Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Gallagher, I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) economic growth is the slowest it has been since 2008 when Labor navigated Australia through the global financial crisis,

(ii) wages growth has hit record lows,

(iii) 1.8 million Australians are looking for work or for more work to combat the rising cost of living and increasing pressures on their household budgets,

(iv) living standards and productivity are going backwards, and

(v) the Morrison Government has no plan to deal with the domestic economic challenges, leaving us unnecessarily exposed to global shocks, and to support Australians struggling to meet their weekly costs; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to properly outline an economic plan that supports the floundering economy and better safeguards it from global risks, done in a fiscally-sustainable way, which could include:

(i) delivering more infrastructure spending now to maintain jobs and stimulate economic growth,

(ii) bringing forward part of the income tax cuts scheduled to commence on 1 July 2022,

(iii) reviewing and responsibly increasing Newstart to put more money in the pockets of those most likely to spend it in the economy,

(iv) implementing the Australian Investment Guarantee to incentivise and boost business investment, and

(v) developing an urgent and comprehensive plan to boost wages, starting with restoring penalty rates.

I rise to support the motion. I believe that it outlines the context of our current economic moment. Economic growth is the slowest it has been since the global financial crisis. Wage growth is at a record low. There are 1.8 million Australians looking for work or looking for more work. Living standards and labour productivity are going backwards. Our economy is in a malaise, and the government are oddly mirroring that malaise. They all look so bored. Following the recent election, they're like the dog that caught the car.

Nobody embodies this malaise more than the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Cormann, the Minister for Finance. In my observation Senator Cormann is a man who needs a plan, but the government simply don't have a plan. They used to; the 2014 budget was their plan. It was a bad plan and it was a plan that was thoroughly rejected by the Australian people, but at least it looked like a plan. It was Senator Cormann's plan. He loved the plan. Remember how happy he looked on the news, puffing on his cigar with the long-forgotten former member for North Sydney? The budget was a fulfilment of Senator Cormann's reason for coming into public office: to dramatically reduce the size of government. It was a British Conservatives-style austerity program and it was designed to entrench poverty and disadvantage.

We should try and remember what was in the 2014 budget: the Medicare co-payment; increasing the pension age to 70; cuts to schools and hospitals; kicking people under 25 off Newstart; the deregulation of universities—Senator Rennick might remember the $100,000 degrees; ending subsidies to the car industry, with 40,000 jobs in the Australian car industry gone since that budget; and cutting programs like Landcare in half. It was economic vandalism. But, more importantly, it was cruel. It shows us what the modern Liberal Party really are and the values that drive them—vicious, nasty and without the moral imagination to consider how their vision of society would treat the most vulnerable.

There's a spectre haunting the Morrison government—the spectre of poor old Senator Cormann. You can see the sadness in his eyes when you look across the chamber. He misses the certainty of a plan. His housemate, Peter Dutton, seems to have coped okay. People on this side assumed that Senator Cormann's sadness was the result of his humiliation 12 months ago. But I think, having sat here for a few months now, it's because he misses the certainty of a plan.

Mr Dutton, the member for Dickson, seems to be okay. He's moved on. He's hitting the gym. I think, when Senator Cormann returns to the flat that they share, the member for Dickson will be there playing video games, living life large. He even appears in ads for white-supremacist car dealerships. Is there a more perfect avatar for the hard Right of the Liberal Party than a white-supremacist car dealership owner? Minister Cormann isn't adapting. He doesn't have any hobbies. He still feels that itch, that pathological drive for social Darwinism that defines that part of the Liberal Party. The government don't have a plan. They no longer seem to have any real ambition for the country. But the values that drive them are just as cruel as those that drove the 2014 budget.

This week, the Prime Minister refused to meet with a delegation of Newstart recipients. He refuses to raise the rate of Newstart or even consider a review. Even though almost every stakeholder group in the Australian community knows that Newstart must be raised, he considers that 'unfunded empathy'. In doing so, not only has he ignored calls from charities and groups such as ACOSS; he's ignored the advice of John Howard, the business community, every non-government organisation worth its salt and many people on his own backbench. Working-class people who can't find a job desperately need Newstart to be raised.

Our economy desperately needs some stimulus and our economy desperately needs a plan. But the Morrison government's solution to the indignities of unemployment and underemployment—indignities that Senator Cormann has never suffered—and the indignity of being excluded by an economy that's left large parts of the Australian community behind is to force unemployed people to do drug tests. The Australian people deserve leadership that's capable of responding to the economic crisis that we face to imagine a country that gives dignity and empathy to those who need it the most.

That means recognising the condition that the Australian economy is in. It's the new normal for the Australian economy. Economic growth is the slowest it has been since 2008. Many economists say—and it's a matter of public record—that, while our growth is so anaemic, it is only being sustained by population growth and, if it weren't for that population growth, the Australian economy would be in recession. We are, indeed, today in a per capita recession. Wages growth has hit record lows, and this government has no economic plan to deal with it and no wages policy to overcome the challenge. The 1.8 million Australians looking for work, or for more work, are struggling to put food on the table and to pay rent or their mortgages. Living standards and productivity continue to go backwards.

There isn't an index that's pointing in the wrong way that the Minister for Finance, Senator Cormann, won't quibble with, argue with and challenge. But when the government were confronted with the HILDA report that showed that living standards are decreasing and that household income is decreasing and has been decreasing now for quite some time the silence was deafening. The silence was followed by an obscurantist attempt to try to deny the real truth of the position that was in front of them. What ought to happen is that the government ought to realise that what they have in front of them is an economic emergency, that it requires action, that it requires capability and that it requires a plan.

The Labor Party in opposition, for its part, has put forward a plan—and it's a plan that deserves the consideration and support of the Senate and the government—to bring forward infrastructure funding, deliver more infrastructure funding, make sure that jobs are sourced locally, bring forward part of the income tax cuts scheduled to commence on 1 July 2022 and review and responsibly increase Newstart so that people on Newstart can have some dignity. One thing we know is that expenditure on Newstart will flow straight back into the Australian economy and be spent in the supermarkets and on the high streets of every country town across Australia. And we would develop and deliver an urgent plan to boost wages, starting with restoring penalty rates.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian economy is on the road and moving forward. It reminds me of the Mad Max scene with the V8 Interceptor charging forward. I find it interesting that Labor Senator Ayres should accuse us of closing down the car industry, because back in 1987 it was actually Button and his tariff plans that put it under pressure.

Since coming into government in September 2013, we've added 1.4 million jobs, of which 80 per cent are full-time positions. But, if we want to do the DeLorean story here and go back in time, let's talk about what happened under the previous, Labor, government: when every budget blew out by billions of dollars to the extent that, over the cumulative period of Labor's time in government, their budgets blew out by $80 billion—$80 billion.

If we're talking about our low-income workers, let's talk about the minimum wage for the last three years. In 2017, it increased by 3.3 per cent; in 2018, it increased by 3½ per cent; and, in this year alone, it has increased by another three per cent. So, cumulatively, over the last three years it has increased by a compounded rate of over 10 per cent. And that matters, because, at the end of the day, a good government always looks after its hardworking people. We saw that in the last election results. The battlers decided to abandon the Labor Party because they knew that the Labor Party had abandoned the battlers. The Labor Party no longer stand up for hardworking people. The Labor Party would rather sit around and blame everyone else for the world's problems. That's not the aspirational spirit of working-class Australians.

As for a decrease in penalty rates, I totally reject that. Next month, we're going to see the Saturday work casual rate increase from 140 per cent to 145 per cent, and, in the following year, to 150 per cent. For Monday-to-Friday evening work after 6 pm, we're going to see it increase from 130 per cent to 150 per cent by March 2021. So, on top of that compounded 10 per cent over the last three years for the minimum wage, that is well above the rate of inflation. It is to the Morrison government's credit that we have been able to deliver a pay rise for our low-income workers.

Another interesting fact is that in the last six years, under a coalition government, the amount of revenue collected in company tax receipts has increased from $67 billion to an estimated $95.6 billion in the last financial year—an increase of over 42 per cent. So we're going after the big end of town, and we're not abandoning the battlers.

We've also got some good numbers coming through for the trade surplus. In the last quarter, for the month of June we saw a trade surplus of $8 billion, and a current account surplus—for the first time since 1975—of $5.8 billion. So we've got a win-win. For the first time in almost 50 years, we've actually seen our current account position improve. That's because we are prepared to back mining, we are prepared to back coal, we are prepared to back iron ore and we are prepared to back gas. That's the difference between this side of the chamber and that side of the chamber. Those opposite won't take advantage of our vast natural wealth. They'd rather keep it in the ground and let future generations go without.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) | Link to this | Hansard source

You should come to WA, mate, a great mining state.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a great state, absolutely. I just credited WA.

Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Rennick, please address your comments through the chair. Senator Sterle, perhaps fewer disorderly comments.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) | Link to this | Hansard source

Acting Deputy President, I will take that advice and I apologise. Senator Rennick, tell the truth!

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I have a point of order. He's just told me to tell the truth. So what's the issue here? What have I said that's misleading?

Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability) | Link to this | Hansard source

That's not a point of order; that's a debating point.

Senator Sterle interjecting—

Senator Sterle, Senator Rennick has the call.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

What I want to talk about is infrastructure and the great contribution that this government is making to the state of Queensland, especially with regard to roads. Just last weekend in Toowoomba, one of my favourite towns, we saw the opening of the Toowoomba bypass. The Toowoomba crossing is a $1.6 billion project that had 80 per cent of its funding from the federal government. We have also seen up to $635 million invested in the Warrego Highway. That's the highway I grew up on; that's my yellow brick road. So we have a number of new overtaking lanes coming in there. We also have the Chinchilla open level rail crossing upgrade, and we have $19 million being spent on that. We have the Oakey-Miles upgrade, and we have $43.5 million spent on that. We have $63.5 million spent on the Dalby to Miles pavement widening. We have the Oakey to Miles safety upgrade—another $11 million.

I'm going to go through the completed projects. We have the Dalby to Miles overtaking lanes, the Carroll Creek culvert replacement, the Brigalow to Chinchilla upgrade, the Dalby eastern access upgrade and the Dalby western access upgrade. What's interesting about this is that the federal government is putting money into the Darling Downs. This is the place the gas is coming out of. This is the place where the beautiful black soil creates the wealth. It creates all the wheat and barley and cotton that gets exported for dollars for this country. My question is: is the state Labor government putting money into those areas? I think not. What I have seen those guys do is shut down our maternity ward, amalgamate our councils and bring in poker machines. What a terrible legacy state Labor has left to our state.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Then there's Jackie Trad.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Then there's Jackie Trad. I won't go there. I'll stay relevant to the question.

Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability) | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Rennick. That's appreciated.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

We can stick to the facts and win the election.

The next thing is the government budget looks like it will be in surplus this year, for the first time—if not last year. We'll find out in a couple of weeks. Net debt has peaked, and we're starting to pay it down. We have also retained our AAA credit rating, which under the current circumstances, with the trade war that's going on, is, I think, a fantastic effort. Our employment is still growing at twice the average OECD rate, and that's quite a good effort.

With regard to the tax cuts, we have actually brought in the low-income offset rebate and a middle-income offset rebate, and they're kicking in this year. We're pleased to have legislated for significant tax cuts in the future. If we can maintain a strong budget position—and we'll see what happens as to future tax cuts—I'm optimistic that we can bring some more in there. We also have a record $100 billion infrastructure pipeline. As I have just mentioned, we're spending a lot of money here in my home state of Queensland, and I know that we're also spending a lot of money on the New South Wales Pacific Highway. I drove down there last week. This time next year we should have a fully dual-carriage highway all the way between Brisbane and Sydney. That's our second-busiest road, behind the Hume Highway. Most of that's been built in the last six years, since the coalition has come to power, and that's a fantastic effort for the people of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales, who use those roads all the time in a very heavily populated area. That's just one of the many areas. We've also improved a lot of roads around the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, and we're now looking forward to improving the roads above Gympie on the way to Rockhampton. That's something that I know both Senator Scarr and I will be backing—to push further duplication of the highway up to Rockhampton and the Wide Bay area, which is one of Australia's fastest-growing areas.

I think the other thing that's worth noting in regard to small business is that we have a $525 million skills package which is going to deliver up to 80,000 new apprenticeships over five years in priority areas of skills shortages. Isn't it fantastic that we're getting back to our skills? We're going to bring back our tradies, which is something I'm very passionate about. We've also increased the instant asset write-off to $30,000, which is another great help for our small-business people. We've also reduced payment times down to 20 days; that's another good one.

I want to touch on the business tax cuts that we brought into parliament in the last term, reducing taxes to 25c in the dollar for small businesses with turnovers up to $50 million. Hopefully that should get our Australian-owned businesses on the record growing. I think we can see that with the fact that we've now got back into a trade surplus as well as a current account surplus and also a budget surplus. If we get that, that will be a record which we'll be very proud of; we'll have a triple surplus. So I'm looking forward to the next 12 months.

Unlike Labor over here, I won't talk down the economy. I won't talk down the Australian people, because I believe in their aspirations and their dreams, and I think that we can see out there in the results in the last election that the Australian people would agree with that. They turned their backs on the big-spending Labor Party and the constant vilification of our hardworking miners and farmers. These are the guys that actually create the wealth in the country. These people over here want to bite the very hand that feeds them, and that's not the way this country was built. This country was built on the back of hard work, not sitting around in ivory towers in the cities and saying, 'We're going to solve the world fixing up climate change or whatever.' No, there's no substitute for hard work, Senator Sterle—no substitute for hard work.

Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Rennick, through the chair. You have to address your remarks through the chair. Thank you.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Sorry. So I think we do have a plan, and the plan is showing in the results. As I just said, we have a trade surplus and a current account surplus and will have a government surplus. When we've got a plan like that, what we've got to do is keep it going straight and forward, and that's what we're doing. We're not promising to save the whales or anything like that. We've got our eye on the road, and that's where we intend to stay.

The constant talking-down by these people of the economy is putting their own self-interest in front of the people. They want to talk down the economy. They want to scare the people from spending, but we've got record participation rates. We've got a solid employment growth rate—twice the growth rate of the rest of the OECD—and that's quite the achievement given the trade wars that are going on now, I think. It's interesting that they have to cry crocodile tears over Australia's unemployed, because, had they been elected, they would have sent a wrecking ball through the construction industry and the mining industry.

Despite the global headwinds, the Australian economy is doing not just well but spectacularly well. We've seen reported in the media that the Labor Party are now saying they've got to go back and revise their own policies. They're at a loss. By what percentage are you going to reduce carbon emissions? That's the big question we all want answered. What's their newest plan to save the world? The answer is: they don't know. They don't know, do they? They haven't got a clue. As Senator Cormann said earlier today, they'll still in their seven stages of grieving, wondering what went wrong.

Senator Scarr interjecting—

That's right. Triple surplus! I can't wait until we get to that: current account surplus, trade surplus and government surplus. That is going to be something special. And you guys over there are talking it down because you can't admit that this government is doing a fantastic job at managing the economy. It is quite the achievement. It's a good way for me to start my political career, to be in a government with such a strong set of numbers: a strong employment rate, with a record 1.4 million people in jobs, and a high participation rate. That's a reflection of the confidence that people have in this economy. They haven't given up.

The Labor Party has given up. They don't know what their plan is now. What percentage are you going to reduce carbon emissions by? The left faction doesn't want to do this, does it? You'd go to 100 per cent if you could. Good luck with that! You'll bring the economy to its knees. You're worried about actually stopping growth; mate, you'll kill the economy. I know what that's like, having been in Queensland and watched what the state Labor government has done to Queensland over the last 30 years.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Shameful!

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Shameful! What have we got? We've got the sale of Queensland Motorways and the port at Abbot Point in 2011; the sale of QR National, the Port of Brisbane and forestry plantations in 2010; the sale of the Cairns and Mackay airports and the Brisbane Airport in 2008; and the sale of wind energy assets in 2007. Why would you sell your wind energy assets if you believe in reducing carbon emissions? It doesn't make any sense. Then there is the sale of gas assets: Golden Casket, Powerdirect and Sun Gas in 2007; and Sun Retail and Allgas in 2006. What's so sad about this is that, after basically selling all of the Queensland assets, shutting down the maternity wards, amalgamating the councils—

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

In the biggest mining boom in Queensland's history.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes—and in the middle of the GFC. When these last assets were sold between 2007 and 2011, that was in the middle of the GFC. So not only did you sell all the assets, you sold them at rock-bottom prices. When I first moved to Brisbane in 1988, Queensland was the fastest-growing state in the country. Now it's one of the slowest, because state Labor doesn't have a plan and hasn't got a clue. Heaven forbid we ever get federal Labor in, because we don't want federal Labor doing to Australia what Queensland Labor did to Queensland.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The deadly double!

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes. It's a great neoliberalism plan: let's sell all the assets. Let's just sell assets. That's not an economic plan, but we shouldn't be surprised, because that was on the back of the Hawke-Keating era—sell CBA, sell Qantas, sell CSL. The great union leader sold his soul for neoliberalism—got sucked into it, didn't he? It's interesting: 30 years ago today we brought in the LNG plants and got LNG up and running—and what did the Hawke-Keating Labor government do? They brought in HECS on teachers and nurses. What a sell-out! Don't hear much about that, do we? It's a bit like how we don't hear much about the great effort of Lawrence Springborg in fixing up Queensland Health in 2015. What a great effort after Queensland Labor couldn't even pay the wages of the nurses! Think about that. Don't let it happen. Thank heavens the federal coalition is in power—and I can't wait for that triple surplus. Let's get Queensland Labor out of power before the last person has to turn out the lights.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia I wish to make a few remarks about Senator Gallagher's motion—firstly, her opening paragraph. Let's be clear that mining, and particularly China, carried Australia through the global financial crisis, and Labor destroyed our cash balance. We may point to rosy employment numbers, but what about the underemployment that's going on right now? What about cost of living and stagnant wages? These are the result of past neglect by both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party. Growth now is due to past productive capacity, and our low growth now is due to lack of investment and destruction of our productive capacity in the past. Under the Liberal-Labor duopoly, in rural Queensland, for example, where primary agricultural industries are very important—forestry, fishing, farming, grazing—property rights were stolen by the Howard federal government in 1996, working with the Rob Borbidge National Party government, then the Peter Beattie Labor government and then the Palaszczuk and Trad government—and the Newman government did not rescind it. The rural sector lost its property rights—fundamental to productive capacity.

We've seen a lack of investment in essential water assets. A friend of mine was talking to a prominent Liberal leader—I won't mention his name—in this country just a couple of weeks ago at a meeting and asked him, 'Why didn't you invest in dams 10 years ago?' He replied, 'Because we didn't need them 10 years ago.' This is the thinking that is stopping our country. Then we look at the self-destruction of our energy sector. We went from the lowest electricity prices in the world to the highest under both the Liberals and Labor. It started with the National Energy Market, which started before John Howard, but John Howard's government put in place the Renewable Energy Target and the stealing of property rights without compensation, and was the first to put in place a policy invoking a carbon tax, a carbon dioxide trading scheme. I'll talk more about those energy prices in a minute.

We've also seen in Queensland soil runoff legislation, supposedly to protect the farmers, but it's based on nonsense. It is hurting the farmers and will seriously suffocate the farmers in the near future. Our fishing industry has been decimated by UN guidelines adopted by both Labor and Liberal. Our forestry industry is being decimated now—people with the axe hanging over their head. This is what's happening to the productive capacity in our rural sector. What about our manufacturing sector? Car manufacturing has been shut down. Steel mills are declining. We have two left now. Mining is under the gun. Mining is being choked. Manufacturing was sent overseas under both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party. Our economic productive capacity has been decimated. This is not growth for the future. People are choked by cost-of-living rises and stagnant wages. We see higher house prices. We now live in a country that has just been through the world's greatest-ever resources boom, and our young people can't afford to buy houses. We see shops shut, as I said the other day, from Bamaga south, right through to Burleigh, and west. We see it right across Queensland. We see shops being shut and we see businesses being shut—particularly in the rural areas.

So let's have a look at some of the policies put in place by the Liberal-Labor duopoly. Let us look at energy policy—and, by the way, electricity and energy are primary assets; they're primary to everything that happens in our society. The No. 1 factor that has caused our dramatic increase in material wealth in our society in the West over the last 170 years has been the relentless decrease in electricity prices. In the last 10 years, we've seen a doubling of the price of electricity. We've gone from having the lowest electricity prices in the world to now having among the highest—or, in fact, the highest. And that's been driven by Labor-Liberal-Green policies.

We currently have a renewable energy target, which requires the subsidy of renewable energy—or so-called renewables, that are really intermittent. We see that decimating the electricity sector. It's currently at 14 per cent. The Liberal-National party want to double it to 28 per cent. That is suicide. The Labor Party wants to increase it to 50 per cent—almost quadrupling it. As I said, energy is the gateway to manufacturing. Energy is the gateway to agriculture. Energy is the gateway to tertiary industry. The primacy of energy must be understood. Yet both parties are destroying it, in a mad rush to appease the Greens on climate. So their policies are similar there. It's just a matter of grade.

Then we have immigration. Both parties believe in big numbers of immigrants coming in. We see hospital-bed availability almost halved. We see water supplies now being choked and restrictions being put on, and our sewage water being treated and recycled as drinking water. We see restrictions on showering now being mooted by the authorities in Sydney. How can we keep living like this? We're a first world country, and we're going backwards to being a Third World country.

Let's talk about tax. Both the Liberal Party and Labor refuse to tackle the problem of multinational tax. They talk about it, but they don't do it. It's a very simple exercise, as we have pointed out. We've got the solutions. Instead of pretence, we need to tackle multinationals head on.

The fourth issue is economic management. We see the Liberal-Labor duopoly doing the same thing again—playing the same games and bribing people at every election. But nowadays it's not just the election cycle that matters; it's the 12-month budgetary cycle—bribing people to get their votes.

As to infrastructure, both parties are refusing to build significant, visionary dam projects that could green Queensland. And why? Because the Greens are holding over them that you can't build dams. Both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party follow the Greens' policies on energy, immigration, tax, economic management and infrastructure; they follow the Greens' policies, to get preferences.

I don't see a plan. I do not see a plan from either party in the Liberal-Labor duopoly. There is no concrete plan. So, when Senator Gallagher's motion says:

… the Morrison Government has no plan to deal with the domestic economic challenges—

I agree—

leaving us unnecessarily exposed to global shocks—

I agree—

and to support Australians struggling to meet their weekly costs …

I agree. And the Liberal-Labor duopoly has done that. There is no plan other than: 'Follow the Greens. Build facades. Pretend to be doing things: put on a hi-vis vest, put on a hard hat, put on safety glasses and pretend you're doing something.'

Of course, the Liberal and Labor parties share preferences. They share preferences with each other because they'd rather put their opponent, or supposed opponent, ahead of the One Nation party. So that tells you that these people are just about ready to merge—and maybe that's what they're thinking of doing!

Let's have a look at building productive capacity.

Honourable Senator:

An honourable senator interjecting—

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, the policies are the same, so they might as well merge! Good policies need to be built on solid data. There is nowhere in the world that has justified the economic lunacy and suicide of the Greens on climate. I've challenged Senator Larissa Waters three times and she's run three times. I challenged Senator Di Natale once two days ago and he still hasn't provided a single source. There is no-one who can—not in CSIRO, not in the Bureau of Meteorology, not in the UN, not anywhere. I challenged the head of NASA, Gavin Schmidt, and he had to admit an error to me. There is no evidence anywhere. I challenge people again: you're wrecking our country based upon UN policies that are nonsense. They are crap. You have not presented any evidence to this parliament. Senator Macdonald used to sit over there. In late December 2016 he stood up and he looked across at me and said, 'I don't always agree with Senator Roberts, but I must give him credit for starting the debate on climate science that this parliament has never had.' True words. We've never debated climate science. I invite anyone to have a formal debate on the climate science.

We must get back to building policies on solid data—not political opinion, not spin, not headline grabbing, not political partisanship, not corruption but hard, objective data. Secondly, we must restore our Constitution that is being bypassed. We're taking duties and responsibilities off the states and we need, as former Liberal Premier of WA Richard Court said, to get back to rebuilding the Federation. The title of his work is Rebuilding the Federation. It was published in 1994. I recommend it to everyone. It's a very simple, short book but fundamental.

Thirdly, we must have comprehensive tax reform to tax multinationals and free up mobility of capital. Let's make sure that it becomes fair. We need to get back to the basics. I agree on this point: we need to bring forward the income tax cuts. If they're so good, as the Liberal Party said just a couple of months ago, let's bring them forward and get the benefit now in the productive capacity of our country. Then we have the last point in Senator Gallagher's position here: implementing increases to Newstart. What about pensions? It's one of One Nation's policies to improve significantly the age pension and other similar pensions.

I look at this country and I look at the people resources—resourceful, creative, innovative and entrepreneurial. We have a history of punching above our weight. I look at our people. I've managed them as coalminers. I've worked with them as farmers. They are being choked, they are being suffocated, by the federal government. I look at the resources in this country from soil to water to minerals to energy. We are now the largest energy exporter in the world, with the No. 1 position in gas and the No. 1 position in the export seaborne trade of coal—and yet we have high energy costs. How? How can that happen? We have enormous opportunity. We have enormous potential.

The water in the north and the water in the east of the Clarence River up the tributary can be used productively for greening the west. The Greens—the lunatic Greens—call for not building dams. Yet, if we provided water to the west, we would be able to cover the whole of western Queensland and New South Wales in green vegetation. They believe that we need to absorb carbon dioxide; I don't, because we can't control the level. But if they believe that sincerely then they should support the greening of western New South Wales and western Queensland by building dams to send the water to the west.

We have great people, the world's best. We have resources amongst the world's best. We have opportunity and potential. But we have wombats running the joint. That's the problem. Labor, the Liberal Party and the Greens are putting people down. It is an insult to look at what we're doing to our energy sector, the most vital sector we have in this country. Then the Liberal Party accelerates it all, seeking preferences. This country has the best people and resources in the world, and we have the lousiest leaders in the world. That is clear.

We're killing agriculture, choking mining and killing manufacturing. China is our biggest trading partner. China is taking our iron ore, our coal—and coal is Queensland's No. 1 export—and our gas. After these are gone, what will we have? We have to develop the productive capacity of our country. We have to invest wisely—not to get Liberal and Labor headlines—but to invest in our peoples' future. The core choice of any sane, sensible federal government must be to invest in the productive capacity for the long-term future of our country. I don't see anyone in Labor or Liberal attending to this, because they're held back by the Greens. It's time to stop looking after the Greens and to come back to integrity and start looking after the people of Australia by investing in the productive capacity of our country.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I believe the Morrison government and those opposite just think that the economy might go away or something, because they've been so reluctant to talk about the economy. Our floundering economy is desperate for leadership. Where are the Treasurer and the Prime Minister of this country? Where is the leadership? They're playing wedge politics and pointing the finger at others, but they're not showing the leadership that we so desperately need in this nation when we're talking about our economy. The floundering economy is slowing substantially. Australians are struggling. Australians are looking for and expecting to see some leadership from this government, but I'd have to say that they're sadly mistaken if they think there's going to be any leadership forthcoming anytime soon.

'It's the economy, stupid' are the famous words uttered during President Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential election campaign. Let's be frank: not much has changed since then. Elections are always about the economy, and they should be. The strength of the economy determines the livelihood of the majority of Australians. The strength of the economy determines whether someone can find a job and whether they can hold that job and have job security, which is why I find it so odd that the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and all of those opposite are so unwilling to discuss the issues associated with the economy.

This week, we've had to acknowledge that, unfortunately, the Liberal government have been in power for six years. They're in their third term now, and what have we seen? Not a very good economic report card. In fact, it is very, very disappointing reading. Economic growth is at the lowest levels since the global financial crisis, sitting at 0.6 per cent. There are 1.8 million Australians who are looking for work or for more hours. Underemployment is a crisis in this country. Wages are growing at one-sixth of the pace of profits, with the government presiding over the worst wages growth on record.

But that's not all. Household debt has surged to record levels, increasing to $650 billion under the Liberals. Economic growth per person is going backwards, productivity is going backwards, business investment is down 20 per cent. And these are the people who cry, 'We are the friends of business.' Well, they're not very good friends, if you ask me! Our investment in business is at the lowest level since the 1990s recession. Net debt has more than doubled. People cannot afford to get into the property market.

Jobs should be a priority of any government. We do not have job security and we have a skills shortage in this country. It's an epidemic. What does the government have to say about it? Nothing. In January 2019 there were 42,000 job vacancies in regional and remote Australia. What has the government done to address the skills gap and make sure people are job ready to take up those opportunities? Nothing.

Employment of any kind should be safe, it should be secure and it should be remunerated so the individual can improve their social standing and their economic circumstances. Over the last decade across Australia, our cities and our regions have been transforming. In our cities there's been growth in high-skilled jobs, while in rural and regional Australia lower-skilled jobs have been the jobs that have been growing. The skills gap between the cities and the regions is becoming more and more stark, along with the income and employment disparities. These aren't good things. They're certainly not good for the regional and remote communities. Underemployment, increased casualisation and securing regional jobs are three of the biggest challenges facing the Australian community not just now but in future decades. What have we heard from this government? We've heard nothing about a plan. They don't have a plan for now, they don't have a plan for tomorrow and they certainly don't have a plan for the decades to come.

This will only occur if we are proactive and innovative and get our education and training practices right. We need to include employers, industry associations and unions in those discussions. This is what's needed if we're to address the challenges in regional Australia. The systematic approach to targeting skills development allows for the monitoring of the labour market and forecasting trends alongside the education and training markets, as well as how skills are being used. Understanding current employment requirements across sectors within a given region is essential to understanding the skills gap within the regional economies. Regional VET institutions, including TAFE in my home state of Tasmania, are key players. They are so essential, and what have we seen over the last two Liberal governments? Attacks and cut after cut to our TAFE institutions. They don't have the plan. The trajectories aren't good, so we need to have those conversations, and they need to be had now if we're to address these challenges. Sectors and institutions are uncertain about their futures, and what they want is certainty of purpose. This uncertainty is what happens when a government spends six years pointing the finger, blaming others, shifting the blame from one to the other and playing wedge politics because all it's interested in is making excuses.

We know that they won the election, and they keep talking about how we on this side are still grieving about the election loss. Well, of course we're disappointed, because we know how important it is for the Australian people to have a plan for the economy and to have a plan to address the challenges that we see in regional Australia. Of course we're disappointed, because we know that there are so many Australians who have been relying on a Labor government. That challenge wasn't afforded to us, but the challenge is certainly there, and it's a real challenge. We on this side expect this government to rise to that challenge and to create certainty in people's employment and give them the opportunity to work the additional hours that they're looking for. If you're in a casual job, as we've talked about so often in this place, you can't go and get a mortgage or take out a loan to buy a new car. These are real issues that families in Australia are facing. We see rising costs in day-to-day living—the cost of food, the cost of medicine and the cost of health insurance. The cost of going to see your GP is increasing all the time.

Those opposite, who won the election, are still sipping their champagne and celebrating their victory, and they have every right to do that. But they also have a responsibility, after four months, to come up with a plan and to articulate that plan in this chamber and to the Australian community.

What we are witnessing is a Prime Minister who is the captain of a team that has no strategy. They are a team without any focus and they are a team without a plan for the future of this country. At the moment, we have a light on bills and we have a light on what this government is supposed to be doing, but what we don't have is a legislative agenda to address those challenges. We live in a wonderful country, but that doesn't mean that we don't have issues that need to be addressed, and it is the incumbent government, which is the Liberal government, that has the responsibility to demonstrate leadership in these areas of the economy.

We can talk about all the challenges, such as how difficult it is to get into the housing market and the uncertainty that people have about even trying to find a house to rent. In my home state, we have a housing crisis. If you're in the housing market already, that's good—for you—because house prices are going up. But, if you're a young person or somebody aspiring to get into the housing market, then it is very difficult. We have an increase in homelessness. We have, unfortunately, a casualisation of our workforce that is not healthy. These are the things that have to be addressed.

We met these challenges when we were in government. We had the global financial crisis and we dealt with that. We brought in a stimulus to move the economy along, which helped everyone during that period of time. But unfortunately—and it is unfortunate—those opposite don't have that same capacity to address these issues. I know they're probably still a little bit in shock that they've ended up in government, and that's probably why they didn't go to the election with any plans at all except for a tax cut. Well, that tax cut has done nothing to actually stimulate the economy. We're not even sure if people are going to be spending that tax cut. All we know is that they've been very quick to put in their tax returns. But giving people a tax cut does not address the need to drive the economy. That is just lazy politics from a lazy government that is too lazy to even come up with a plan.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

In rising to speak this afternoon, I am very, very comfortable about defending the track record of the coalition government and the plan that we are successfully implementing to provide a basis for economic growth in this country. Before I go into some of the details of that, I would just like to respond to some of the comments by those opposite. Senator Ayres did a good job of giving an address to a Labor Party branch meeting, demonising the Leader of the Government in the Senate. But, unfortunately for Senator Ayres, his characterisation of the government leader is not borne out by the facts of the situation. I ask, through you, Mr Acting Deputy President: is it cruel that the percentage of people of working age on welfare is at its lowest level for 30 years? Is that cruel? I don't think so.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Polley, on a point of order?

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, Mr Acting Deputy President Sterle. It would be helpful if you were to draw the attention of the senator to the issue that we are debating here and bring him back to it—rather than him making personal attacks on fellow senators.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) | Link to this | Hansard source

As I was speaking with the Clerk, I absolutely did not hear any of Senator Scarr's contribution. But, Senator Scarr, if you need to be cued on what the motion is, I'd bring it to your attention.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President, I'm happy to compliment Senator Ayres. I actually think he's a nice guy. He's got a different view of how this country should get to where it needs to be to provide wonderful opportunities to everyone in Australia, but I think his heart's in the wrong—his heart's in the right place. It's hard for me to say, hence the freudian slip!

I think his heart's in the right place, but I disagree with his methodology.

Bringing it back to the facts: the percentage of people of working age on welfare is at its lowest level in 30 years. That is not cruel; that's a good thing. It's a good thing for this country. Female workforce participation is at a record high. That's a great thing for this country. In the seat of Wide Bay, held by my friend Mr Llew O'Brien, youth unemployment has decreased year on year, from 27.6 per cent to 18.4 per cent between June 2018 and June 2019. That's a fantastic thing. Why? Well, let's see what the member for Wide Bay says. He thinks that a major part of that success is the cashless welfare debit card. That is not cruel; that's helping young people get into employment, and that's what we should all be fighting for.

When those opposite start talking about plans, we on this side of the chamber know what they're talking about. They're talking about increased taxes and increased government spending; that's the plan. In my 32 years of being involved in politics I have never seen as much fear in the electorate as I saw during the last federal election. I've never seen so much fear in relation to a potential change in government. When I spoke to people after the last federal election, they said to me: 'It was like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders. We didn't even understand the pressure we felt.' These are small-business people. These are farmers. These are miners. These are everyday Australians. They said they hadn't even contemplated how much pressure they felt under because of that prospective change in government. So I would say to Senator Polley, if she were here, that they had in fact listened very carefully to the two plans that were put to them at the last federal election, and they made a deliberate choice. And nowhere did they make a more deliberate choice than in my home state of Queensland. It was an absolutely unequivocal choice, and they chose the economic plan that this side of the chamber took to the last federal election. I say to Senator Polley—through you, Mr Acting Deputy President Sterle—that the economy is not floundering.

I wish those on the other side of the chamber would stop talking down the Australian economy. They just keep talking down the Australian economy, and that is not in the national interest. We have an AAA credit rating. We have a trade surplus for the first time that anyone can remember. We have jobs growth. We have economic growth. This is a resilient economy which is performing extremely well against global trade-war headwinds. That's the reality of the situation. We are a trading nation. These are difficult times in the world at the moment, and the Australian economy is performing extremely well. Look at some of our competitors—Germany and Singapore. They both have AAA credit ratings. They've had negative growth. We're still achieving positive economic growth. We've had 28 consecutive years of positive economic growth. It's absolutely remarkable.

So the economy is not floundering. As we heard from the Leader of the Government in the Senate yesterday, the only floundering that's occurring is in the Labor Party. The Labor Party are floundering as to what policies they should come up with for the next federal election. Long may they flounder!

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion moved at the request of Senator Gallagher be agreed to. A division having been called, it being after 4.30 we shall address that next week.

Debate adjourned.