David Moncrieff (Hughes, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Those opposite have raised the topic of reckless spending. It's a breathtaking exercise in political amnesia from those opposite. I assume that the first example of reckless spending that they will want Australians to know about will be the $600 billion that they want to spend on nuclear power plants, which they took to the last election. I assume that they will want Australians to know about the near decade of deficits that they produced, which left Australians with higher debt, higher prices, collapsing services and absolutely no plan to deal with inflation when those opposite walked out the door. I assume that they want Australians to know about the thousands and thousands of dollars that they gave to their mates in Qantas and Harvey Norman. I assume that they will want to talk about the cost that Australians were left with from serving the trillion dollars of Liberal debt that we inherited from our predecessors.

But what about where Labor's allocating our resources? Labor is investing prudently in Australia's greatest opportunity—its people. We have delivered cost-of-living relief that is targeted, responsible and real. And it's making a tangible difference to my constituents in Hughes, with things like cheaper child care that's already putting thousands of dollars back into the pockets of families and suburbs of my electorate from Bundeena to Bardia; things like cheaper medicines, with all PBS medicines now $25 or less, saving families across Hughes hundreds of dollars a year; things like tax cuts for every taxpayer, including another tax cut coming in July this year benefiting local workers and small businesses alike. They were tax cuts that those opposite voted against.

Those opposite should have to answer this question: which part of that spending is wasteful? We on this side don't think that making child care more affordable so that parents can be part of the workforce is wasteful spending. We on this side don't think that the senior heading down to the pharmacy in Illawong being able to afford all of the medicines prescribed to him to keep him out of the hospital system is wasteful spending. But those opposite should have to answer: who do you think is the wasted investment, our children or our seniors? We on this side don't think that Australians earning more and keeping more of what they earn through our tax cuts that they voted against is reckless. It is money that's going back into the pockets of Australians right across the country.

Those opposite want Australian wages to be lower. Under this government wage growth is finally moving again after a decade of deliberate wage suppression by those opposite. They said that lower wages were a design feature of the economy under them, and that's exactly what they got. And who paid the price for it? It was Australian workers. On this side, we back Australian workers. On this side, we want Australians earning more. We are investing in Australian skills.

We're now celebrating the third birthday of free TAFE. Those opposite don't believe in free TAFE. The Liberals and the Nationals don't agree on much at the moment. There's not much they agree on. But one thing they do agree on is they hate free TAFE. They hate the idea that Australians are able to get the skills that they need for the jobs of the future without having to go into enormous debt. We are cutting student debt. We've cut student debt by 20 per cent right across the country. That's money going back into the pockets of young people across Australia who are just starting out, who are just trying to get ahead. Those opposite have talked them down every step of the way.

Those opposite have claimed that the interest rates are going up as a result of the of reckless spending. They clearly haven't bothered to read the statement by the RBA's monetary policy board, which highlighted that growth in private demand was strengthening substantially more than expected, which was partly driving inflation. We wouldn't expect those opposite to be able to read any sort of economic document based on the leadership that they showed when they were in power. But it shows the gall of them, that they then have the audacity to come here and complain about what we're doing on this side of the House.

Those opposite claim to support small business but they didn't produce a national small business strategy; we did. We're the first ones to do it. We believe in investing in Australian jobs. That's what we're doing, and those opposite have failed to do that over their near decade in office.

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