Spender says neither major party has done enough to increase housing supply. She will urge the federal government to pay the states and councils to increase and exceed their housing targets.
When it comes to health and education - Labor’s bread and butter - Spender wants to see greater scrutiny of spending. Teachers need to spend more time with their students,she says,while her experience working as a “change leader” at a major UK teaching hospital highlighted a system in which people often occupy beds longer than they need.
“We’ve spent a lot more money,we’re not actually getting better results,” she says. “Sometimes it’s not about more money,it’s just spending that money better.”
Spender is keen to take a seat on the House Economics Committee,from which backbenchers can conduct inquiries,grill bankers and officials and pursue policy agendas. TheFinancial Review drily noted it had developed something of a curse;its last two Liberal chairman Tim Wilson and Jason Falinski were bundled out of office at the weekend by teal independents,as were other committee members Julian Simmonds in Brisbane and Celia Hammond in Perth.
Scott Morrison’s appetite for major reform was microscopic,and Labor deliberately went to the election as a smaller target than in 2019. Does she think the Albanese government has the will to pursue a big-ticket reform agenda?
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“I don’t know,but I don’t think it’s going to be an easy three years,” she says. “Economically I think it’s going to be a much more challenging period of time. But it’s actually those times[when] you make some hard decisions ... sometimes it’s too hard to do the reform when times are good.”
Spender is adamant we must significantly increase migration - at least temporarily - to deal with staff shortages caused by COVID-19 border closures. She has floated the figure of 220,000 a year instead of the current 160,000,with 70 per cent being skilled migrants.
That could set up a flashpoint with a Labor government that has flagged its intention to recalibrate the migration mix in favour of permanent skilled migrants instead of low-skill temporary migrants.
“I admire what Labor’s doing on this in terms of trying to build the right skills for our workforce,but that’s not going to fix things quickly,” Spender says. “Businesses will go out of business because they can’t get the people they need. We’ve had our borders closed for two years. For me,it’s a priority.”
On climate change,Spender says the Albanese government should pursue emissions reduction of at least 50 per cent by 2030,and called for collaboration with industry to drive that figure higher. She wants to see a much faster take-up of electric vehicles and an emissions standard thatwould send a market signal for international manufacturers to prioritise low emissions vehicles for Australia.
During the campaign,Sharma seized on reports about Spender having a “petrol weekender” as a second car - though that turned out to be incorrect. “It’s a diesel weekender,it’s even worse,” she admits.
“It has four bike racks on top of it and is much more for going away. The car I use all the time is a very un-sexy hybrid,a Toyota Prius.”
The Liberals have started to analyse the election result,including the loss of so many heartland seats to teal independents.
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Some have identified Scott Morrison’s unpopularity as a drag on the party’s vote in the inner cities,especially for women. Spender says that’s an over-simplification.
“This is not mainly about Morrison. It was deeper than that - a sense of disconnect between who their community was and then what the party was actually standing for,” she says.
Spender says women were angry,yes,but not just with the former prime minister. For 25 years,women have made up no more than a quarter of Liberal MPs in the lower house.
“That is not just Morrison,that is a culture,” she says.
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