Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

The performance today from the Leader of the Government in the Senate and his colleagues really goes to the heart of the concerns that Labor has around the government's management, or lack of management, of the economy. The economy is floundering on this government's watch; there is no doubt about it. They have been in office for six years, but they don't have a plan to turn things around. They got elected in May, but they obviously didn't go to that election with any view of how to manage if they won the election.

The key economic data that's come out since the election is apparently nothing to them—'There's nothing to see here. This is all expected. The economy is travelling well.' The fact is that the key economic indicators aren't great. We have economic growth at the lowest levels since the GFC. The government is presiding over stagnating wages. There are 1.8 million Australians looking for work or looking for more work. Household living standards have declined since 2013. Productivity is going backwards. Household debt is high. It surged to record levels, increasing by $650 billion under the Liberals to 190 per cent of disposable income. Business investment is down since the Liberals came to office and is now at the lowest level since the 1990s recession.

With all of these economic indicators, you'd think that this government would have a plan or would be putting together a plan or an agenda for dealing with this. But all we get from the government is, 'This is a test for Labor'. Everything is a test for Labor. Well, we want the government to focus on tests for the economy and to actually concentrate on the policies, the plans, the support that they can provide to the economy, because the economy matters. We can talk about all the statistics we like, but at the end of the day the economy affects all of us. When you've got the economic indicators that have been released since the May election, I think any responsible government would be looking at them with concern, not just crossing their fingers and hoping that the tax cuts—which Labor supported and which would have been flowing through the economy had Labor been elected—are going to do the job for everything. That is placing everything in one area, when it's clear that the problems and the global challenges that we all acknowledge are there are having a much more significant effect.

So, the test we are setting for the government is: what are you going to do about the economy? We can't keep accepting the line that everything's going okay, that there are some challenges but everything's going to shore up once the September quarter's results are in. We would say that there are things that you should be doing now. There are actions and steps that you should be taking now—not just writing a letter to the states and hoping they'll do something but looking at other levers available to the government. The Reserve Bank is doing what they can. Rather than pointing the finger at the private sector and urging business to take steps that they should be looking at—and if they can, then great—what is the government going to do? Bring forward part of stage 2?

Look at how you can bring forward infrastructure, particularly infrastructure in the regions where there aren't some of the supply constraints that exist in the cities. Look at whether you can bring some of those shovel-ready projects forward into these forward estimates. We know that 70 per cent of the government's infrastructure program falls outside this forward estimates. We know that the budget forecasts have changed, and they may have changed quite significantly, if we look at the Treasurer's comments on the weekend. Bring forward the budget updates so that all Australians can see exactly where we are and what the budget forecasts actually look like now. Look at responsibly reviewing Newstart. Engage in that conversation that the country is having without you. These are all things that could be being done, if there was a government that was prepared to accept responsibility for how to support the economy over the next little while.

It's not a test for Labor. This is not about the Labor Party. It's not about what the Labor Party went to the election over. This is about what happens for the economy going forward and how that translates into people's households. What does it mean for jobs? What does it mean for wages? What does it mean for household income? What does it mean for consumer confidence? What does it mean for household debt? What does it mean for savings? All the decisions the government should be taking at the moment should be focused on how to strengthen the economy and not just pointing the finger at others, like the Labor Party.