Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. When UK Prime Minister Harold McMillan was asked about the greatest challenge for a leader, he replied, 'Events, dear boy, events'. The world is facing substantial economic and geopolitical events and challenges. For the best part of three years global events have thrown curveballs and continual challenges at governments, but for this government to suggest that it didn't know any of these challenges were there before the election is false. Russia's invasion of Ukraine happened well before the election. Supply chain issues relating to China's COVID response had been impacting the economy long before the election. The same goes for the impact on the economy more broadly from the pandemic.

No government can control all of the circumstances and the context that it faces. We accept that. But all governments can be proactive in their responses. Government is all about tough decisions in tough circumstances. In the budget earlier this year, we put in place measures to support Australians by delivering cost-of-living payments, cheaper fuel and cheaper medicines. We are pleased the new government has acknowledged the gravity of the global circumstances facing Australia. We're not suggesting that Labor can change those global circumstances—of course they can't—but they can put the national interest first, ahead of pet projects, ahead of ideological fixations and ahead of vested interests.

The Treasurer has said that the point of today's statement was to paint a picture of the economy. Well, the economy is not an abstract painting. It's people's lives. On this side, we know what that looks like: small business owners working 18-hour days; families counting each cent as they fill up their fuel tanks; young Australians trying to build for their first home and students working nights to build a better life for themselves and their families. The economy isn't some great mystery to us. It's the outcome of millions of Australians going about their lives, working hard and trying to fulfil their aspirations. Australians know it's tough right now. They don't need a painting from the Treasurer to tell them that. They feel it every day at the coffee shop, at the fuel bowser, at the checkout at the grocery store, when they renovate their homes and when, indeed, they build a new home. The statement from the Treasurer provided nothing to address this.

Today's statement from the Treasurer is a stark contrast to our record in government. It's a shame that in the first ministerial statement of the new parliament the Treasurer has come in here and delivered a speech which was heavy on politics, heavy on excuses and short on a plan. This is completely out of line with the conventions of ministerial statements.

When we were in government, we balanced the budget for the first time since the 2000s. We were on track to a surplus. But as I said, we faced curveballs, as governments do. We had fires and droughts and, of course, we had the pandemic, which we understand only too well. We had to take action and we did, even if it meant putting the budget repair on hold. That wasn't an easy decision for Liberals and Nationals, but it was necessary. Our fiscal response was temporary, it was targeted, and it saw Australia through one of the most challenging periods since World War II in a world-leading way. We came out of the pandemic with lower unemployment, strong GDP growth, low interest rates and our AAA credit rating intact. We had an unemployment rate of 3.9 per cent. We all remember that number! The economy was 3.4 per cent bigger than before the pandemic began. That's extraordinary. The cash rate was 0.35 per cent. We remember that one, too! We started the work on budget repair without increasing taxes. We saw in the last budget a record of over $100 billion to improve the budget bottom line. In the most recent financial statement, at the end of May, the budget deficit had more than halved compared with what was forecast in the budget. We delivered cost-of-living relief in our last budget that the Treasury confirmed to Senate estimates was responsible and measured and did not add to inflationary pressures.

The statement today from the Treasurer failed to acknowledge that, even before the pandemic and before global pressures on inflation, the coalition took action to reduce pressures on cost of living. We provided tax cuts for hardworking families. We didn't need a cost-of-living crisis to do that. We reduced the small business tax rate. We balanced the budget before the pandemic, and we didn't need a cost-of-living crisis to do that. We did these things because they were good policy, good for Australians and good for the economy. Despite the gloom and doom the Treasurer's painting, he has been right to point out in his statement that the underlying fundamentals of the economy are strong. These are proud achievements of the former government—no thanks to Labor. Labor opposed bigger tax cuts to families. They opposed the small-business tax cuts. They fought tooth and nail against restraint in spending, and they wanted to spend more throughout the pandemic. The statement failed to recognise any of that.

The Prime Minister has clocked up enough air miles in the last three months to circumnavigate the globe, but he hasn't delivered a plan to tackle inflation. Labor is yet to deliver a plan to address immediate cost-of-living pressures. Already since the election we've seen division within the government on this. We've seen the employment minister at odds with the Treasurer on the impact of real wage increases. We've seen the Treasurer and the finance minister profess the need for spending restraint. But the reality is that they're proposing to spend more.

Labor's criticism about debt levels in today's statement would have more credibility if they weren't proposing to add to that debt. Today's statement fails to acknowledge that the Labor Party went to the last election proposing bigger deficits. That is the reality. This was confirmed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office, which showed that Labor's election platform would make the budget bottom line worse off. By contrast, the PBO confirmed that the coalition was the only party that went to the election with a pathway to improve the budget bottom line. Labor obstructed almost all efforts of budget repair over the last nine years. Over the last two years, their COVID response policies would have resulted in an additional $81 billion of spending. We know that the Labor Party platform, their wish list for government, will require more than $300 billion in new spending.

In seeking to cast blame today, the Treasurer held out three tests for himself: what happens to power prices, what happens with apprentices and what happens with real wages? We will hold him to account on these tests. Right now, though, the Treasurer sounds like a commentator, not a Treasurer—like a forecaster, not a leader. He is painting pictures, and whether they're finger paintings, water colours or oil paintings, that's not what Australians need; they need a plan. And the longer we go without one, the higher the price Australians will pay.

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