Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's interesting that Senator Brandis said, in response to Senator Wong's quoting of the Essential poll, that she is wrong. Really when he says that, he is saying not that Senator Wong is incorrect but that the Australian people are wrong. After all, they were the ones who were surveyed. The tin ear of this government is incredible. Of course, that tin ear is also clattering away in the Treasurer's statement about inequality: 'It's actually got better.'

Returning to the Essential poll that Senator Brandis was able to dismiss so readily, let's take a look. There were 1,805 voters surveyed, and 52 per cent believed economic inequality in Australia is on the rise. Senator Brandis should note that that percentage included 43 per cent of coalition voters. Only 12 per cent agreed with the Treasurer; that is, 12 per cent—plus one Treasurer of Australia—thought inequality was decreasing. So what did the voters prioritise in that Essential poll? They prioritised the improvement of the health system; the improving of housing affordability; the reduction in unemployment; looking after national security and terrorism; dealing with tax avoidance by big companies; and protecting the wages and conditions of workers. But it's not just this Essential poll; it's the International Monetary Fund and the chair of the US Federal Reserve. Like a clarion call, they are warning that inequality threatens prosperity. More than that, as the Leader of the Opposition said a fortnight ago in his speech to the Melbourne Institute: 'Inequality kills hope. It feeds that sense, that resentment, that the deck is stacked against ordinary people, that the fix is in and the deal is done. No-one deserves to feel like this.' JD Vance's memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, explores this feeling of despair. It explores the killing of hope. But one doesn't need to visit Mr Vance's childhood home of Middletown, Ohio; one need only go to the Latrobe Valley or to Western Australia, where the former state Liberal government drove the economy off the cliff, or to other places to know that people are despairing. No-one deserves to feel the emptiness of powerlessness.

Senator Brandis also explained why he believes the Treasury is correct. He talked about jobs—more jobs and better jobs. What a facile response. Workers' share of income is at its lowest level in half a century. A lot more people are working a lot harder for a lot less. Over one million people are underemployed and are working fewer hours than they would like to. More and more Australians are working part time or are casualised, denied a proper income that they can live on. The part-time share of unemployment is 31.9 per cent. This is just 0.1 per cent below the historic high in November last year. This is one of the highest part-time employment rates in the developed world.

The OECD disagrees with the government. The government would have you believe that insecure and part-time jobs lead to something better. The OECD recently concluded that 'non-regular contracts are rarely a stepping stone to better jobs.' Our economy is strongest when it's powered by a skilled, capable and confident working middle class. Our economy is strongest when our society is more equal. The former chief economist of the World Bank, a Nobel Laureate and author of The Price Of Inequality, Joseph Stiglitz, said:

The only true and sustainable prosperity is shared prosperity.

Stiglitz described the US in this way:

For too long, the hardworking and rule-abiding had seen their paychecks shrink or stay the same, while the rule-breakers raked in huge profits and wealth. It made our economy sick and our politics sick, too.

Speaking of sick politics, this government haven't really been able to focus on developing policy and legislation because they're very focused on their internals. In the last 24 hours, we've certainly seen this. But the ALP has been able to develop policy. (Time expired)