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representatives vote 2023-03-06#1
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2023-03-17 14:21:13
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Title
Motions — Prime Minister- Motions - Prime Minister - Criticise
Description
<p class="speaker">Peter Dutton</p><p>This is a debate that we wanted to have during the course of question time so that the Australian public could see this tricky Prime Minister on full display. They pulled a stunt, as you saw, Mr Speaker, and they sought to delay it until we got passed the broadcasting hour. It's a very tricky move by a tricky government. We get that. But the trickiest move is that the Prime Minister has left the chamber and has refused to take part in this debate.</p>-
- The majority voted in favour of *disagreeing* with a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/debate/?id=2023-03-06.130.5) to suspend the usual procedural rules - known as [standing orders](https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/how-parliament-works/parliament-at-work/standing-orders/) - in order to let another vote take place.
- ### Motion text
- > *That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion immediately—That the House:*
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- > *(1) notes that before the election, the Prime Minister promised:*
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- >> *(a) on 97 occasions to reduce Australians' power bills by $275, but instead power bills have increased since he became Prime Minister;*
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- >> *(b) Australians cheaper mortgages, but instead there have been eight successive increases in mortgage interest rates since he became Prime Minister; and*
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- >> *(c) Australians that he would not raise taxes on superannuation, and last week the Prime Minister announced a new tax on superannuation;*
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- > *(2) further notes that:*
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- >> *(a) this Prime Minister is showing himself on issue after issue to be untrustworthy and deceptive, having told Australians one thing before the election and doing the opposite of what he promised now he is in government; and*
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- >> *(b) as a result of the Prime Ministers' conduct, Australians are now unable to trust any of the promises he made; and*
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- > *(3) therefore calls on this Prime Minister to keep the promises he has made including in relation to reduced power bills, cheaper mortgages and not introducing new taxes on superannuation.*
<p>When this Prime Minister went into the last election he said to the Australian people that he wanted greater transparency, that he wanted a brighter parliament and that he would let the sunlight in. None of that has happened. This Prime Minister said to the Australian public, before the election, many things, and the Australian public put faith in him, thinking that, if he was elected, he would undertake what he had promised to do. The fact is that since then the complete opposite has taken place. Is it any wonder that many of the Australian people who have watched the debate over the course of the last almost 10 months have been amazed at the way this Prime Minister has danced away from every commitment that he gave?</p><p>When the Prime Minister went into the election, he looked the Australian public in the eye and said that they were working on a plan. The problem is it wasn't the plan the Australian public thought he was working on. They thought he was working on a plan to reduce power prices by $275, because he promised that on 97 occasions. They thought that this Prime Minister, when he was opposition leader, went to the campaign, giving a commitment to reduce their mortgage bill. But, of course, since then, mortgages have gone up on eight occasions, with many more, sadly, likely in the pipeline. They didn't think it was a plan of a hit list of some $150 billion worth of taxes, including, as the Treasurer pointed out the other day, on the family home capital gains tax.</p><p>The Treasurer must have commissioned that work when he came into office in May or June just after the election. That's the reality. It doesn't take five minutes to work up the level of detail that we saw last week. If you want to see the true Treasurer of this country, the true member for Rankin, look at his train wreck interview with David Koch on <i>Sunrise</i> and Karl Stefanovic on the <i>Today </i>show. That's when we got an insight into what he was really thinking. Is it the case that the Labor Party support a policy of taxes on people's homes? Would they see the abolition of different tax concessions, including negative gearing? Would they support that in a heartbeat if they thought that they could get away with it? They would do it in a heartbeat. So you saw a little light into the true Jim Chalmers on the <i>Sunrise</i> program, on the <i>Today</i> program. You saw the manufactured Treasurer when he was pushed back out by the Prime Minister to do media within an hour or so.</p><p>The reality is that, in this short time, I can't go through all the broken promises of this Prime Minister, but we do have a top 10: no changes to superannuation; franking credits won't be touched; a $275 cut to power prices every year; Australian families would be better off; cheaper mortgages; an increase in real wages; no increase in the tax burden; no industry-wide bargaining; cutting the cost of consultants in the public sector; wage rises for aged-care workers. If you look at what the Prime Minister, both as the opposition leader and now in office, has had to say in a number of interviews, you see that his words condemn his now actions. He said, for example, in this House: 'Let me tell you: you have to earn the trust of the Australian people. If you make a promise and a commitment, you do have to stick to it or you'll be punished."</p><p>In relation to superannuation, on ABC's <i>Insiders</i>, Mr Speers asked: 'What about superannuation? Will there be changes to the superannuation rules?' Mr Chalmers: 'Look, we've said about superannuation that we would maintain the system.' He goes on to say, 'Australians shouldn't expect major changes to superannuation if the government changes hands.' That's what the Australian people were led to believe. The Australian public knew that, under the Labor Party, tough times would be ahead—they didn't realise how tough. And it is getting tougher over the course of this calendar year. The Australian government, led by Mr Albanese, is making it harder for families.</p><p>What did the Australian Prime Minister say about these matters in a press conference in May of 2022? He was asked: 'Does Labor commit to the current super arrangements for self-funded retirees and other superannuants?' The Prime Minister: 'We've said we have no intention to make any super changes.' Now, that is tricky at best, because we know, as I pointed out before, that the now Treasurer was drawing up the hit list before they came into government in May of last year and commissioned the work from Treasury immediately. So he was either making that statement knowing about the work that the Treasurer was undertaking, or somehow the Treasurer was off on a frolic of his own. I don't think that is the case.</p><p>Neil Mitchell said to Anthony Albanese on 31 January 2022: 'Okay, superannuation—any changes?' It couldn't have been a clearer question. Mr Albanese: 'We've not planned for any changes on superannuation.' Tricky at best. You've had Stephen Jones, the Assistant Treasurer, out there talking about seeing people's money that they've worked hard for and put into a superannuation fund as a 'big honeypot'.</p><p>The difficulty here is that the Australian public heard their Prime Minister and they trusted this Prime Minister in the run-up to an election, and every day since, this Prime Minister has ducked and weaved the truth. This Prime Minister has never once repeated the 97-occasions-repeated promise to the Australian public that he would reduce power prices by $275. A 37-year-old today is making investment decisions on their retirement in 30 years time; they're taking financial advice today about the settings around superannuation. There will be projections on adequacy into their retirement. Do you think the Treasurer got that today in question time? Absolutely he did not.</p><p>So, when a prime minister and a treasurer of this country break trust with the Australian public, it's very hard to regain it. If it happens on one occasion, maybe the Australian public could cut some slack—if it were inadvertent, if the circumstances had changed. But, when you look at the weasel words used by the now Prime Minister and the Treasurer in the run-up to the election, you know it was constructed in such a way that it could be broken when they got into government.</p><p>So now we have the list of the top 10, with many more to come. Because what we know about Labor is that they always tax. They always spend. And, when they run out of money, they always come after yours. This Labor government is no different to any of its predecessors. We will hold this bad government to account, because this Prime Minister has broken every promise with the Australian public.</p> <p class="speaker">Sharon Claydon</p><p>Is there a seconder for the motion?</p> <p class="speaker">Sussan Ley</p><p>I second the motion. They have left the chamber. They are not here. They can't face the music. When you stuff up, you still get marks for showing up, and they will not show up. This is a dishonest prime minister who deceives the Australian people day in, day out. The Prime Minister is breaking promises he made hundreds of times before the election and ramming policies through this parliament that he didn't even mention once.</p><p>Let's go through those promises: a $275 cut to power bills, promise broken; cheaper mortgages, promise broken; lower inflation, promise broken; a plan to bring down the cost of living, promise broken; no changes to super, promise broken; franking credits won't be touched, promise broken. This is a prime minister who could not name the cash rate in April but thought he could promise Australians cheaper mortgages in May. This is a prime minister who promised to bring down your power bills 97 times before the election but has been allergic to the number 275 ever since. Deceitful, deceptive, dishonest—this is a prime minister who is allergic to the truth. He is slippery, he is sneaky, he dodges and weaves his way through the commitments he made to the Australian people and he refuses to be straight with them about the broken promises that he cannot deliver.</p><p>This is not the leadership the Prime Minister promised. He said he would leave no-one behind, but he is leaving everyone behind: small businesses, left behind; workers, left behind; mortgage holders, left behind; renters, left behind; retirees, left behind; any single Australian who has been to the supermarket this week, left behind.</p><p>In the Liberal and National parties, we're here for the small businesses of this great country, we're here for the workers across Australia, we're here for the renters in our capital cities, we're here for the retirees who just want the money they have saved over decades to be left alone, we're here for the Australians who are hurting badly when they go to the shops and when they fill up their cars.</p><p>This is a prime minister who spends his Sundays campaigning for state Labor instead of campaigning for the Australian people. Day in, day out all this Prime Minister can offer is arrogance. He is utterly incapable of delivering on the promises he made. Yesterday, while the Prime Minister was cracking lame jokes at the New South Wales Labor launch, I visited his electorate of Grayndler. I saw a great second-generation family business, Paesanella cheese—a household name. They produce ricotta, bocconcini and mozzarella. Like many small business owners, Joe's success was based on a passion for making high-quality products. Joe's father arrived as a migrant to this country and brought with him this passion for making cheese, which endures to this day. Joe doesn't need lame jokes about trains and ferries; he needs action from this Prime Minister.</p><p>The Prime Minister is fond of using the expression, 'I'll give you the big tip.' Well, Prime Minster, I will give you the big tip—if you were here, where you should be. Stop being a partisan political warrior and start delivering on the promises you made to the Australian people. This is a Prime Minister and a Labor government that are completely detached from reality.</p><p>Over the weekend, we heard the member for Sydney and her inspiring daughter bravely articulate their stories. As a woman and a mother, I was incredibly touched by the member for Sydney's story, and I particularly want to praise her daughter. This is a reminder that politicians are humans, too. We're normal people with normal problems. I think the women across Australia would be pretty disappointed that Labor MPs so brutally backgrounded against the member for Sydney's leadership aspirations when she and her family were going through such tough times. When the Prime Minister was asked to reflect on this inspiring story, what was his response? 'I was elected leader unopposed.' There was not an ounce of empathy for his colleague, not a single comment in support of her and her daughter. And what about his foot soldiers on the back bench? One MP said, anonymously, 'I don't understand why she would come out with this today, when we know it's wrong.' How tone deaf. How outrageous. I'll give the Prime Minister another hot tip: this wasn't about whether he was elected unopposed or not; this was about the member for Sydney and her daughter sharing an incredibly brave story. Shame on this Prime Minister.</p><p>There's no doubt in the member Sydney's mind that she would've won the Labor leadership in 2019, and looking at the first nine months under this Prime Minister there's probably not that much doubt on anyone else's mind either. This is a shambles of a government. The Treasurer is at war with the Prime Minister over taxing the family home. The stunned mullet of a Deputy Prime Minister is unable to explain Labor's new tax on super— <i>(Time expired) </i></p> <p class="speaker">Tony Burke</p><p>I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the chance for us to be able to have this riveting conversation. Even the seconder couldn't stay on the motion—for the five minutes it was there. When someone becomes Leader of the Opposition—</p> <p class="speaker">Honourable Member</p><p>An honourable member interjecting—</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>-
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