Chris Ketter (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a disappointing question time we had today. I draw my attention to the question I asked of Senator Cormann. The question was asked of Senator Cormann in relation to comments by Mr Nigel Ray, the deputy secretary of the Treasury. That question went to quite legitimate concerns in the community about the fact that we have had a prolonged period of below-par growth, the likes of which we have rarely seen outside of a recession.

Rather than dealing with the facts in that question, rather than tackling the issue head-on, Senator Cormann chose an intellectually bankrupt route for dealing with that question by simply saying, 'That is not what Mr Ray said.' I happen to have the speech given by Mr Ray to the Australian Business Economists Conference. It is titled: 'The Macroeconomic Context'. On page 4 of that speech, Mr Ray said:

This means Australia is now in a prolonged period of below-par growth, the likes of which we have rarely seen outside of a recession.

Senator Cormann is totally incorrect in making the comment. He missed the opportunity to address the real issue behind the question.

I will begin by talking about some of the facts, as we know them. Treasury has released a new forecast for the Australian economy, indicating that this year's growth will slow even further than anticipated from the projected three per cent to 2.75 per cent. Over the last financial year Australia's GDP growth fell to just 1.5 per cent, the lowest growth rate in 50 years. Assuming all other things remain unchanged, this downgrade will add around $50 billion to Treasury's budget deficit projections over 10 years. Treasury pointed out that the economy recorded its third straight year of below-trend growth in 2014-15. Unemployment remains high at around six per cent. Labour-market analysis reveals the so-called under-utilisation rate of labour—that is, a measure of underemployment in the workforce—has risen to 14 per cent. For our young people, it is double at over 30 per cent. Consumer sentiment as measured by the Westpac-Melbourne Institute is nine per cent below where it was at the election.

The Turnbull government is failing us on many fronts. Firstly, we have a faltering economy that this government has no policies to fix. Secondly, we have a jobs crisis. Given the complete absence of any industry policy by this government, there is little evidence this is will change. We only need to think about the demise of the Australian car industry and associated loss of up to 200,000 jobs as evidence of this government's economic vandalism. At the same time, our economy is slowing: we have workers willing to work, but there is not enough work, not enough investment being undertaken to generate the jobs they require. Thirdly, we have the budget emergency, so-called. The No. 1 item this government was going to fix is getting worse, and the Turnbull government has no apparent solution for this. The budget deficit has doubled in just the last 12 months and here we are getting further away from fixing it.

The Abbott-Turnbull government has made every promise imaginable when it comes to the budget returning to surplus. Instead of an economy and budget getting back on track—as Senator Cormann always likes to say—we have 760,000 Australians out of a job and a budget deficit that has doubled in just the last 12 months. Instead of putting in place policies we need to kick-start the economy, accelerate investment and innovation, and grow our industries this government has, simply, elected to increase the GST by 50 per cent.

I would like to finish up by asking what purpose an increase in the GST would serve to kick-start our economy. Rather than injecting life into our economy, Mr Turnbull is going to slam those who can least afford it with another tax, and sit back and watch as our iconic local businesses disappear. The Turnbull government has not put forward a single policy that will tackle the poor, and slowing, performance of our economy, while at the same time we have a runaway budget that is out of control.