Opposition leader calls on government to bring forward infrastructure projects and increase investment in social housing
Australians deserve better than a post-crisis “snapback” to an
economy in which workers worry about job insecurity while jobseekers are
relegated to poverty, Anthony Albanese will declare on Monday.
In his latest “headland” speech, the Labor leader will sharpen his message that the public is looking for a recovery “in which no one is left behind” and will not accept a return to “the law of the jungle and unfettered market forces”.
The vision statement comes as a new report from Deloitte Access Economics warns national income next financial year could fall nearly $200bn short of predictions in the previous budget update, while deficits will also be high in the short term.
As the political contest becomes increasingly about the shape of the economic recovery,
Albanese will call on the government to bring forward nation-building
infrastructure projects and increase investment in social and affordable
housing.In his latest “headland” speech, the Labor leader will sharpen his message that the public is looking for a recovery “in which no one is left behind” and will not accept a return to “the law of the jungle and unfettered market forces”.
The vision statement comes as a new report from Deloitte Access Economics warns national income next financial year could fall nearly $200bn short of predictions in the previous budget update, while deficits will also be high in the short term.
Speaking in Canberra on the eve of a three-day parliamentary sitting, he will also call for Australia to build up its domestic manufacturing capacity, make better use of scientific research, and help towns and regions though a decentralisation strategy.
“It’s critical that we are still saying, ‘we are all in this together’, after the lockdown has come to an end – and not just saying it, living up to that standard,” Albanese will say when he addresses an audience in the Labor caucus room in Parliament House.
“Because this experience has reminded us that there is such a thing as society – that we are all connected and the strength of this bond is what is pulling us through as Australians. Our challenge must be to recover stronger, not just to return to as we were.
“Let’s not snap back to insecure work, to jobseekers stuck in poverty, to scientists being ignored.”
Reinforcing the warning about the plight of jobseekers, Labor’s spokesperson for families and social services, Linda Burney, said on Sunday the government should release any modelling on the potential economic shock generated from allowing unemployment benefits to revert to just $40 per day from September – a prospect she described as “a recipe for disaster”.
Albanese will deliver the vision statement on the eve of a parliamentary sitting when the opposition is expected to intensify scrutiny of Scott Morrison and his ministry – including over gaps in the government’s Covid-19 support packages and new evidence surrounding the role of the prime minister’s office in the sports grants saga.
Albanese will say the Labor party has an obligation to hold the government to account. “The enormity of government expenditure approved in recent months makes it an imperative,” he will say.
Morrison has nominated July as an “aspiration” for all states and territories to work their way through the national cabinet’s three-step plan to ease restrictions on social and economic activity and said he hoped it would build confidence.
The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, is set to update parliament on the vast fiscal and economic impacts of the crisis.
But in its latest “budget monitor” released on Monday, Deloitte Access Economics estimates the underlying cash deficit could be $143bn this financial year and $132bn in the next.
The report argues rapid budget repair would be “misguided” and there is a need to accept a further period of higher deficits, in part to fund more infrastructure spending.
It is understood the government sees the next federal budget – delayed until October – as a chance to unveil a raft of “pro-investment policies” to grow the economy, amid calls from some business groups for corporate tax cuts and a more flexible workplace relations system.
But Albanese will call for a focus on inclusive economic growth where the benefits are shared, together with an industrial relations system that promotes co-operation, productivity improvements and shared benefits.
He will also say policy makers need to look at increasing opportunities for people to gain secure employment, “especially for the next generation of younger workers who nowadays have little idea of the meaning of reliable income or holiday pay”.
More generally, Albanese describes the post-Covid-19 debate as a “once-in-a-century opportunity to renew and revitalise the federation” and a “once-in-a-generation chance to reshape our economy so it works for people and deepens the meaning of a fair go”.
He will tentatively weigh into the emerging debate over the balance between free trade and building up domestic capacities.
He says Australia must continue to trade, but the pandemic is a reminder of the need to secure critical supply chains in the face of global shocks.
While the downturn was triggered by a disease, he argues, it could just as easily have been sparked by a trade war, cyber attack or military standoff, adding that the “mad scramble for items as simple as personal protective equipment for our frontline medical staff” should be a wakeup call.
Albanese says the death of the Australian car manufacturing industry on the Coalition’s watch had led to a withdrawal of private capital from research and development, the depletion of critical skills, and the destruction of the viability of smaller manufacturers further down the supply chain.
To foster high-tech manufacturing, he says, Australia needs to embrace science and improve its poor standing in OECD rankings for commercialising research.
The government will use the parliamentary sitting from Tuesday to Thursday to introduce legislation to protect the privacy of people’s data collected by the Covidsafe mobile phone app – the uptake of which Morrison has argued is key to easing restrictions.
Labor and the Greens, meanwhile, will try to gain adequate support in the Senate to strike down a regulation by the industrial relations minister, Christian Porter, that slashed the consultation period for changes to deals setting workers’ pay and conditions.
In a gradual return to political normality, the parliament will also debate other non-coronavirus bills. But just as with previous sittings during the coronavirus period, the number of MPs and senators attending is likely to be lower than normal.
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