Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As the member said, it is deplorable. It is really the narrative that I want to focus on today that is beginning to emerge from this government. Many other speakers, including the shadow minister this morning, outlined very clearly what the effects of this bill will be on the many individual groups that are being targeted. But it is the actual narrative that I want to focus on. It is the narrative that is very much emerging as this government's story—the narrative that you can kick and disadvantage vulnerable people, the narrative that you can attack people who are on Centrelink payments, the narrative that it is okay to have a go at the poorest and the most vulnerable, because people won't care. Hasn't the government got it wrong? You only have to see the response to the cynical political judgement that the government made with the Centrelink robo-debt debacle to see that people do actually care. People do actually care when the vulnerable are being attacked unfairly. You only have to go through every aspect of this omnibus bill to understand the unfairness and the unacceptability of this proposed legislation. It is understood not just by the Labor Party but by the broader Australian community. It was well said on Radio National this morning, in the discussion on the fortunes of the Turnbull government. They made the point that what we are seeing now is not an aberration; it is actually a pattern. I could not agree more.

Labor will oppose this bill holus-bolus, and we will pursue the amendments we have put forward not just in this House but in the other place as well. If the government does not drop its unfair cuts and continues to hold childcare assistance to ransom, Labor know that this bill has been referred to a Senate inquiry. A Senate inquiry is what is absolutely needed for this bill because of the unfairness of it and because of the distasteful way in which it has been put forward as a bribe: either pass this or you do not get disability funding in Australia. We will oppose this bill because we will not hold childcare assistance hostage to cuts to family tax benefits and pension supplements, and to a range of other savings measures. Again we see the Turnbull government attempting to play politics with the most vulnerable members of the community and to pit those vulnerable members of the community against each other. This bill, as the previous speaker just said, is robbing Peter to pay Paul, and it is despicable. But the government continues to try to mask its agenda in this way. The House should make no mistake that this is part of the government's view of those in our community who receive assistance.

We remember, writ large, the cigar-smoking Mathias Cormann and Joe Hockey after the 2014 budget. These are the very measures in the 2014 budget that were clearly rejected not just by the parliament but also by the Australian community. The world is not made up of lifters and leaners. People who receive family tax benefits and people who receive Centrelink payments do not do it because they are leaners; they do it because they have a right. As I have said on many occasions, we as a country should be proud of the welfare system that is in place. We as a country should do everything to build that welfare system. Reform is fine—there is no problem with that—but do not rip the system down and destroy people's lives as you do it.

In this particular bill, look at the way in which, for example, cuts to family payments are going to affect families. Families losing their family tax benefit A will be $200 worse off per child. Families losing their family tax benefit B will lose $350 a year. Those cuts add up for families who are struggling to make ends meet. For example, a typical family with two children and a single income of $60,000 will lose $750 a year. A couple on $75,000 with one child will lose over $1,000 a year. People on the other side of the House may think that that is not very much money, but let me assure you that—and you only have to talk to your constituents in the electorates that you represent to understand this—they are very large amounts of money for people. It can mean the difference between registering your car and not doing so. It can mean the difference between making sure your kids are well outfitted to go to school and not. It can mean the difference between going to the doctor and not. It has massive ramifications.

The issues around young Australians and income support recipients are an outrage—an absolute outrage. Put yourself in the shoes of a 20-year-old who is desperately trying to find work, who finds themselves having to apply for a Centrelink youth allowance and is told, 'Sorry—you can't get anything for five weeks.' How do you pay rent? How do you go to the doctor? How do you buy food? How do you survive? The answer is that you do not, and therefore you have to rely on others.

The issues around pensioners have been well canvassed, and the issues around child care have been well canvassed. But I will say this: there is a very long list of representative organisations and providers of child care that have added their voices to what Labor is saying. They include the Australian Childcare Alliance, Family Day Care Australia, Gowrie Australia, The Benevolent Society, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, United Voice, the Affinity Education Group, Goodstart Early Learning and Early Childhood Management Services. The list goes on. They are not small outfits. They are either providers or people who understand this system extremely well. If people and groups such as the ones I have just read out into Hansard are saying this is wrong then what on earth is the government doing in terms of not listening?

I will finish my contribution by focusing on what this is going to mean for Indigenous children, remembering that we talked about the Closing the gap report the last time that the House sat. How on earth the government thinks that the measures in this package as they relate to Indigenous children are going to close the gap just astounds me. They are going to widen the gap. We already know from that report that the measures around early childhood education are not being met. The childcare package will end the current Budget Based Funded Program that provides direct subsidies to 300 mostly Indigenous services. These services reach 20,000 children. They are often small, and they are often in remote communities. The government saying that there will be no direct Budget Based Funded Program is going to have a terrible effect on these services.

The Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care say:

These changes will diminish our kids’ potential to make a smooth transition to school, compounding the likelihood of intergenerational disempowerment and unemployment.

Alarmingly, that will make Aboriginal children more at risk of removal into out-of-home care. We know exactly what the out-of-home care situation is for the First Nations children. It is just an absolute scandal that the government would even consider these reforms in the context of out-of-home care and Aboriginal children.

I will finish up by saying that, before the 2013 election, the Liberals promised more affordable and accessible child care. Instead they went the whole last term of parliament without doing anything at all about childcare costs for ordinary Australian families. A child born when the Liberals promised their affordable child care will be in school by the time this government deliver anything—if they ever do. Early education and care is an investment in the future. It is the best early intervention that you can possibly provide. The government need to listen to the experts, fix their package and stop playing silly political games by holding the sector ransom to these nasty cuts. It is cynical, it is misguided and it underestimates the sense of fairness that the Australian community has. Jenny Macklin said it today: it underestimates the fairness that is very much a part of who we are as Australians.

Judgement day will come. That judgement will come because of these sorts of pieces of legislation. That judgement will come because this government is very rapidly developing a narrative of not caring, that you can kick the poor and that you can put the disadvantaged and vulnerable up against each other and let them fight it out. This side of the House, the Labor opposition, will never tolerate that approach. It is wrong, it is cynical and, as I said, it underestimates the basic fairness of the Australian community.

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