Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

These appropriation bills 3 and 4 allocate funding so that government services, public works and government programs can continue. Public expenditure of course relies on sound economic management by the government. Despite the Morrison government's spin and boasting, this government's economic management record highlights failure and incompetence. When I talk about the government's spin, this is a government that brought forward the last budget to 2 April in order to be able to supposedly bring forward a budget that was in the black and then go into an election immediately afterwards on the claim that they were good economic managers. I quote exactly what the Treasurer said in his opening line on that evening: 'Tonight, I announce that the budget is back in the black.'

The budget has never been in the black and the way things are going it is unlikely to be. I believe that the Australian people are getting a little sick and tired of the spin that comes from this government on every single issue. You can get away with it up to a point, but this government has now been in office for almost seven years—longer than the full term of office of the last Labor government. Yet again, as we saw in question time today, the Treasurer will come into the chamber and pretend that all is well; that his government is managing the economy beautifully; and that it's all the fault of the previous Labor government. This is almost seven years into their term of office. It is time this government took responsibility for their own poor track record, because the public don't want to hear spin. They want to see a government that's telling them the truth and doing what is necessary in order to get the economy back on track.

Given what has happened in recent times, it is unlikely that the budget will get back in the black, as the Treasurer keeps saying. I note that his new spin is now that it's a 'balanced' budget. Whatever the term 'balance' means I don't know, but I do know that the economy of Australia is struggling. We now see the government coming into the chamber almost on a daily basis, hiding behind the coronavirus and the fires of the last summer, saying that the impact on our economy from the fires and the coronavirus is why they may not be able to get the budget back in the black.

The facts are clear. The reality is that even before the coronavirus and the fires the Australian economy was sluggish. Wages were stagnant. Gross national debt went from $280 billion when the government took office to $570 billion. It has more than doubled. This is this government's debt. Net debt has gone from $175 billion to, last Friday, the latest figure is $430 billion—2½ times what it was when this government took office. They haven't got net debt or gross debt down; it's actually increased under their watch.

We know that two million people are either unemployed or underemployed; That is, they are looking for work or looking for more work. We've seen private health insurance rates drop markedly because people simply cannot afford to pay the private health insurance premiums. Household debt has reached record highs. I read only today that 40 per cent of recent retirees are struggling financially. That is a statement from Industry Super Australia.

The greatest indicator of all that the economy is struggling is the record low interest rates of 0.75 per cent. When this government came to office they were around three per cent. To fall to 0.75 per cent, which is less than inflation, is saying that the Australian economy is struggling. That's why the Reserve Bank has dropped their interest rate to 0.75 per cent, and we hear that tomorrow it might even fall further. The Reserve Bank, of all authorities in this country, is a strong and credible organisation whose advice we should look to and take seriously. If the Reserve Bank Board is saying that interest rates have had to come down to 0.75 per cent and maybe have to go even further, it's because the Australian economy is struggling and the Reserve Bank Board is trying to do what they can to stimulate the economy.

Then, the latest of those figures that one can point to, to assess whether the Australian economy is doing well or not, is the value of the Australian dollar against the US dollar. Today it has fallen to 0.65 of a US dollar—that is, 65 cents US for each Australian dollar—one of the lowest figures that I can recall in a long time. The reason it has fallen is that the global confidence in the Australian economy is also falling, and that's why the dollar falls.

This is a government that fails to understand what needs to be done and, instead of perhaps spending more money on infrastructure projects that it could bring forward or establishing a stimulus package similar to what the Rudd-Gillard governments did, this is a government that goes in the opposite direction. It cuts public funding to the NDIS by $4.6 billion in order to try and go back to the Australian people and say, 'Look, we balanced the budget.' We've done it on the back of some of the most vulnerable people in this country by not allocating to them the funds that were set aside for them of $4.6 billion! As we keep hearing, by cutting Medicare bulk billing incentives in regional parts of Australia right now, again, people who are going to doctors, and who obviously need medical support, are finding they may have to pay more for them. Cutting hospital funding, cutting funds that go to pensioners and failing to adequately fund the aged-care system in this country—these are all vulnerable people to whom this government is saying: 'I'll take money from you in order to try and prove that I can get the budget back in the black.' It is simply not working because, quite frankly, those kinds of measures never do. All they do are ensure that less and less money is spent in the economy, and that in turn has a flow-on effect in terms of the economy going backwards rather than forwards.

With respect to that, in my own state of South Australia the economy is dire. I have read report after report indicating that the South Australian economy is in trouble and, indeed, is struggling. Recently, in the last couple of weeks, we have had a prominent South Australian businessman Sam Shahin call on the state leaders—not political leaders, state civic leaders—to come together and develop a strategy for a way forward for South Australia. That's how much concern there is out there about the direction of the state. Can I say, in my view: that is an absolutely clear message that there is little confidence in the Marshall Liberal government in South Australia.

As with their federal counterparts, the South Australian Marshall Liberal government turns to austerity, privatisation, sell-offs and service cuts in order to try and balance its own budget. And we have seen since coming to office this government wanting to close South Australian service centres, which provide a whole range of government services to people face-to-face, at Modbury, Mitcham and Prospect. They are all set to close. The South Australian government's argument is that online transactions, which are now available to the public, are replacing the need to have these face-to-face service centres and they are much more efficient et cetera. It is simply more spin and not true. People want those service centres to remain open in all of those three areas—Modbury, Mitcham and Prospect—and, indeed, the statistics will show that they are being used, but the South Australian government will close them because they need to balance their budget. Simultaneously, they want to open a new South Australian service centre at Mount Barker! And, surprise, surprise: where's the logic in doing that? The logic is that it was a 2018 election promise to the Liberal candidate for Mount Barker at the time and, after he got elected, he's asking his government to deliver on that promise. So the logic of using online services applies to other people in South Australia but not to the Liberal seat that they won as part of the election outcome. The even sadder thing about that is that new service centre—which I support, because I believe the community out there also deserve to have one of these centres—will be paid for by communities in other places that will lose their own service centres. The even sadder thing about that is that the new service centre, which I support because I believe the community out there also deserve to have one of these centres, will be paid for by communities in other places that will lose their own service centre.

I turn to the Civil Contractors Federation of South Australia. Only in the last couple of days its CEO, Phil Sutherland, issued a press statement. The press statement relates to Infrastructure Australia's priority list of projects that should be funded by the federal government. I will quote directly from Mr Sutherland's comments. He said that this situation is 'completely unacceptable and totally lamentable'. He was referring to the fact that there was no South Australia project on the list. He said:

It is a matter of very serious concern that there is not a single new road or rail project earmarked for SA on Infrastructure Australia’s updated high priority list.

He went on to say:

Alarmingly, this has been the case for several years.

That sums up the attitude of the federal government here in Canberra towards South Australia. The truth of the matter is that, as Mr Sutherland went on to explain in his press release, there are 10 projects that he could immediately identify as warranting national infrastructure funding because they are projects that need urgent attention—projects that have been the cause of some 500 people being killed in the last eight years—but not one of them is on the priority list, and South Australia will likely get nothing.

The reality is that, at both federal and state level, these are governments that think that the way you manage an economy is simply by retreating and going backwards, and then, in turn, allowing the private sector to take control of everything. In South Australia we are seeing more of that with the Marshall Liberal government wanting to privatise rail services. I understand that the three shortlisted companies that have bid, and one of them is likely to get the contract if it goes ahead, and I expect that the Marshall government will do everything it can to do that, are companies named Adelaide Next, Keolis Downer and TrainCo. Interestingly, not one of those companies is from South Australia, so South Australians, who need the work and who should be part of any economic progress in the stake, are not even being given the opportunity of bidding for or getting major South Australian government contracts. That is where the state is heading and, not surprisingly, is why the state is going backwards, because every time that happens profits are shifted out of South Australia to elsewhere, which, in turn, makes the economy struggle even more.

South Australia has consistently had a high unemployment rate for the last two or three years. That has been the case ever since the federal government turned its back on General Motors Holden. From that day onwards, confidence in the South Australian economy has fallen and is continuing to fall. Whilst the South Australian government will go out and say, 'But unemployment in the last month's figures fell from 6.3 to 5.7 per cent,' they don't say that total employment also fell that month. In other words, people are simply giving up looking for work, coming off the employment list or, as I've seen with many young people that I've spoken to, moving interstate or overseas because they have given up trying to find work in South Australia. It is simply not good enough. South Australia is a state that has huge potential. It is a state that in years gone by showed that it can stand on its own two feet and did so well. I believe that with the right policies—policies that encourage, not discourage, investment and that support government initiatives in the state—South Australia could do a lot better than it is doing. That is exactly the same argument that I would use for the federal government. It is not austerity measures that work; it is indeed the opposite.

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