Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thought I would contribute to this debate after listening to a fair bit of it this morning. I suppose I would like to put it into terms that we may get behind in some way. The $42 billion stimulus plan is like a battle plan for Australia to fight the war on recession. The question that has to be answered but may be difficult to answer is: will this battle plan win the war on the recession? And guess what? Nobody knows for sure. In fact, you could ask 10 economists and you would still get no consensus. Will the $42 billion plan win the war? That is what we are debating, but I do know one thing for sure: this $42 billion plan will do little to help the casualties of this recession. Even if this $42 billion is spent there will still be 300,000 Australians joining the ranks of the unemployed. If most Australians knew that, they would be concerned.

I have trouble sleeping at night—300,000 Australians added to the unemployment queue even if we spend the $42 billion. It is a battle all right, against recession, but we have forgotten the innocent casualties that will come from the war on recession through no fault of their own. These are innocent Australians—our fellow Australians—in your street and my street. We will all know someone who loses their job. I have trouble sleeping at night knowing that, even after spending $42 billion, there are still going to be 300,000 Australians added to the unemployment queue.

I went to the government, before the tragic fires, and said, ‘If we’re going to spend $42 billion, don’t you think we should dedicate some of that money to those innocent victims of the war?’ I did not come to this chamber to become like others—I say that a bit tongue in cheek. I do not want to be known as the best negotiator around the table, but, sure as all heck, I will go in to bat for my fellow Australians who are going to fall off the cliff. I have asked for some money to be set aside to assist the 300,000 Australians who are going to be added to the unemployment queue. Frankly, the response I am getting is like chess pieces being moved on a chessboard. It is insulting to everybody. You can tap-dance around it all you like, but I will go in to bat for them every day. We have to do more. We have to make this package work harder. With this package you are displaying the same sheer arrogance that brought the previous government down. You walk into this place and you say, ‘We’re not changing any of it.’ It is disgusting. Are you the only people with good ideas?

A bit of economics here—I will go back to day one. What was happening on day one? The Reserve Bank was going to make a significant announcement, but you guys wanted to hog the spotlight. The economy runs on confidence. You did not even allow the Reserve Bank’s downward adjustment of the interest rate to affect confidence in the marketplace. You wanted to hog it. You should have let that run its course and allowed confidence to build into the economy and then maybe come out with a plan. You did not allow the positive cycle of monetary policy to work itself out. No, no, no. You had to hog it. You had to beat your chests and say, ‘Hey, we’re in control of interest rates.’ Frankly, you should have let that run.

Then there was the second thing you did. You came into this place and basically told us, ‘Pass it, no questions asked.’ Don’t kid yourselves. Do not go to the Australian public and say you agreed to an inquiry. You were deadset against it. You have misread the Australian people. We know we need a stimulus package, but are you sure as all heck that your arrogance is 100 per cent right? That is what you said on day one: ‘Don’t worry about it; just pass it.’ That was step 2—another mistake.

Step 3: these negotiations have been lip-service. You are tap-dancing around here this afternoon. You have put it off to some convenient time when there are no news stories. Stop playing politics. This concerns Australian people, their families and their lives. I am deadset serious about this. This is just a joke. I may not be the best negotiator. I am just a kid from Reservoir, but, sure as all heck, I know when someone is stuffing around. Get serious. Do not treat the Australian public like you treat the Senate.

We need a stimulus package. It is just a shame that the government think that they need no other ideas except their own. It is very sad. It is a very sad day. We put forward a program and you will laugh at it. You will background journos and say, ‘This Get Communities Working plan is just a joke.’ Good on you. Beat your chest out there. Talk and background journos. Do what you like—I don’t care. I want to do something for the 300,000 unemployed Australians—not my numbers but Treasury numbers, and other economists have put the numbers even higher. You walk in here and just say, ‘Don’t worry about it.’

Let us look at the cash payments. Many Australians desperately need the $950. Some of them will get multiple payments. They desperately need them. Many Australians do not need the cash but, sure as heck, will take it. There are many Australians who desperately need the cash who actually will not get it. Then you have $75 million of these cash payments going to people overseas. But, no, no, no—you have it 100 per cent right. Wrong! I do not understand it. I do not know. What do you come to Canberra for? What do you sit in this chamber for? Yes, sure as heck, debate—no problem. But, jeepers, we have to look out for our fellow Australians. I am not in anyone’s pocket. I am not in yours and I am not in theirs, and that makes it an awfully lonely place. But I will go in to bat for my fellow Australians every day.

Sure as all heck, you could give it a go, giving even more of that $42 billion to help find more local jobs for people. Why would you not give it a go? What are you worried about? Are you worried about the opposition having a go at you because you changed your package? That is politics. What are you worried about? You got some of it wrong? Okay. We all get it wrong sometimes. We are all fallible. We are all human beings and we get it wrong. But, blimey, Teddy, you started this out in an awfully adversarial way. Did you not learn anything from watching the other side when they were in government? Work Choices—did you not learn from that? Do not think it was just about IR. Think about how they went about it. Think about how they went about playing politics in this place rather than genuinely looking out for all Australians.

I can only ask you to relook at this package. There are a few hours left before I have to vote on this. I do not know how I am going to vote. I did not sleep terribly well last night. I will certainly look at this from the point of view of those forgotten Australians, those Australians who do not have a voice. I will look at it from the point of view of those families—fathers, mothers and kids. We are going into debt to spend $42 billion and we are still going to have 300,000 Australians on the unemployment queue. You may play politics. You may say, ‘We’re saving up to 90,000 jobs.’ That is good, but I believe you can make this package work harder. But do you know how much time we have? Zero time. We have zero time to look at this package and make it really work so that we can not only try to win the battle against recession but also look after those innocent victims who are going to be casualties of it. Think about someone in your street. Think about what it is going to do to them when they lose their job and they have very little prospect of finding another one. Think about it. Think about it more than on one day, just when you wake up. Think about it for more than the 48 hours that you gave the Senate. I do and, I tell you, I am having trouble sleeping.

The way you have gone about this is really appalling. It really is. I am so surprised that you can be so out of touch. You got us into this mess. We have a $42 billion package in front of us and you are not going to change it. You may tinker with it now after someone has shamed you into it. You may tinker at the edges, but you have no genuine desire to change it. We are in the situation now that if we do not pass it we will lose the confidence of Australia, because you have given hope to people. You could have allowed interest rates to start to work and given us more time to work on this. But you have presented this package in such a way that anyone who does not vote for it is ruining the confidence of Australia. You may very well be right, but you have set that up. It is such a shame that you have done it in such an adversarial way rather than in genuine partnership.

I have been out of work, once. Maybe you have too—I don’t know. It is not a pretty place to be when you cannot find a job. It is awful. We have to make this package work harder. I have a few short hours to work out what I am going to do with this. I am torn between two places and a hard rock. I am sure I am going to get criticised on it. Plenty of people can criticise, but I am genuinely trying to work through this issue. From day one, even before the fires, I was talking about the unemployed, the forgotten Australians who do not have a voice. It is going to hit them like a brick on the head and they are not going to be able to get another job.

Get Communities Working is all about grassroots measures, getting the unemployed working again—maybe in some soft areas that you cannot count in GDP. It is about social capital, the glue in the community. Go and talk to your local councils. Honestly go and talk to them and really find out about it. Building social capacity in a community is not something you can count on a calculator. You cannot count it in GDP. That does not mean it is not worth while. There are going to be valuable Australians who are looking for a job, and not a job where someone could say, ‘You’re just digging holes and filling them.’ Crikey! You are going to use that argument.