I rise today to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2019-20 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2019-20. Whilst routine in nature, these bills provide us with an opportunity to further scrutinise the government on a number of their decisions and initiatives—or, more appropriately, a lack thereof. This government is rudderless. It lacks direction, it lacks vision and it lacks a sense of responsibility to the Australian people and our floundering economy.

I have recently remarked in this place about the devastation of the 2019-20 bushfire season and its widespread impact on virtually every Australian. We cannot truly understand yet the true cost of the recent bushfire crisis, and I suspect we'll be feeling the ramifications for many years to come. It's particularly important that we are mindful of the long-lasting effects of this crisis, once the news cameras stop rolling and communities, families and businesses get back to rebuilding and seeing the damage that's been done. The health impacts, of course, are as yet unknown.

Naturally, I'm supportive of any measure to address this crisis and provide support to those who have been affected in recent months. These bills—while, once again, routine in nature—are quite significant. They include over $5 billion in ordinary government expenditure, and that's a lot of government money—a lot of taxpayers' money. Given the government's failure to boost the economy—their mismanagement of it—I think it is only right to scrutinise the government's approaches in this arena. We will, of course, be supporting these bills and will not block supply, but I will take my allotted time to highlight some of the many issues with the government's approach and their failures in recent years. The Liberal-National government have demonstrated in recent sittings that they will shut down debate at any time, with their born-to-rule mentality on spectacular display for all to see. They do this to escape scrutiny, evade the public eye and rush through contentious legislation. I will be taking my time today to provide the government with some of the constructive criticism that they are so keen to avoid.

Those opposite have a lot to learn in a whole range of areas, not just in the economy and the budget. I remarked before that the great folly of our time is the belief that those opposite constructed themselves as sound economic managers. They are not. The reality is that those opposite have made some truly irresponsible economic decisions throughout their time in office. Their decision to throw away $444 million of taxpayers' money on the small and ill-equipped Great Barrier Reef Foundation is just one example of how irresponsible the coalition government is with taxpayer money. We now know they didn't learn from this lapse in judgement, thanks to the ever-evolving sports rorts scandals. This is an absolute disgrace. The Prime Minister was directly involved in this heavily politicised scheme, with his office having sent over 130 emails to the then minister's office about the scheme. Any attempts to suggest the great marketing manager we have as a Prime Minister holds no responsibility for these complete rorts is a joke. This is the program that saw funding thrown at projects that were not appropriately chosen by Sport Australia; 76 projects in round 3 of the program, in fact, were not recommended at all. Money was given to clubs for projects they did not need, and many grassroots community sporting organisations were completely ignored.

Those opposite do not know how to be responsible with taxpayers' money. These are not the only examples of the government's complete and utter mismanagement of taxpayers' money and irresponsible budgetary decisions. We have not even looked at the money wasted on reopening Christmas Island—a media conference stunt held by the Prime Minister—nor the secrecy over the government's decision to give $423 million of taxpayer money to power those decisions. The coalition is so out of touch they will consistently throw away taxpayers' money, often for their own political purposes. Yet shockingly, those opposite are still so determined to get their surplus.

On the face of it, getting the budget in the black is not a bad thing, but when done so through such terrible austerity measures that services stop being delivered to the most vulnerable shows extremely poor political judgement. I could mention many things, but one thing that I do know is they have underfunded the NDIS so patients I see with severe disability are being denied what they need to function in our society. I was contacted today by the family of a little boy called Ahmed, who has severe cerebral palsy, who requires gastrostomy feeds, who requires transport to all his services and who requires support at home so his mother, who has three other children and suffers from chronic medical conditions—including diabetes, hypertension and heart disease—can get some rest and go to her own doctor's appointments. She just had his funding for NDIS cut back by half—absolutely disgraceful—for no known reason. I have spoken about the NDIS before and the fact that the NDIS has been denied to some of the most vulnerable in our communities because they can't get assessments in an appropriate time. This is just another example of the underfunding of the NDIS. Yet we hear from those opposite 'nothing to see here; there's no problem'. It's ridiculous.

We know that people are having to pay more and more for out-of-pocket medical expenses to the point where many people don't go to their doctor. They don't go because, even if they are sick, they can't afford the gap fees. One in 10 prescriptions written by doctors are not being filled because of costs. These are some of the poorest and sickest in our society. We know also that, with the collapse of the public hospital outpatient system, many people are not getting to see the specialists they need. I recently had a phone call from a lady who had incontinence because of a spinal injury. She couldn't afford to go to a private urologist, couldn't afford the gap fees—we have no private urology clinic in my electorate—so she asked me to ring the specialist to get her in and ask for her to be bulk-billed because she couldn't afford to see him. This is a lady who had persistent incontinence of urine and faeces—absolutely terrible.

This Liberal-National government is denying countless NDIS participants, people who are sick and require medications, the treatments they need. It is quite bizarre that they rob some of the most vulnerable in our society to be seen as responsible economic managers. It is doing little for my community in these areas, and they should be ashamed of themselves.

I've remarked in this place before that I've sought the government's support for a number of extremely worthy projects in my community. Upon being re-elected last year, I wrote again to the Prime Minister, not just to congratulate him on his election victory but to ask him to support a number of commitments that Labor would have funded for my community. I received no response from the Prime Minister, but I received a partial response from one of his assistant ministers indicating that nothing would be done.

I'd hoped the Prime Minister would consider the merits of supporting a number of local sporting organisations by upgrading some local sporting fields and facilities, including female changing rooms in one of our busiest rugby league grounds in Eagle Vale, but to no avail. I'd hoped the Prime Minister would see the value in protecting Macarthur's local disease-free koala population, but I got no response. I wrote to the environment minister about this—no response. We hear the plaintive cries from those opposite about what they're doing for our native wildlife, but they're doing nothing in my electorate of Macarthur.

I wanted the Prime Minister to see the need to upgrade local infrastructure for one of the fastest-growing communities in Australia, but this government have completely ignored my constant reminders of the importance of this. They've said no to establishing a paediatric intensive care unit at Campbelltown Hospital for our rapidly growing and very busy paediatric unit. Worst of all, they've failed to commit to a rail link from the new airport, Western Sydney Airport, to Leppington, where the corridor has already been preserved and would be relatively cheap to build. They've failed to commit to the rail link from Western Sydney Airport to Macarthur. They're absolutely disgraceful decisions. These vital infrastructure projects have been recommended by every organisation I've met with. They are vital if our community is to receive the wonderful benefits that will come with the Western Sydney Airport, yet they've been ignored. They'll throw money away when they want to: they'll strip support from the NDIS, they'll strip support from health facilities and they'll consistently ignore the need for better infrastructure in Macarthur and south-west Sydney.

Not only are the government irresponsible in the management of the federal budget but they lack the skills to manage and turn around our economy. I believe that no-one in this place knows better than me the likely effects of the coronavirus that is spreading throughout the world. There will be major economic costs as a result of this. My hope is that, if it does come—or when it does come; I think it is inevitable—significantly into Australia, the spread will be slow, because I can tell you now that our health services, if the spread is fast, will not be able to cope. I'm very worried about the aged-care system. The lack of attention to aged care in the six or seven years of this government has been terrible. I'm very worried about how aged care will cope with the spreading of coronavirus. As I said, I hope the spread will be slow and that we will be able to deal with it, but I am very, very worried. The government's ignoring of the aged-care system and the lack of funding for the aged-care system puts us increasingly at risk of a medical disaster. It's very important that they now turn around and start funding aged care immediately and appropriately.

I'm very concerned about the effects on our emergency departments and our acute services in our local hospitals with the advent of the coronavirus. I think the fact that our medical services have been chronically overloaded and underfunded, particularly in growing areas like Macarthur, for many years is really putting us at risk. The Minister for Health can talk about the PBS and listing of medications, but overall health services in Australia have been under significant stress because of a lack of federal government funding.

An injection of funding for infrastructure in the growth corridor of south-west Sydney makes a huge amount of sense in terms of things like transport, which I have mentioned, health services, education and TAFE—some of the vital things in our society that help us all function. They've chronically underfunded it and left us in dire need of adequate financial and economic support. Long before the bushfire crisis and long before coronavirus the economy was floundering. The Prime Minister and his government cannot hide behind those two things. Their mismanagement over six years in office is largely to blame.

Each and every time we hear those opposite carry on in a sanctimonious manner about their track record versus ours on the economy, we'd do well to remember some simple facts. Labor saved the economy and protected Australia during the GFC. Yes, we spent money. We provided stimulus to Australians to prevent families and businesses from going under. That was the alternative. There is no point in denying it. We saved the economy and we saved Australian businesses. At times, it seems that those opposite would have preferred more people to default on their mortgages, have their cars repossessed, get into more debt, lose their jobs and have their businesses shut down. That was the alternative, and would have been the reality if Labor had not provided the stimulus the economy so desperately needed. This government needs to listen to that lesson. We grew the economy again in the wake of the GFC. In contrast, those opposite have allowed the economy to stagnate. They did not have a global financial crisis to face, nor do they have one to blame.

The arrogance of those opposite and their mismanagement have caused our economy to flounder. Those opposite have been in power for six years. They have six years to answer for. Growth continues to slow in our economy. It's almost halved since the Prime Minister and his Treasurer took over the job. Wages are stagnating. There is a huge amount of underemployment and unemployment figures are rising. The impacts of coronavirus and the bushfires will be felt throughout Australia for many years to come but, in terms of the economy and wages growth, those opposite knew that the economy was already floundering. Almost two million Australians were looking for work or more work before the bushfires and before coronavirus.

I spoke recently about unemployment, underemployment and underutilisation within my own community of Macarthur. South-west Sydney has an estimated unemployment rate of 6.1 per cent and we have a rate of 14.5 per cent youth unemployment in south-west Sydney. These are terrible figures. People can't find work and those who are in work are not being paid enough and are not working long enough hours. Our economy is in desperate need of a boost, but I doubt that those opposite have the wherewithal to do anything in this economy, other than just let it stagnate. I've attempted to work with the government. I've advocated for my community and I have advocated for investment in our economy. But this government does not want to listen—and it is irresponsible.