Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The government has clearly been mugged by economic reality. The government clearly has no plan, has no agenda and is running on fumes. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer assure us all is well and things may even get better. We've heard the Leader of the Government in the Senate today say that, apart from a few international headwinds, it's all pretty good. That's been their line since before the election.

The real economy doesn't match their rosy story. Wages are flatlining. So are retail sales. Household debt is not shrinking. The unemployment rate is stuck around five per cent. All of this is happening despite the fact that we have historically record low interest rates and, of course, the much-vaunted tax cuts. The traditional stimulus measures—at least the ones the government has tried—are simply not working. The tax cuts have not resulted in increased consumer spending, companies are not investing in new production, and research and development has fallen away massively. It's no wonder that the Prime Minister has said to his party room that he wanted to get politics off the front page. No wonder he said that he wants ministers to engage less with controversy. It's no wonder that he would want to maintain this fairy tale that this is all going to happen. Mr Morrison and Mr Frydenberg are desperately trying to shut down dissenting voices.

Most notably, they want to shut down the voice of the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Philip Lowe. We heard today that the government respects the independence of the Reserve Bank. Of course, that's not reflected on the front page of The Australian today, where the chairman of the government's House of Representatives committee has attacked the Governor of the Reserve Bank. It's part of a consistent pattern of abuse of the Reserve Bank. In a world first for Australia Post, a letter written on Tuesday managed to get to The Australian within a couple of hours. Talk about express post! Mr Wilson must have walked it around to the editorial suite of The Australian to get it done in that time!

Of course, for five years we have been told by the Reserve Bank that monetary policy alone cannot rescue this economy from the doldrums. It's called for stimulus measures including investment in infrastructure. We've been told that we should invest in stimulus measures rather than rely on interest rate cuts to make this happen. Of course, this government has sought to nobble the Reserve Bank. They have tried to embarrass and humiliate Mr Lowe by having him appear at press conferences with the Treasurer in a manner which the royal commissioner would never do. The Reserve Bank governor has been nobbled and thugged into making sure he does not comment on economic policy. The mild-mannered Reserve Bank governor, of course, has been put on this government's hit list because he proposes quite clearly reasonable measures in light of the extraordinary economic circumstances. This Treasurer has decided to call Mr Lowe to heel. We now know the consequences.

The economic statistics are simply this: the quiet Australians will not remain quiet. The reality in the real economy is that the government's measures are failing. Undermining the Reserve Bank's independence and attempting to silence independent voices will not change the facts when it comes to what families are experiencing, what it really means to have low wages, what it really means to have high increases in the cost of living and what it really means in terms of understanding the economic hardship that's being felt by families right across this country. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.