Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2014-2015; Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2014-2015; and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2014-2015. These three bills will bring a total of $1.7 billion in additional funding to be appropriated, and these appropriations reflect the Abbott government's decisions which were incorporated into the 2014-2015 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, as well as several machinery-of-government changes.

The bills before the House represent the priorities of the Abbott government. They also represent the ugly tip of an ugly iceberg that we saw last May when the Treasurer delivered his budget. This ugly iceberg has hit the most vulnerable Australian households, it has hit university students and it is attacking pensioners and families—many of whom have already been struggling with rising cost-of-living pressures.

The Labor Party has a long, proud tradition of protecting living standards and raising them. We are a party that is all about supporting jobs and creating jobs, and making sure that this nation has a secure economic future. These are the very tenets of the Labor Party. As Ben Chifley said we are:

… a movement bringing something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of the people. We have a great objective – the light on the hill – which we aim to reach by working the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand. If it were not for that, the Labour movement would not be worth fighting for.

That famous speech that so many in the Labor movement have gone back to.

We are the party of protecting living standards, supporting jobs and securing our economic future. One would think—any sensible person, anyone who believes in common sense, would think—that all Australian political parties should be about those things. However, this stinking, dead cat of a budget handed down by the Treasurer last year is a failure on all three of these fronts. This budget attacks the living standards of many Australians, especially our most vulnerable people. It does not create a lot of heartache for the top end of town but the people who are most vulnerable are asked to do the heavy lifting.

The Treasurer and the Prime Minister made it their priority to have the poorest quartile do most of the heavy lifting, rather than the wealthiest. The last time we saw that sort of tactic imposed in Australia, Ralph Darling was the governor of New South Wales.

Unemployment has risen under Prime Minister Abbott and is now at 6.4 per cent. When we left, it was at 5.7 per cent. We always hear the weasel words, the spin coming from the employment minister, the Treasurer and the Prime Minister who say, 'We have created more jobs.' Well, Australia is a growing economy and that is why the number of jobs being created is growing. So do not stand up and say, 'The pie is growing, if the percentage of people who have no pie at all is actually increasing. Do not try and use those little weasel words. The Australian public understands the unemployment rate. It has always been the factor that we look at in whether the government is doing the right thing.

The rabble opposite have betrayed our economic future in many ways on a variety of fronts, not just because they have sabotaged the economy but because they have failed to invest in education. Despite the promises before the election, despite the fake Gonski embracing and the stickers saying 'we support Gonski', when shadow minister Pyne got into government he broke that promise. Our schools and universities are suffering and will suffer even more in the future yet these are the very economic entities that will enhance productivity and create the jobs and opportunities that my grandchildren will need.

Those opposite have again made a basic error when it comes to the economy by failing to address dangerous climate change. Despite the Prime Minister saying in Battlelines that we basically need a price signal attached to dangerous pollution, despite him recognising that and putting it in words—

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