Mr HAMILTON (Groom) (16:12): Before I turn my full force to this excellent MPI, if the rumours are right, this is my last chance to speak before you, Deputy Speaker Andrews, so I will take the opportunity to say what a pleasure it has been to serve with you and how well you’ve done in the chair.
The longest household recession on record—goodness me, how did we get there? I want to take you on a journey back in time to what I will call ‘the golden age’ of the Albanese government. It lasted about 18 months. The golden age was right at the start, about January 2023, and things were great. The blue carpet was still fresh with new shoes running over it. The Voice was there to be won. Remember when the No. 1 focus of this government was the Voice for 18 good solid months. Polling was about 70 per cent for it. That was a good time. That must have felt fantastic. The misinformation bill hadn’t been withdrawn twice at that point. It was still there to be won. They were going to tell us how to talk. This was the honeymoon period; it was a great time.
It was during this time that the Treasurer of this great nation decided to bestow on us a 6,000 word essay on how he was going to remake capitalism and reshape our economy. It’s 6,000 words. It’s interesting reading, if you can chug your way through it. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re without sleep and at a desperate point.
Mr Conaghan: I’ll take your recommendation.
Mr HAMILTON: Do take the recommendation; it’s good. It’s all about values based capitalism. There’s a great line in that article:’2023 will be the year we build a better capitalism’. How did that go? Let’s have a look. It was a big claim. It was a mighty claim. It is a claim you can only make when there is so much hubris and arrogance in that honeymoon period that not a single journalist will actually hold you to account for the claims you make. But let’s look have a look now with some runs on the board and see how this played out.
It’s the longest GDP per capita recession since we’ve recorded these figures—the worst performance we could possibly have. That’s not a great start. Real disposable income has collapsed by 8.7 per cent. As the member for Hume pointed out, that dollar coin that the Prime Minister held up during his campaign is now worth about 80c—great job! Remaking capitalism really worked. Household savings have collapsed 10 percentage points. What does that mean? It means that 21- to 29-year-old kids who are looking at the price of housing go through the roof have no ability to save for that deposit. There was a great cartoon early in this term of government. There was a young child chasing a balloon in the shape of a house as it was blown away from her. That’s exactly what remaking capitalism has done for us.
We have the highest number of business insolvencies on record, and I’m happy to say that. It’s a number from ASIC. I know the Prime Minister didn’t like that number. Unfortunately, it’s just a fact. The highest number of business insolvencies on record: remaking capitalism. That’s what they meant. This is on purpose. This is what they were trying to do. Labour productivity has fallen 6.3 per cent. We’re producing less, we’re less effective and, incredibly—think about this—there is a productivity fall in a skills shortage. So we have people who could be doing more while we have a shortage of people and there are more skills that we need. Fantastic! What a remade capitalism!
Mr Wallace: It’s a double whammy, isn’t it?
Mr HAMILTON: It’s a double whammy—fantastic! Energy prices have increased by 30 per cent: remade capitalism. Enjoy that one. The highest immigration ever in the middle of a housing crisis: remade capitalism. I thank the Treasurer on behalf of my kids for the world that has been created for them.
Here we are with the best bit of the whole lot. This is the one that’s really going to hurt: the soft landing that we were promised. We were promised that all of this was worthwhile because of the soft landing. I will read the headline of today’s AFR article by Michael Read: ‘Chalmers presides over $49b budget slump, biggest outside the pandemic’. This is the worst turnaround in a budget ever. We got two surpluses and then we read in the budget papers hidden away in the details that we won’t return to a structural surplus until 2035. Who sells you two surpluses for 10 years of deficit? That’s remade capitalism. We’re not here by accident. We’re here at the direction of our Treasurer and his 6,000 word treatise on how to treat a nation with disdain.
