Senator AYRES (New South Wales—Assistant Minister for Trade and Assistant Minister for a Future Made in Australia) (17:13): I might just say on the housing question that, if there was ever a costed policy that emerges, I look forward to it. It's been 2½ years of torpor for the federal opposition and not one single costed policy. I read Senator Scarr's notice of motion. He's a good fella, but it really sums up— Senator Dean Smith interjecting— Senator AYRES: He's a very good fella, Senator Smith. He really is. So are you as the last remaining Liberal in the Liberal Party! It's drifted so far from economic liberalism— Senator Dean Smith: I'm not going anywhere! Senator AYRES: There's hope for the Liberal Party if you stay. We've given up on Senator Bragg, who once used to espouse economic liberalism and socially progressive values, but there wasn't much of a difference between what Senator Bragg just said then on housing policy and what Jim Cairns might've said about foreign investment. There is not much of a difference between what Senator Bragg says and what Senator Hanson and Senator Roberts say about foreign investment. It's time for, as they say in the classics, a good, long, hard look at yourselves on the foreign investment question. What's been going on, whether it's on Future Made in Australia or the housing fund, is you're trying to give people the heebie-jeebies about foreign investment. Rex Connor used to do it—again, he's a good fella. He spent a bit of time detained. Jim Cairns used to do it. He was a very interesting fella, Mr Cairns. He was Treasurer in the Whitlam government. He was a bit worried about foreign investment too. Senator Hanson, Senator Roberts and Senator Bragg are all very concerned about foreign investment. I read this, and it just shows the arrogance and smugness of the Liberal Party on questions of economic management. They haven't learnt the lesson that they should have spent this term reflecting upon. You believe that you're fated, in the eastern suburbs circuits that you walk in, where there's the clink of champagne glasses and the runny noses and the hubbub of voices as you all talk to yourselves about what great economic managers you all are. The truth is you don't do the intellectual job of examining whether that's really true. You just assume, and there's an intellectual laziness about that, a lack of curiosity, a smugness, a complacency, a lack of hunger for the national interest. It's the old failures, Morrison leftovers, all going to the same fundraisers, all hanging out together with the well-heeled set: 'Everything is alright. We're the superior economic managers.' That's why you end up with a shadow Treasurer like Mr Taylor. That's how you get there. It's the bottom of the fiscal and economic policy barrel. The truth is—I heard the Treasurer say this the other day and I sort of liked it—this lot forecast surpluses. They put out the mugs. I've got one of the mugs in my office. I drink a cup of tea out of it regularly. It says, 'Back in the black.' Well, it never ever happened because the Morrison government, the Liberals and the Nationals, weren't up to decent economic management. This government has been back in the black, back to back; twice—not just one year but two years. We've turned a conga line of Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses, with good economic management, with a disciplined approach to fiscal policy, led by my colleague Senator Gallagher, who actually knows what she's doing. Senator Cormann and Senator Birmingham and all the former failed finance ministers—and Prime Minister Morrison, who was also finance minister for a time, when he didn't tell anybody, including Senator Birmingham. They had multiple finance minister. No wonder the show couldn't run itself. They talk tough. It's the old Liberal message, the entitlement, the smugness of 'we're great economic managers'. But they ran the show over a cliff, with a trillion dollars in debt and nothing to show for it. They have cast a shadow over public finances for generations to come. The truth is pursuing a surplus is not about a coffee mug. We delivered the surpluses, but do you see any Labor coffee mugs? No, because we're doers, not talkers. We're lifters, not leaners. In this show, we lift everybody up; we're exhorting the Public Service to greater performance, making sure we do it in the public interest. A surplus isn't something to be put on a mug; it's designed to achieve a public policy objective. At this moment, when you need government to be acting in the acting interest— Senator Dean Smith: You might be crowing too early, Senator Ayres! Senator AYRES: He's very rowdy. It's the end of the week. He's looking forward to a long flight home. I always try and share. I always make sure that everybody gets a go. I gave Senator Bragg a go, and I'm going to really try, Senator Smith—oh, well, we'll see how we go. Senator Dean Smith: Is that a broken promise? Senator AYRES: That's a broken promise right there! The purpose of our surpluses is to put downward pressure on inflation. The purpose of our cost-of-living relief is to support families through what is a challenging period and put downward pressure on inflation—a trick that those opposite could never pull off, aren't capable of and have opposed every step of the way. Wage rises, tax cuts, rent assistance, knocking off student debt, electricity relief, childcare relief—these things have made a real difference. For working families in Western Australia, South Australia, in the territories and on the east coast of Tasmania, reducing childcare costs and lifting childcare wages made child care better and reduced costs for parents, meaning more people participating for more hours in the economy. Do you know how economically illiterate this show are? When the latest productivity figures come out—just conceptually, I want you to try to think about it for a second—if the number of hours worked goes up then labour productivity falls. I just want to let you in on the secret. For the people on that side, this is like a catastrophe. Labour productivity moves up and down. It's the long-term trajectory that you have to examine. After the failed decade of the lowest productivity growth on record in Australian history that made some of the undeveloped economies look good during the Morrison-Abbott-Turnbull catastrophe, the idea that this show would criticise this government on the basis of productivity performance is like Idi Amin criticising another country for their human rights performance. That's a reference that the gen Z people that Senator Bragg talked about might not get. But that's what we have achieved. The research demonstrates that, if you followed the Dutton approach on wages and tax cuts, working Australians would be $4,700 worse off in real terms. That's if the squalid torpor approach that characterises the show opposite had prevailed. We've delivered wage reform. We've delivered tax reform so that people earn more and keep more of what they earn. That's meant for childcare workers and aged-care workers, in particular, that their wages have lifted. It's good for them, good for their kids, good for their communities, good for participation in the economy, good for caring for little kids and supporting their education and good for caring for older Australians. The surpluses that we have delivered, plus the cost-of-living relief that we have engaged in, has not solved every problem—not at all. There is still more work to do. Inflation is much lower than it was at its dizzying heights when the Morrison government lost office. It has fallen. It still has further to go. There is still more work to do. This government will continue to do that work. That's the here and now, but we are also engaged in long-term structural reform in the energy market in particular, where we have to turn this great big ship around. It's headed for disaster. Four gigawatts of generation capacity went out of the electricity system and every single coal-fired power station in the country closed down or announced their closure under these characters' watch. They used to carry around lumps of coal in the parliament. The energy market was in complete disarray. The investment community around the world didn't bother knocking in Australia. I know Senator Bragg doesn't like foreign investment, but it is how you get things done. The investment community didn't want to come anywhere near Australia because of the sovereign risk that was presented to them by the government. So there needed to be energy reform Future Made in Australia is, again, an area where Senator Bragg and Mr Taylor—God love him, poor old Angus Taylor—are out there talking down Australian manufacturing and the capacity of Australians to make things. The claims that are made about Future Made in Australia by the coalition that is now formed by the Liberals, Nationals and Greens are quite curious. What they say is that Australians aren't up to it. That's the message they send. This is the show that had former senator Johnston in here. Senator Dean Smith: Only some Australians aren't up to it. Senator AYRES: Senator Smith's poor old Senate colleague Senator Johnston, when confronted with the national task of building ships and submarines in our national security interest, said that Australians couldn't build a canoe. Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey forced 40,000 automotive jobs offshore and exulted in it. They loved it. They were absolutely gleeful about sending good union jobs offshore. They loved every second of it—all that lost industrial capacity. They are hostile to Australian manufacturing. They dress up in the high-vis but can't deliver a single manufacturing job. It's not clear to me which bit of Future Made in Australia they are so afraid of. They are certainly afraid of the future. Opposition senators interjecting— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Grogan ): Order! Come on, enough. Senator AYRES: They are certainly hostile to the Australian national interest—particularly our security and economic resilience interests in an environment where our future security cannot be taken for granted. They are hostile to Western Australian mining, resources and manufacturing. In Western Australia, their hostility to Future Made in Australia goes down like a bucket of sick. It is anti-Australian and anti-Western-Australian in particular. They're hostile to Australia's national interest, to the future and to Australian manufacturing. Good luck prosecuting that message in Western Sydney! Good luck prosecuting that message in the industrial suburb— (Time expired) The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Grogan ): Senator Rennick, do what you can with what's left.