Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for the Arts and Sport (Senator Kemp) to questions without notice asked by Senators Evans, Moore and Lundy today relating to the 2006-07 Budget.

Labor has welcomed and will support the changes to tax and family payments in the budget, because this year the government has finally looked to help those low- and middle-income earners, whereas last year the budget reforms were very much directed to the top end of town. They do well out of this package as well, but Labor recognises that at least there is something in it for middle-income earners on this occasion. You can argue about whether it is properly directed, and we will have those arguments.

Most middle-income earners know that this is getting a bit of their own money back for the taxes they paid over the last year, and it might help them meet the increasing costs of petrol and their mortgages. I think a lot of them will realise that even the compensation in the budget will not allow them to meet those extra costs, given how the price of petrol and interest rates are going up. Of course, there is the question of how much this budget will add to the pressure on interest rates, which we will obviously debate in coming months.

The focus of the questions to Senator Kemp today was on the forgotten people, the people not mentioned in the budget who received no assistance. It is interesting that most of those are the people doing it toughest in our community. The government produced scales which showed the impact on people who were earning private income of over $10,000—great! There was no coverage of those earning less than $10,000 in private income. There was no mention of pensioners, those on disability support pensions or single parents. Most of them do not have any private income. They rely on income support payments to support themselves. Many of them rely on those payments to raise children. Single parents and their children are families too. If you want to have a family friendly budget, you should not ignore the millions of families who rely on income support, but this budget has done so.

I know it is not sexy or trendy to talk about the poor or those on income support. The government has been very good at demonising those people. But there is nothing in this budget for them. At a time of great prosperity, when the government is able to find $39 billion in tax cuts, you would think they would have found them something. You would think at least one measure would have been directed to those most in need. But, if you are a single parent on income support with one or two children, there is absolutely nothing in this for you. You are forgotten completely by this budget.

So, while the government says, ‘You should be focusing on the winners,’ quite frankly, part of our job today is to focus on those who have been forgotten. It is not good enough, it reflects badly on the government and it reflects badly on our society that we so easily dismiss those families who are doing it tough. It is true that families on low private incomes are doing it tough and that there are some measures, including the improvements to the threshold for family payments, that help them. I welcome them. Labor has been arguing for that for some time. A number of the measures are things that we advocated at the last election and that we advocated in response to the last budget.

But, at a time when the government can find $39 billion for tax cuts, the fact that it can find nothing for those on income support—the single pensioners and people on the disability support pension—is I think an indictment of the government and the budget. I would normally include aged care pensioners—because effectively they found nothing—but the aged care pensioners did get something. They got a $102 utilities allowance payment. If you compare that to the largesse to all the others, it is a very small amount indeed. But the aged care pensioners did get that. I concede that.