Mr SHORTEN (Maribyrnong—Leader of the Opposition) (15:16): The problem for Australia at the moment is that we have a government with no plan for the future of jobs in this country. This has been a disgraceful week where the government has done everything but talk about jobs of the future. We saw the image of the Treasurer of Australia talking about the national account numbers yesterday and then declaring today, in a moment of hubris, that the worst is behind us and that this country is doing better than anywhere else in the world. The problem with his sunny optimism is that domestic income in this country is sluggish. Household savings ratios are down to a 6½-year low. Productivity is down. There are weaker earnings, wages are falling or are not increasing as much as in budget forecasts, and we have unemployment north of six per cent. This is a problem in this country. Instead of a high-skill, high-productivity, high-wage nation, we have the Liberal government of Australia leading us in the wrong direction. The truth of the matter is that, since the budget was brought down on 12 May, the more and more we see of the budget, the more and more Australians are becoming worried about the future of this country. Their budget still relies upon the same old unfair cuts which marked their last budget. They are still relying upon massive cuts to the states—$80 billion to schools and hospitals—which will fatally undermine the ability of these states to deliver the outcomes that the states are expected to deliver to their citizens. We have seen the deficit of this nation double between two budgets and, when we asked the Prime Minister today in question time what he was doing about that, he had no answer. As usual with his answers in question time, they were masterfully irrelevant. Furthermore, we see this budget relying upon the lazy hand—the Prime Minister loves to talk about hands in pockets; we need to talk about the invisible hand of inflation in the pocket of every Australian—of bracket creep, pushing people into higher income brackets. That is the only way they fuel their budget. This is a country with a government with no plan for the future. People know the real transition that is happening in this economy. We understand that, for the six years between 2006 and 2012, mining investment made a massive eight per cent of GDP. That has delivered some long-term benefits in terms of the volume of our exports in the future, but we are now returning to our 50-year mean in investment from mining and we need a replacement in our economy. The truth of the matter is that, for this country to have a plan for the jobs of the future, it needs to deal with the transition from the mining boom. What we need above all else in a transition from the mining boom is confidence. We need confidence that we have a Commonwealth government capable of leading us to the future. We have in fact a fourfold contraction in our economy in mining investment. That is like taking $100 billion out of the economic activity of Australia. On budget night, Australians waited with some hope, I suspect, that the government would have a plan—and they had a plan of sorts. They had a plan that you could go to a second-hand car yard and to Harvey Norman and you will get a short-term stimulus to small business. I do find it funny talking about stimulus to those opposite. For years they tried to crucify Labor when we had to stimulate over the GFC. Last year, the government had swallowed the bible of Milton Friedman, and this year they seem to have swallowed the bible of John Maynard Keynes. The challenge, though, for Australians is that the government said one thing last year, telling Australians there was a debt and deficit crisis, and then this year they seem to be adopting some sort of mantle of economic Mahatma Gandhis to small business. We all know that their small-business package was basically a rip-off, a Bali knock-off, of what Labor was trying to do with small business. The Minister for Small Business is all about instant asset write-offs this year, but we know that last year and in the years before they repealed the instant asset write-off. Anyway, no matter how frustrated people are with the inconsistency of the government, we are prepared to support the small-business proposals. In fact, we had the ridiculous situation yesterday where the government voted against their own small-business package—remarkable. The real issue is that Australians know that there is no path to surplus of any credibility with this government. It is a map which Burke and Wills could have used to find their way home, but it is not a map for the future. Ms Butler interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Griffith is not in her seat. Mr SHORTEN: We understand that the real change going on in this economy is the transition from the mining boom to the non-mining boom. We also understand that we are fortunate to live in the neighbourhood of the fastest-growing region of the world. The world's centre of economic gravity is moving east at 140 kilometres each year. In the next 15 years, the world's middle class will more than double in size. Forty per cent of the consumption of the world will be in Asia. These are the issues of the future. The issues of the future that the government should be addressing are the rise of Asia and the impact of the digital age upon jobs, economic business and society in general. We have an ageing of the workforce and an ageing of the population, and that is a most important trend. We understand on this side of the House that the other big trend in the world at the moment is sustainability. That is climate change, for those on the other side who do not know what 'sustainability' means. These are the big changes. We also recognise that we need a more diverse economy and we must rely more and more on services in our towns and our cities. These are the big questions. But, when we look at this pathetic imitation of a budget not designed to last 12 months, a budget held together with sticky tape and lacky bands, a budget which repudiates any attempt at economic reform—when spending is higher than at any time since John Howard—and a budget doubling the deficit, we see the problems that this budget has. This is a budget designed to save two jobs but not the jobs of the future for Australians. Labor have an alternative and positive vision. We fundamentally believe that, if we improve our infrastructure, that is a lever that the Commonwealth can exert which helps improve and grow the Australian economy. We understand that public transport demand will double over the next 20 years. Public transport, for those opposite, includes buses, trains and trams. We understand that traffic congestion by 2031 will cost the economy $53 billion. We understand that we need to unlock the productivity of our cities through generational decisions on infrastructure, free of the tawdry politics of the government. But we also recognise that another lever that the government of the day has is not just infrastructure; it is all to do with people. I am talking about half of the population when I say 'people'. I am talking about the equal treatment of women in our society. There is no doubt that reducing the gender gap in participation by 25 per cent would mean an extra 300,000 women in work by 2025—probably not on the front bench of the cabinet but in all other jobs! We believe that we have to do more to help the work-life-family balance for women. That is why I was very disappointed that the minister for women—and, in case you do not know who that is, that is Tony Abbott—turned his back on his Paid Parental Leave scheme, and the government now have in their budget legislation propositions which say that working women who have negotiated conditions for their employment are double dippers. They have been called rorters; it has been called fraud. What the government have done by changing paid parental leave the way they have—you can no longer top up your scheme if you receive the national minimum—is make the national minimum the national maximum. They have lowered the glass ceiling in every workplace, and that takes considerable skill! Of course, the government love a scapegoat. They get up in the morning and they say, 'Where's my scapegoat? I need a scapegoat before breakfast.' Then it is, 'I can't have lunch without a scapegoat.' And then, before dinner, it is, 'I want some more scapegoats—people to blame.' I tell you who they have attacked when they bagged public servants for having paid parental leave. They include the Federal Police. They love having a photo taken with the Federal Police; they just do not like paying them very well. The include Customs officers. They are the front line, as we keep hearing from these people opposite—just as long as they do not have babies. Then we have nurses. Heaven help a coalition minister if they ever get sick! There are CSIRO researchers: 'What would they know? What do they do?' And there are the people behind the counter at Medicare or on the phone at Centrelink. Do you know what is really interesting about them saying they are going after fat-cat public servants—you know, that dreadful rhetoric this government loves to use about the scapegoats? It has emerged today that 62 per cent of the people who are eligible for paid parental leave, the extra scheme, are in the private sector. What they have done is because they hate public servants so much. That is why they have done it. That is why Labor fundamentally believe in the jobs of the future. Of course, it is not just about encouraging women to participate in the workforce, it is not just about building infrastructure; Labor's plan for the future is to educate our kids. That is why, unlike Tony Abbott, who does not have a clue what 'coding' is, we want every child in every primary school to learn coding. We want 100,000 kids to be able to do science, technology, engineering and mathematics at university. We want a smart innovation fund. We have a plan for the future: it is about skills, it is about infrastructure, it is about treating women equally. All this government is doing is working out who is leaking— (Time expired)