Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Once again we hear the ranting and the railing of the Leader of the Opposition as he stands in the chamber and attempts to portray that this government has somehow not done the right thing by the Australian people. Once again we hear the bluff and the bluster as the Leader of the Opposition laments his concern about jobs, his concern about renewable energy targets and his concern about defence. He says that it has all gone to potash since the coalition was elected. But the extraordinary thing and, in fact, the subject of the debate of the MPI this afternoon deals with, is the very clear indication of the track record of our performance versus Labor's performance.

The Leader of the Opposition and the Australian Labor Party come into the chamber and say how concerned they are about the cost of living and how we as a government have not stood by our election promises. This is coming from a Labor Party who, when they were in government, implemented policies that oversaw electricity increases—perhaps the single biggest input cost into every household and into every business across the country. The Australian Labor Party oversaw increases in electricity costs of 101 per cent from the December-quarter of 2007 until the September-quarter of 2013—a 101 per cent increase in electricity prices over that period and they have the gall, the audacity, the hypocrisy to come in here and lecture the coalition about how we do not do the right thing in terms of cost of living.

Bear in mind that this is the Australian Labor Party, which, under the stewardship of the former Prime Minister who said 'There'll be no carbon tax under a government I lead' introduced a carbon tax. It was in direct contrast to what the Australian Labor Party said they were going to do. It was a policy, which, at its core, was about driving up the price of electricity. As a consequence of this policy there were stories in the Daily Telegraph about pensioners unable to turn on their heating in winter because of the cost of electricity. Yet the Australian Labor Party—highlighting just what hypocrites they are prepared to be—come in here and say how we have the policies wrong and how Labor had the policies right, when Labor pursued an aggressive form of pushing up energy prices as much as possible. It was not just confined to electricity. We saw utilities increase by about 89.1 per cent and gas by 71.4 per cent.

But it is more than that; it was also Labor's active pursuit of policies that ran directly contrary to what was in the interests of Australians overall. Who could forget when Labor promised that they were going to end the double drop-off? We remember how the then minister stood up and said: 'No more Australians have to do a double drop-off. They will all be able to be co-located at schools and it will make it so much easier for parents.' Not only did that not happen; we also Labor's sop to the unions in their attempt to channel as many workers as possible into their union base to prop up the Australian Labor Party. We saw the consequence where childcare costs increased by more than 50 per cent as a direct result of Labor's policies. Then they say to the coalition, 'You should be more concerned and more focused on the needs of working women,' when we, the coalition, are attempting to provide women with a replacement wage, and we, the coalition, are prepared to put money into Australian women's superannuation, in stark contrast to Labor's policy, which offers only a minimum wage and no superannuation. So, once again, we see just how plain it is that Labor are prepared to display their hypocrisy when it comes to, for example, childcare costs and what is in the best interests of Australia's working women.

The other interesting thing when you were listening to the Leader of the Opposition's contribution to this debate was that he railed about sovereign risk and how we were jeopardising investments with respect to the renewable energy target, because we as a government undertook a review. Bear in mind that it was a legislative review. Bear in mind that we took it to the last election that we would undertake a review. Bear in mind that all we have had is a report to government and not a report of government. But that does not stop the Leader of the Opposition from attempting to make hay trying to maintain that things are very bad because we have billions in investment threatened.

Let us compare and contrast this to Labor's performance. What we see is the example of the Australian Labor Party having not one, not two, not three, but four iterations of the mining tax. There were four combinations and permutations of the resources superprofits tax, which became the mining tax, which actually did drive down investment in our resources sector. It actually did result in job losses in Australia's resources sector. It actually was a completely failed policy. It had some $17.2 billion of expenditure tied to it but raised a paltry couple of hundred million dollars.

So we continue to see examples of where the Leader of the Opposition stands up and makes all the right sounds and just hopes and prays every day that the Australian people conveniently forget Labor's track record. Labor's track record on the cost of living is appalling. Labor's track record when it comes to sovereign risk is appalling. And Labor's track record when it comes to making sure that we provide Australian children with a better tomorrow than they would otherwise have today is the worst example of all.

We on this side of the House know that we will pursue policies that do put downward pressure on the cost of living. There is no clearer example of that than what we did with the abolition of the carbon tax. The government has worked constructively and methodically with those cross bench senators who were willing to take notice of the mandate the Australian people gave us at the last election. We followed through on our promise and delivered the repeal of the carbon tax. We did likewise with respect to the mining tax. We said we were going to do it and we delivered. Not only did we deliver on our promises, but we actually delivered real savings back to Australians, with expected electricity price reductions—not increases but reductions—of nine per cent.

I saw recently an example in Queensland that occurred as a direct consequence of the coalition's abolition of Labor's failed mining tax. Queensland Premier Campbell Newman announced that public transport fees were going to be frozen this year, and next year they would decrease by five per cent. This is happening as a direct consequence of the abolition of a complete failure of a policy from the Australian Labor Party.

The final point I draw upon, which the Leader of the Opposition made reference to, was health spending. I have to say that I continue to be amazed at how the Australian Labor Party can stand up with a straight face and run the complete mistruth that if Labor was still in power there somehow would be billions of dollars of extra funding going towards health and education. The real facts are very straightforward. There was no money being set aside for health and education by the Australian Labor Party. Not one single cent had Labor actually been able to materialise and put aside for additional health and education funding. In fact, with respect to education, under the coalition there is an additional $1.2 billion being provided in education funding that Labor was going to rip out in a sneaky little announcement they made just prior to the last election—$1.2 billion ripped out of education funding in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia. Yet the Leader of the Opposition stands up here with a straight face and says how outraged he is that we would be looking at reducing Gonski funding, when we in fact are delivering real funding increases each and every year in health and education, unlike the Labor Party. I will not tolerate for one moment—none of us on this side will—being lectured to by the Australian Labor Party about how we do not take decisions in the long-term interests of Australian children, when we are the only side in this chamber prepared to stand up for the next generation of Australians, because Labor wants to finance their futures to pay for today's spending and to pay for their measly promises as they attempt to run around the country and promise all things to all people. We reject Labor's approach. The Australian public reject Labor's approach. We have seen the consequence of Labor's failure. (Time expired)

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