Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026

Mr VIOLI (Casey—Opposition Chief Whip) (11:01): I know the member for Brisbane is new, so I don't want to hold her to account. I appreciate she has to repeat the government's talking points. I talked about this a lot last term.

I'll talk about it again. It's important. Facts matter.

The $1 trillion debt that the government supposedly inherited, which they keep talking about, is not true. Don't take my word for it. Take the word of ABC Fact Check.

ABC Fact Check, that right-wing news organisation, has said that the government's claim of inheriting $1 trillion in debt is false. It is not true; it is spin. So I would urge those new members on the government side to not repeat the Treasurer's talking points word for word, because you're misleading your communities and the Australian people.

The reality is that spin won't cut it for the Australian people. Cost-of-living pressures continue to be a challenge for families in my home of Casey and for all Australians across the country. Can the Treasurer explain why the price of food is up 16 per cent?

Why is the price of health care up 15 per cent? Why is the price of housing up 18 per cent? Why is the price of insurance up 21 per cent?

Why is the price of education up 17 per cent? Alarmingly, why are the prices of gas and electricity both up 38 per cent, impacting every Australian, every business and every community group? This is all under this Treasurer's watch.

The reality—and the answer—is the incompetence of this Treasurer. He's all about spin. He's not able to turn up.

I note he is not here today. He does not have any solutions to the challenges that the Australian people face, and the Australian people are facing them every day. We just saw that here.

Three-and-a-half years in, this government is still blaming the previous government. We do not want excuses for the incompetence of the Treasurer, who does not even deem the parliamentary process important enough to be here to respect it. I will acknowledge the Assistant Treasurer, who has taken the time to be here.

In many ways it is probably better that he is here, given he is a doctor of economics. The Treasurer is a doctor of political spin. As many people know, the Assistant Treasurer is the brains behind the operation, so there might be some small hope, but he will continue to get railroaded by a Treasurer who is insistent on spin.

We know that the Treasurer is distracted. He's been missing lately. It's almost like the Treasurer has been sidelined by the Prime Minister.

The Treasurer's a bit MIA at the moment because— An opposition member interjecting— Mr VIOLI: He could be counting the numbers. He's not counting the budget numbers. He's very quietly counting other numbers, because we understand that's the endgame for this Treasurer.

We saw it recently at the productivity roundtable. The Prime Minister said, 'We're going to have a productivity roundtable.' That was the first time the Prime Minister had mentioned productivity in 3½ years. That's probably why it dropped over five per cent under his watch in the first term.

But then the Treasurer's said: 'I've got an opportunity. I can spin it. It's a roundtable for economic reform.' The Treasurer's gone big, and he's gone bold.

But the problem is that he's not willing to do any economic reform. He doesn't have the courage, or, potentially, the Prime Minister's not letting him, because the next day the Prime Minister came out and stamped his authority on the Treasurer and said: 'No, this is a productivity roundtable. We're focused on productivity.' He put the Treasurer back in his place.

I would warn the Treasurer to be careful because the last two cabinet ministers that really put some pressure on the Prime Minister's authority are no longer in cabinet. To use the member for Chifley's own words, they got the factional assassins to do the work. The Treasurer should be careful there.

But even after all this hoopla and spin of the productivity roundtable—it was so important—what did we come up with? One outcome from three days. One solution: we're going to suspend the building and construction code.

Great idea! It just happened to be a coalition policy that this government criticised during the campaign. After three days, they came up with one thing—taking coalition policy.

The reality is that it is all spin for this government. They have no solutions to the challenges the Australia people face. (Time expired.)