Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I completely disagree with the previous speaker that this budget is about creating jobs. This budget does not. This budget in no way goes to address the critical problem that we have in our community of creating jobs for people who are unemployed. The budget's own papers state that unemployment in this country will rise. In fact, unemployment in this country has not been at these levels since the Prime Minister was the employment minister under the former Howard government. So Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister, has a very good track record when it comes to high unemployment. He has a terrible track record when it comes to creating jobs.

The other major problem we have within our community and economy is underemployment. Underemployment in the state of Victoria, where I am from, is up to 19 per cent. Underemployment, for those who do not know, is people who are working in insecure work, people who are getting fewer hours today than they need to help them survive. The increasing number of people working part-time or casual jobs and simply not working enough hours to pay the bills is a big problem in my area of central Victoria and Bendigo.

Another problem this budget drastically fails at addressing is: tackling long-term youth unemployment. Long-term youth unemployment in my area of central Victoria is up to 19 per cent—19 per cent of our young people cannot find jobs. That is one in five. We are not just talking about the long-term unemployed kids who have other social barriers to getting work. We are not just talking about the tough cases, where they do not have the skills they need to look for work and hold work. We are talking about young people who have university degrees. We are talking about young people who have TAFE qualifications. We are talking about young people who finished school and decided they wanted work. We literally do not have the entry-level jobs available today that we had a generation ago. This budget fails to tackle those long-term unemployment issues. This budget does not create jobs.

Locally, the strength of our economy is its diversity. We still have a very strong manufacturing sector. We have a strong health sector, and with the Bendigo hospital being built it will have an even larger health sector. We are a health hub for central Victoria. We have a strong finance sector with the Bendigo Bank. We are home to the Bendigo Bank. We also have a strong education sector. We are home to the La Trobe Bendigo campus and we have the Bendigo Kangan Batman TAFE.

This budget attacks all of those areas. There has been $141 million cut from La Trobe. Those funding cuts will hit Bendigo hard. They will make it harder for the university to run the courses our young people wish to study. When it comes to health, $480 million has been cut from our local hospitals. Whilst it is great that the state Labor government is building the Bendigo hospital, we ask the question: will it have the resources and funding it needs to open its doors? This government—through funding cuts in this budget—will put extra pressure on the states and Bendigo Health. That is how this budget is attacking health in our local region.

This budget is also attacking families—nine out of 10 families who are on the lowest incomes will be hit hard as a result of this budget and that will increase the hidden poverty in our communities. In fact, this budget helps nine out of 10 of the highest income earners at the expense of nine out of 10 of the lowest income families. It demonstrates the priority of this government and this budget to help out those on the highest incomes at the expense of those on the lowest incomes. What is it like for these nine out of 10 families? We have a lot of them in Bendigo; in fact, there are a lot of them living in regional Australia and I am quite surprised that there are not more National MPs and rural Liberal MPs standing up and calling on the government to reverse these attacks. The changes to family tax benefits will hit people on the lowest income the hardest. The cuts to schools will hit those with schoolchildren the hardest. The cuts to health will hit not only their children; it will have an impact on their own health and the health of their parents.

In Bendigo in the week between budget week and this week, I had a chance to catch up with our Eaglehawk seniors and we had a general chat about what they thought of the budget. They raised with me the concern that they had for their children and their grandchildren. They said that the cost of basics is going up and to raise a family today is a lot more expensive than it was in their time. And by 'basics' they mean not just utility bills, which are going up—water is going up, gas is going up, electricity is going up—but also, for example, the increasing costs of education. One grandmother said to me that her young granddaughter really enjoys art but the school sent home a bill of $1,000 for art supplies and said that if she would like to do an accelerated art program the cost is going to be $1,000. How does a family on a low income, the minimum wage, pay $1,000 for art supplies? This is what is happening in some of our schools right now because of the pressures they are under as result of this government cutting their funding.

The Eaglehawk seniors also raised with me other cost pressures like transport—transport is going up, and we are talking not just about public transport but about the cost of putting fuel in the car. This budget still contains an increase in the fuel excise. Let us just take a moment to remember why fuel excise was frozen. When the Howard government introduced the GST one of the trade-offs was that we would not continue to increase the fuel excise—what the government takes from every litre of fuel. Now the government has decided to basically do a double tax on fuel. They will increase the fuel excise at the same time as keeping the GST at the rate it is. Petrol prices will go up and people will pay more for petrol—and we do pay more in the country areas for petrol; the further you are from the metropolitan areas the more you pay for petrol.

Another issue that the Eaglehawk seniors raised with me was the cost of health. It is expensive today to get ongoing and continuous health care, and seniors are very worried that they are going to have to pay more to see their local GP. We have high bulk-billing rates in Bendigo as a result of the former Labor government helping to build GP superclinics—and I know those opposite can be quite critical of the GP superclinics but without these clinics being built in Central Victoria we would not have the bulk-billing rates that we have today. The Eaglehawk seniors are really worried to hear that the Medicare rebates for GPs have been frozen—they will not be indexed or increase—and that puts pressure on their local GPs to introduce some kind of payment or tax. Many of these seniors and their family members regularly need to go to the doctor and so they are worried about the hit that that would have on their own budget.

I met last week with the Bendigo Salvation Army, who are based at the old Gravel Hill primary school.

This week, as we know, we are coming up to the Red Shield Appeal. It is the 50th anniversary of the Red Shield Appeal, and the target for the Bendigo region is to raise about $280,000. All of that money will go back into our local community. What struck me in the meeting I had with the Bendigo Salvos, when we launched the Red Shield Appeal, was that even if we raise $280,000 we will get much more than that from the appeal. The money that comes back into our region is over $1 million because the Salvos work on distribution based upon need, and the level of need in our community is only increasing.

The Salvos are out there doorknocking because the need for help in our community is on the increase, but they also raised the fact that, as a result of this government's funding cuts, they have had about 18 per cent of their food relief budget cut. This is the Salvos—these are people who are apolitical, who make sure that people do not go hungry. Whether it be for financial counselling or support, for a food hamper to help you get through until your next pay cheque, for a blanket or for a hot meal for those who are homeless, these people help those who cannot help themselves—yet this government has cut their emergency food relief budget by about 18 per cent. They were successful in getting the grant for local area food relief, but they have a larger area and less funding. That is how mean this government is.

When it comes to our local community, we are having a conversation about hidden poverty. Hidden poverty is the poverty that you do not quite see. It is not the people who are homeless; it is not the people who need the blanket or who rattle their own tin from day to day. These people are the single mums. These are the people who simply cannot get by. They are embarrassed to take their kids to children's birthday parties because they cannot afford to buy the present. They are our carers—for their birthday, their kids take them out to the movies, or their neighbours take them out for a cup of coffee. These are the people who are struggling to get by day to day, and there is a lot of that in Central Victoria. What we have seen from this budget is more pressure on them and funding cuts.

In one of the areas that I want to touch on briefly the government said, 'Don't worry, we are going to introduce nannies.' This measure, in this budget, is an absolute joke. What they are saying is that they will subsidise nannies—people who are unskilled and unqualified—and pay them by the hour. I have no problem with people using nannies, but it should not be subsidised by this government. It is a silly measure and a waste of money. It is inappropriate expenditure of money to subsidise unskilled people working in people's homes. What is next? Are we going to subsidise cleaners and housekeepers in people's homes? It is simply wrong. If there is any money allocated for early childhood education, it should go towards increasing the wages of skilled professional educators—people who are working with diplomas and certificates in our childcare centres. Yet, rather than funding and properly resourcing our childcare centres, this government is subsidising personal individual decisions to have unskilled people caring for children. It is simply ludicrous and demonstrates how this government is trying to support their mates and not the people who most need it.

Another area that has been hit hard by this government in this budget is the arts—$110 million has been cut from the Australia Council for the Arts. That will have a big impact on regional arts. To this day we are waiting on an answer to find out whether the Castlemaine State Festival will continue to be funded. It is a festival that not only is a celebration and collaboration of local art and arts culture but also is a major economic driver in the community of Castlemaine. To lose that festival and that funding would be a disaster.

Finally, after this speech I am about to go and meet with some of our hardworking government cleaners. They have had a double hit from this government.

Not only are they losing their family tax benefits, not only are they part of the nine out of 10 low-income families that will be worse off as a result of this budget, they are also competing against companies who want to cut their wages. Their current companies which are paying the Clean Start rates of pay, are being undercut by companies which are not. We learnt this week that cleaners who work for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have been hit with a $6,000 pay cut. A $6,000 pay cut because their Clean Start company has been undercut by a company which does not pay the Clean Start rates.

Those are the priorities of this government: the double hits and the double whammies to some of our hardest-working people. The cuts to cleaners' wages just demonstrates how cruel, mean and tricky this government is.

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