Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) | Hansard source

I commend the member for Forde on this motion because he is a hundred per cent correct. Australians are suffering under the Albanese Labor government. The last 18 months have been one of the worst times on record for people in relation to inflation in particular, and around rents, housing, electricity and everything else. Productivity is also caught up in that. I have to pull up the member for Spence for using an analogy on housing. In the last 18 months, when he and other newbies on the other side came into this place, housing and homelessness increased under Labor and the Albanese government. Under the coalition's record it actually fell, if you look at the census between 2016 and 2021, particularly around rough sleeping.

The member for Forde states correctly that under the Labor government productivity growth has slumped to an historic low of minus 4.6 per cent. The collapse in labour productivity represents a loss of almost half of what was achieved under the coalition government where people were working hard and getting heaps done at work and then enjoying their weekends off and so forth as well. It also acknowledges that the government's excuses and blame-shifting on productivity are no substitute for a lack of growth planned for the economy by the Treasurer and by the Prime Minister. We hear that daily in question time. For people in the gallery and the students up there: every day we come into this place in question time, a question is asked and they're just full of excuses. It's everyone's fault but theirs. The indifference to the productivity challenge should alarm all Australians, and particularly young people, because it shows indifference to what Australia is facing in the long term.

We, in opposition, lead by example. We call on the government to take real action to address the cost-of-living pressures and labour productivity growth. It's absolutely alarming that there's a collapse in productivity. And why is that? Because this Albanese Labor government, like every Labor government around the country, govern for their union donors. That's what they do. You've just got to look at what they've done since they've come in. They've abolished the ABCC—the Australian Building and Construction Commission. I'm sure that when the member for Fairfax walks around his electorate on the Sunshine Coast, doing mobile offices, he doesn't get people walking up to him saying, 'You need to abolish the ABCC.' It's not a top-of-mind issue, but for this government it's the No. 1 issue they brought into this place when elected 18 months ago.

Phase 2 is the quality advice review into financial services that the Assistant Treasurer has tried to bring up before and will no doubt bring up again—it's not a top-of-mind issue but it's something the unions want. We have the Leader of the House bringing in 'same job, same pay'. Who can remember, if you've worked in a workplace, where you're all working hard, as you should, and you've got some lazy people that rock on up, leave five minutes beforehand, have extra time off at lunch and have terrible productivity? This bloke wants to pay them the same rate as someone who works really hard—that's basically what 'same job, same pay' is. If it's legislated at 60 grand—

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