Dr CHARLTON (Parramatta) (15:46): It was a very impassioned speech by the shadow Treasurer. We all know that the shadow Treasurer has had a bit of trouble with his speeches over the last couple of years, the small problem being that he hasn't got any policies up in shadow cabinet. He hasn't got any tax policies up, any productivity policies, any economic reforms—absolute doughnut. In the absence of policies, he speaks in airy generalisations about things that he calls 'principles', and he has a name for these principles. He calls them his 'back to basics' principles. This is his back-to-basics economic approach, and, every chance he gets, he tells us about the contents of his back-to-basics economic approach. Now, I don't think he knows how the kids are using the term 'basic' these days. Nobody has had the heart to fill him in, but that's okay; for the shadow Treasurer, it's hip to be square. The question is: what is in this back-to-basics approach? What are the principles that he holds so dear? Principle No. 1 for him is smaller government; principle No. 2, which he talks about a lot, is competitive neutrality; and principle No. 3 is reducing regulation. So, after a big week of coalition policy, I thought I'd just do a quick welfare check on how the back-to-basics approach was going. Let's go through them one by one. Back-to-basics principle No. 1 is smaller government. That has not had a good week. Unfortunately, that one really hit the rocks when his leader announced the biggest government funded program in Australian history. The shadow Treasurer has spent two years talking about spending less. He's been complaining about the housing fund and he's been complaining about the NRF, all $10 billion of it—all these off-balance-sheet funds that he says are a big waste of Australian taxpayers' money. It turns out the problem wasn't that they were off balance sheet; the problem was that they weren't big enough! Now he's got a $600 billion off-balance-sheet proposal. It's a beauty to behold! It's 60 times bigger than the housing fund. It's 10 times bigger than the NBN. It's four times bigger than the biggest policy in Australian history, JobKeeper. That used to be the most expensive policy. It pales into comparison to the $600 billion they want to spend on nuclear energy. So Peter Dutton has completely junked the pretence of smaller government. He's taken back-to-basics principle No. 1 outside and shot it in the back of the head. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): Member for Parramatta, I'm just going to remind you that you need to use correct titles when referring to members of parliament. Dr CHARLTON: Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. His economic policy is less 'back to basics' now. It's more 'back to bolsheviks'! The Soviets would be proud of this; they'd really love it. Stalin had a five-year plan; the shadow Treasurer now has a 15-year plan. Brezhnev built three nuclear power plants in 20 years; the Liberals want to build seven in 10 years. This is about national ambition. The Soviets weren't ambitious enough! They didn't have the vision that the Liberals have. Let's do a quick check on principle No. 2: energy policy must be competitively neutral. That's what we heard from the shadow Treasurer. It was all about back to basics, not picking winners. Well, again, this principle really hit the fence last week. It hit the fence when it was jumped by the mother of all captain's picks in energy policy: nuclear power for all. The shadow Treasurer, the week before, was saying that energy infrastructure has to be commercial—'We don't want to subsidise the private sector.' His leader says, 'No. Let's put it on the government credit card.' Rolled again, unfortunately, and back-to-basics principle No. 2 disappears. Back-to-basics principle No. 3 is deregulation. This one is my favourite. The shadow Treasurer is very passionate about this. He doesn't want the dead hand of government getting involved in business. He doesn't want government telling businesses what to do. They should be out there employing people, driving economic growth. That's what he needs businesses to do. That's why important back-to-basics principle No. 3 is deregulation. Unfortunately, his leader had other ideas, again. When it comes to grocery prices, his leader has put forward the most statist, socialist, big-government, interventionist policy you could imagine! This policy made the Greens blush. It was so socialist the Greens had second thoughts. He doesn't just want to regulate; he wants to split them up. (Time expired)