Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Ryan for bringing this motion forward for discussion. It's always worth having a conversation about how we manage our budget in a fair and responsible way. It allows us to fulfil the role of good government. Good government is focused on the things we all share, like public health and education, community infrastructure, defence and our environment. Good government is focused on the wellbeing of people who experience disadvantage and exclusion because that is core to our egalitarian values and our humanity. Good government is definitely serious about sustainability, which is both a matter of planning for the future and of delivering intergenerational fairness.

This motion talks about the need to improve the universal public health system, early childhood education and access to affordable housing. The Albanese Labor government has already taken some key steps in all of these areas. We've delivered the largest cut to the maximum price of medicines on the PBS in its history, we're making child care cheaper for 96 per cent of families and we've dedicated $10 billion to support affordable housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund. The motion also argues in favour of a tax system that is fairly calibrated to support those kinds of investments in our shared wellbeing, and on that I absolutely agree. That's why the Albanese Labor government is acting to ensure multinational corporations pay a fair share of tax in Australia, as they should, and we're making some commonsense changes to the unsustainable tax concessions that have applied to the earnings derived from superannuation accounts in excess of $3 million.

In substance, the government is achieving what the member for Ryan believes should occur. We're providing new investment in public health, child care and affordable housing. We've been prepared to identify fair and responsible sources of revenue to fund the things we share, to reduce disadvantage and to create a better future. But I say respectfully to the member for Ryan is that genuine and constructive conversations don't proceed in the way that we heard from the member just previously, and they don't start with a proposition that is intentionally narrow and selective in order to fit a specific political story. The terms of the motion include a vague and, I presume, intentionally scary reference to austerity measures, which is based on nothing as far as what's detailed in the motion. There's no acknowledgement of government initiatives that are aimed precisely at areas of health, child care and housing, which is what this government's done. It's clear that what is intended here—and we saw it most clearly from the member who just spoke—is a finger-wagging exercise, not a conversation—a finger-wagging exercise dripping in righteousness, a holier-than-thou finger-wagging exercise. That's politics. The Greens have a line to run. The line has always been and will be that whatever Labor does is not good enough, and this motion runs that line. There's some political good sense in that, but it's not necessarily in the name of a constructive conversation.

I come back to the question of how we deliver what the Australian community is entitled to expect: government that is open, focused, responsive and stable and that gets on with the task of addressing present and future challenges in a way that's driven by the twin principles of fairness and sustainability. We've just emerged from nine years characterised by incompetence and dishonesty. We've just emerged from nine years of inaction that's taken us in completely the opposite direction from fairness and sustainability.

Until recently, people under the age of 27 had only experienced, as voters, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government—a government that saw wages fall to the lowest share of national income in our history while company profits rose to the highest share of national income in our history; a government that was in denial about climate change and didn't deliver a single energy policy; a government that was only interested in budget repair if the burden of that task could be placed on the backs of the poor through unlawful measures like robodebt. All Australians deserve a much better standard of public service and policy leadership than that, especially young Australians.

In nine months, this government has already delivered a number of key commitments: legislating a carbon emission reduction target; creating a National Anti-Corruption Commission; providing 10 days of family and domestic violence leave; achieving an increase in the minimum wage that benefited 2.7 million workers; delivering the largest reduction in the maximum price of medicines on the PBS; and giving certainty to thousands of asylum seekers stuck in the terrible and pointless limbo of the temporary protection visa system. After nine years of nothing, we've had nine months of steady, responsible and positive reform in the national interest. That's been achieved by working with all those in parliament who take a constructive approach, including the Greens. So, while I understand the 'what have the Romans done for us lately' flavour of the motion, the reality is the Albanese government is delivering positive and sustainable reform through a fair and responsible approach to the budget.

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