Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Republic) | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor support the passage of these supply bills. We don't block supply. We believe that the ordinary course of government should be funded by the government and the opposition in this place. Supply Bill (No. 1) 2022-2022 and the other supply bills have been introduced given that we're so close to an election. Normally they would be introduced after the appropriation bills. But Labor agrees that, given the proximity to the federal election and given the appropriation bills won't be passed in the usual time line, the supply bills are required to ensure the continuity of government into the 2022-23 financial year. These bills generally provide for around five months of funding for the 2022-23 financial year, and budget estimates will be indexed for parameter changes and adjusted for any terminating measures.

A moment ago we saw one of the ministers introduce, for the third reading, the 2021-22 appropriation bills. One would expect that that would have been done last year, with the 2021-22 budget. But the reason it wasn't was that the government forgot to bring the bills back to the parliament. When you talk about being all about announcement and not about follow-up, look no further than what they've done in the parliament today. They announced the appropriation bills associated with the last budget, but they forgot to bring them back to the parliament to give them effect—no follow-up whatsoever.

This government is all about announcement and not about follow-up, in a number of areas. We've seen it over the course of this government—firstly, with the bushfires in 2019 and the disastrous effects they had on communities throughout the country. Once again, announcements were made in the wake of those. Do you think they've followed up with any of it? Have any of those communities received the funding they were promised by the government in the wake of those bushfires? We've still got people living in caravans and tents who haven't had their homes rebuilt because of that—all about announcement, never about follow-up.

We're seeing it again at the moment with respect to the floods, with rain once again bucketing down on communities in the north of New South Wales and in southern Queensland. If you were a government that was serious about climate change and, instead of trying to use it as a political weapon, your approach was that this is an existential threat, that it's a problem that we, as a parliament and as a government, have to work to solve with the Australian people, then you'd be prepared for what's going on in the communities of South-East Queensland and northern New South Wales, and, indeed, in Western Sydney. You would have made sure that you had in place, and you worked with those communities on, measures to protect them, through mitigation infrastructure, through the construction of facilities to ensure that people could be housed—evacuation centres and the like—when they lose their homes and all of their belongings. But, no. The government seek to use climate change as a political weapon. As a result, they're not prepared. They are all about the announcement, nothing about the follow-up.

The Emergency Response Fund was their announcement, in the wake of what had occurred in the bushfires and in the flooding that we saw in 2017, to protect those communities. In the Emergency Response Fund, there was $4.7 billion put aside by this government. How many projects has this government delivered out of that fund to protect communities in bushfire zones and flood zones and cyclone zones? A doughnut—not one. they are all about the announcement, never about the follow-up. It's Australian communities and individuals that are suffering.

If you were a government that took climate change seriously and you were interested in solving the problem, you would have used some of that money in the Emergency Response Fund to build levees, to build culverts, to build evacuation centres, to look to protect communities, to have household resilience programs put in place, as the Queensland government has done, so that people can retrofit their homes to protect themselves from the risk of cyclone damage or bushfire damage or flood damage. But, no: the government seek to politicise and use climate change as a political weapon to serve their political purposes, purely for what goes on here and not what goes on in the wider community. And that is the reason why the Prime Minister of Australia cannot even walk down the street in Lismore, in Mullumbimby, in Ballina—in communities affected by flooding—and talk to the Australian people. He knows, his ministers know and his MPs in those areas know that he would have copped a shellacking from the Australian people and the members of those communities for his lack of response to the danger and threat that severe weather has posed to those communities and for his lacklustre response in supporting those communities and getting in place emergency measures to provide them with support. Then, to make matters worse, they used politics by providing emergency disaster based support funding only for Liberal or National Party based electorates, rather than for Labor based electorates.

Is it any wonder the bloke can't walk down the street and any wonder that members of the National Party and the Liberal Party have spoken out so strongly against the Prime Minister? One of them has resigned from the New South Wales parliament in disgust at the approach of this Prime Minister and his support for Australians and their communities in the wake of the flooding that occurred in the north of New South Wales and South-East Queensland. It's all about announcement and never about follow-up, and that's what we're going to see with this budget tonight: another budget that'll be about saving the bacon of marginal seat MPs on that side of the chamber—pork-barrelling to save their bacon in a looming election—rather than what is in the best interests of our nation.

Our economy has been struggling for some years and Australians know it. They've been saddled with cost-of-living pressures for the last decade under this government. Why? Because their real wages haven't been increasing. Their real incomes have been falling under this government. They've been burdened with cost-of-living pressures associated with child-care, housing and insurance costs, and now petrol costs are skyrocketing and rents are starting to take off once again. Yet, at the same time, their wages haven't been increasing. In fact, they've been going the opposite way. Real wages in this country have been falling. Why? Because this government supports policies like cutting penalty rates for some of the lowest paid workers in this country, those who work shift work and on weekends.

This government supports employers being allowed to bring in labour hire contractors to undercut wages and conditions for workers who are performing full-time work for particular businesses. This government has done nothing to stop the explosion of insecure work in this country. It sees people working two and three jobs just to pay the rent, to make ends meet. It has led to a crisis in our aged-care system.

The royal commission titled its report into what's going on in aged care in this country Neglect. If you ever want an indictment of a government, look no further than a royal commission that says 'neglect' about the aged-care system. That is exactly what this government has done when it comes to aged care. The royal commissioner pointed out that Australians aren't getting the level of care they deserve, in certain circumstances. You have people who are overworked and underpaid, who are working two and three jobs just to make ends meet, and the quality of care has suffered.

Do you think this government will deal with that issue in the budget tonight? Of course they will not. They will not do anything that ensures they will even remotely come close to lifting the real wages of Australian workers in this country. They don't support Australian workers. They never have. They put in place laws that diminish their wages and conditions and ensure that over a decade you get no real wages growth in this economy for Australian people. That's this government's philosophical bent and that's the way they always do things. They attack superannuation. They attack wages and conditions. They make sure that employers have the wherewithal to cancel enterprise agreements when they can't get agreements with their workforces.

As a result, we have one of the lowest levels of enterprise bargaining and agreement-making in this country's history. Labour productivity in this country has been falling under this government. The amount of income that we earn as a nation per hour worked has been falling, and that is an indictment on this government's economic management.

Will you see in the budget tonight any productivity-enhancing measures? No, you will not. You'll not see any commitment to ensuring that women get access to the workforce by cheaper child care, which you will see under Labor policy. You will not see any commitment to ensuring that workers are paid fairly when they're working beside someone who's doing the exact same job, on the exact same terms and conditions, but is a permanent employee and not employed by a labour hire company. You will not see anything that this government will do to improve labour productivity, nor will you see anything done to increase business investment that's been falling or housing affordability. These are the issues that are affecting Australians and you will not see them dealt with by this budget tonight.

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour. The member will have leave to continue speaking when the debate resumes.