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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Attorney-General (Senator Brandis) to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

It is quite clear, following question time today, that we are seeing a government bereft of any evidence of economic achievements to speak of. The responses from Senator Brandis today illustrated the discomfort of this government when the microscope is held to them in terms of what they have actually achieved over the 12 months.

We have sought to focus on the measure of success which this Prime Minister imposed upon himself. Twelve months ago, prior to going into the party room to argue for the deposing of the former Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull said:

It is clear enough that the government is not successful in providing the economic leadership that we need … Ultimately, the Prime Minister has not been capable of providing the economic leadership our nation needs. He has not been capable of providing the economic confidence that business needs.

If we look at the objective facts that are before us now, we see that full-time employment is down by 64,000 since the beginning of this year. We see that we have the lowest wage growth in 20 years. That is a stark fact which is not to the credit of this government. We see debt and deficit ballooning. We see that our AAA credit rating, a very precious asset, is under threat at the moment. When we are talking about economic confidence and the future, we need to see how that translates. What is the evidence for that? I will talk a bit further about this. If there is business confidence, as Senator Brandis indicated, one would expect to see business investment rising. What we see is the very opposite—total investment has fallen by 10 per cent since September 2015.

I was particularly disappointed with some of the responses by Senator Brandis today when he referred to the fact that the opposition, in his words, was seeking to play 'trivial political games'. It is not trivial or political to seek to hold the government to account for what it has done over the past 12 months. That is precisely what opposition senators have sought to do during the course of today's question time. When it comes to having a responsible approach, the opposition cannot be accused of being irresponsible, because over the past 24 to 48 hours we have seen the culmination of work done by the shadow Treasurer's office and Senator Cormann's office in coming up with an agreed arrangement in respect of the omnibus bill which we will be looking at later. That outcome has seen a greater amount of budget repair than what was originally proposed by the government, is fairer for more vulnerable Australians and addresses the issue of jobs for the future with the preservation of funding for ARENA.

When it comes to business confidence, contrary to what Senator Brandis indicated in his responses, one looks at Roy Morgan Research. We find that in August business confidence fell by 7.5 points—6½ per cent—to 108.6. It is now at its lowest since Mr Turnbull became Prime Minister almost exactly a year ago. The CEO of Roy Morgan Research, Michele Levine, says that 'in early September the LNP became the first Australian government to lose votes on the floor of the House of Representatives in over 50 years'. This is having an impact on confidence. We see that various indices fell in August and now only 48.5 per cent of Australian businesses, which is down 5.8 percentage points, believe that the next 12 months will be a good time to invest in growing the business. That is the lowest this indicator has been for some years. In addition, only a bare majority of Australian businesses, 52.7 per cent, now expect good times for the Australian economy over the next five years. This is a new record low for this indicator.

There is one area where this government has performed at an A+ level in my view, and that is in defending the banks from a royal commission. There has been ducking and weaving on this, and it is greatly disappointing to me, as a former member of the inquiry that looked into the performance of the banks, that this government refuses to show leadership in this area. This is an area where the victims of banking malpractice need to be vindicated. (Time expired)