Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Attorney-General (Senator Brandis) to a question without notice asked by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (Senator Wong) today relating to the economy.

There was not any defence from Senator Brandis in his contribution today in this chamber. When he spoke about the few jobs that have been created, he could not respond in relation to the 800,000 Australians that are out there looking for work. That is the highest unemployment figure for 20 years—two decades. When those opposite try to defend the indefensible, it gives us a lot of avenue to respond. It is not just what we are saying and what we are hearing when we are out in the community talking to workers, talking to members of the community and visiting interest groups. It is out there in the community that the Australian public have given up. They have no trust in this government. They have particularly lost trust in the Prime Minister and they have certainly lost trust in the Treasurer. We have heard, in the conversations that have been had between the deputy leader, Ms Bishop, and the Prime Minister, that one of the ways that she sees that things can be resolved for the good fortunes of this government is to replace Mr Hockey as Treasurer.

I draw the attention of the Senate to an article by Lenore Taylor in The Guardian on Friday. It was a good article. We know that those opposite mostly get their references and research from The Australian. The article states:

All these "wars", of course, have a political purpose – to silence dissent, sideline unwanted advice and distract from critical scrutiny – the same motivations for systematically removing Labor appointments from boards and advisory groups and defunding or sidelining groups that advocate for the poor, the sick, the disabled, the disadvantaged, refugees or the environment.

We know this because we hear it every day when we are out in the community. People have lost confidence in this government. People who are out there trying to find employment are desperate. What has this government done? It has done nothing but make cuts. When Tony Abbott was going into the last election, he promised to be the Prime Minister for jobs, jobs, jobs. We know that he has failed, failed, failed. He has not delivered on that commitment, not by any stretch of the imagination.

I have to say that those opposite have got nothing to celebrate after being in government for two years, because what is underpinning this government is that it is a government that has broken all its promises. They were empty promises. So, even when Tony Abbott says, 'If it's written down then you can take it as gospel,' that is not true because of all the backflips; all the slogans and policy objectives that they went to the last election with—no cuts to health, no changes to the pension, no cuts to education—have all been broken. And we know what they are trying to do to higher education in this country.

But, as I said, with the highest number in 20 years of Australians looking for work—800,000—those people on that side should hang their heads in shame. And then we had Senator Brandis come in and say, 'The unemployment figure wasn't as bad as we thought,' as if that is supposed to give us some light relief!

This was also the government that went to the last election promising that there would be lower taxes, fewer taxes and fairer taxes. And what has it turned out to be? It is a government of taxes. This is despite what those opposite are saying because they are scared of the reaction that they are going to have in Canning in Western Australia's election. That is, this government is all about increasing the GST. There is no mistake. That is firmly on their agenda. And what they will do is: they will stifle the states for funding so that they will try and force the states to accept that there needs to be an increase in the GST. And that is the most unfair tax. The Australian community no longer believes anything that this government says, and they certainly do not believe anything that Mr Abbott says.

Quite often we hear from those opposite referring back to the fact that John Howard was very unpopular in his first term of government and yet they went on to win the next election. Well, the people of Australia will decide who will win the next election. But this government is bereft of policies, ideas and vision for this country. (Time expired)