Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This matter of public importance relates to this Prime Minister and this government's many, many failures and also to its very unfair and cruel budget. In fact, here we are, months after the budget, still talking about how unfair and how cruel it is. It has been the government's year of broken promises and policy failures across a whole range of different issues. It has indeed impacted everyone across Australia but, in terms of the broken promises, these have been very severe for those in rural and regional Australia.

Before the election we had the Prime Minister and all the members of the Liberal and National parties out there, saying, 'There'll be no cuts, no new taxes—none of this will happen.' I know that in areas like mine, the North Coast of New South Wales, we had those members of the National Party out there running around and saying that to everyone. That is why no-one trusts the National Party in my area now, because there they were, saying, 'No cuts; no new taxes', and that is precisely what happened after they got into government.

And if we look at some of those measures, the really cruel and unfair measures, we see things like the GP tax, which is a tax on the sick and vulnerable. We see the $100,000 university degrees stopping kids, particularly from regional and rural areas, getting to university. We see the petrol tax pushing up the cost of living. We see cuts to age pensions—how cruel is that?—robbing our older Australians of $80 a week. We see cuts to family payments, cuts to schools and hospitals, cuts to the ABC. And remember, before the election, we had the Prime Minister on the SBS news saying, 'No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions, no changes to the GST, no cuts to the ABC or SBS.' And since that time, what has the government done? They have cut more than $500 million from the ABC and SBS. And of course for regional Australia this is indeed another betrayal by the National Party, because these cuts will be devastating to regional areas like mine on the New South Wales North Coast.

So, you can call it what you like. You can call it a lie, you can call it a broken promise, you can call it deception, or you can call it an untruth. But one thing is very, very clear: this Prime Minister and the Liberal and National parties just cannot be trusted. That is the reality. And what do they do now? They lie about lying—it gets even worse. Let us have a look at another one of their massive broken promises, and that of course is their $7 doctor tax. In this budget, the Abbott government's first budget, they essentially declared war on Medicare and universal health care, and I think that is one of the worst broken promises—again, particularly for regional and rural areas. We have the doctor tax plus the PBS hike. It really is devastating, because introducing a $7 GP tax for all patients will cost over $1.4 billion to communities living outside of metropolitan areas. Indeed, Department of Health data shows that people in these regional and rural areas will be the hardest hit by the Abbott government's more than $1 billion hike in PBS medicines. And the top 12 electorates that will pay for the highest out-of-pocket expenses for PBS medicines are in regional and rural areas; that is a fact. So, they are getting a double whammy: the cost of the GP tax and the PBS increases will increase total out-of-pocket costs to patients. It is unfair that those patients get charged out of pocket when they go to see the doctor—they are charged $7—and then when they need to fill their prescriptions or have scans or X-rays they also have those increases, and when they go for blood tests. So, it will be particularly devastating for people in regional areas.

Let us move to the petrol tax, which is incredibly unfair—a harsh tax that will hit people in the regions. Indeed, in my area they call it the National Party petrol tax they are so angry about it. The reason it is so unfair is that people in regional and rural areas have to drive so much further in order to access activities. Remember the Treasurer said, in relation to that, 'Poor people don't drive'. That shows how out of touch they all are. They do not understand people in regional and rural areas one bit. People are incredibly angry about the petrol tax, just as they are about the $100,000 degrees. A university degree should depend on hard work and good marks, not on your parents' bank balance. But what people tell me in regional areas like mine, the electorate of Richmond, is that it is just out of reach for their kids to be able to get to university. That is what this government has done when it comes to their unfair and cruel budget—measures like the GP tax; $100,000 for university degrees; the petrol tax; the cuts to age pensions, which is so incredibly unfair to our elderly Australians, those who have served our nation; and the cuts to family payments. You can look across any area and see these severe cuts that are impacting our community.

And now they are saying, 'We've got to reboot, reset.' That does not change the substance of what they have done, it does not change the cruelty and the unfairness of it. The problem is that they said one thing before the election and then did something else. That is why people do not trust them: because they did exactly the opposite when they got into government. (Time expired)

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