridgewater Bridge, which I asked the Deputy Prime Minister about. When will that start? He doesn't know. This is a government that governs by slogans and spin. 'Have a go, you'll get a go.' 'Whose side are you on?' 'How good is it?' It's laughable. Those opposite are seeking to govern by an advertising jingle, and little wonder when an ad man is in charge—a bloke who spits in your face and tells you it's raining. It's not good enough. I commend the bill to the Chamber.

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