Preparations are currently underway for the Federal Parliament to return on Monday 24 August.  Some representatives from Victoria are already quarantining so they can attend in person while ensuring that everyone in Canberra stays safe.

It is my intention to fly to Canberra so that I can continue to represent my constituents in parliament. However, keeping my community, family and staff safe is also my top priority. If the Morrison Government’s arrangements don’t make it possible for me to participate in person, I will do so remotely. It is crucial that my community’s voices are heard down in Canberra.

It is more important than ever that every person in Australia is represented in Parliament during these very challenging times.  There are several questions that the Coalition Government needs to answer. Parliament is the only opportunity we have to ask questions like: – What should have been done to prepare aged care facilities in Victoria and are our Queensland aged care facilities prepared for a second wave of Covid-19? – Why are the Liberals introducing a new university funding scheme that will make it harder and more expensive to go to university? Their Coalition partners have already said it has major flaws. – What role did Minister Dutton play in the Ruby Princess debacle that resulted in the deaths of numerous Australians? – Why isn’t the COVID Safe app playing a larger role in contact tracing? – Was the app a waste of money and why can’t the Coalition ever get technology right? – Why has the Government taken so long to introduce paid pandemic leave and why isn’t it being introduced across the country to prevent community transmissions? – How is the Government planning to address the 240,000 additional people expected to become unemployed between now and Christmas?  – What is their jobs plan? We need answers to all these questions. We need Prime Minister Morrison to tell us what  plan he has to get Australia through this pandemic. What plan does he have to create jobs and what plan he has for young people, who are bearing the brunt economically and socially?

Recently, Australia’s gross national debt reached a new record. The Australian Office of Financial Management announced that the bonds on issue that taxpayers will eventually have to repay now equal $734.4 billion.

The Coalition is about to commence their eighth year in government. When Labor left office in 2013 debt was sitting at $257 billion.

It would be duplicitous of former Treasurer and current Prime Minister Morrison to pretend this new record debt and deficit is all due to the pandemic. In fact, the Liberals accumulated two-thirds of the debt before any of us had ever heard of the Coronavirus.

Even before the devastating bushfires of last summer and the pandemic hit, our nation’s annual growth was already well-below trend, consumption was weak, business investment had fallen, underemployment and household debt hit record highs and wages growth had hit a record low.

Australia’s remarkable run of nearly three decades of economic growth ended on Scott Morrison’s watch.

I seriously doubt the ability of the Coalition’s economic team when it comes to getting the nation out of this mess. There are already one million Australians unemployed and another 240,000 expected to be unemployed by Christmas.

Sadly, Mr Morrison doesn’t appear to understand the structural damage to the budget that has occurred on his watch. So, very recently, he was happy to sell coffee cups as a marketing gimmick announcing a surplus. However, the harsh reality is that Treasury is now predicting a deficit of $184.5 billion for this year. Our nation now needs leadership rather than marketing slogans and short term political point-scoring.