House debates

Wednesday, 20 November 2013

Bills

Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill 2013; Consideration in Detail

6:17 pm

Photo of Kate EllisKate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, what I, and I believe the Australian public, are sick and tired of are Liberal governments cutting the money out of our education system. When we look around Australia we see example after example of state Liberal governments ripping money out of the heart of our school system, our TAFE system, and our education system as a whole. What is most offensive about this particular piece of legislation is not just that it is yet another Liberal cut to education, but that it is the sly, sneaky and deceitful way it is being done. Let us be very clear about this. This has been slipped in. Cutting the Schoolkids Bonus from 1.3 million Australian families has been slipped in. It has been slipped in under 'other measures'.

Let us be very clear: the Schoolkids Bonus has absolutely nothing to do with the MRRT. In fact in the 2012-13 budget some measures were grouped together under the 'spreading the benefits of the boom' package. The measure to introduce the Schoolkids Bonus, however, was absolutely not. This is just a way for this government to sneak in an education cut in the MRRT legislation.

The Schoolkids Bonus replaced the existing tax refund, the Education Tax Refund, which refunded the money that Australian parents were spending on school related items. We know that many parents struggled to meet the costs not just school fees but also school uniforms, books, school excursions and of a whole range of different expenses associated with education. Those opposite are claiming that they were upfront. The member for Solomon said that she told all of her constituents that she would cut the Schoolkids Bonus—she doorknocked them, she put it in all their brochures. The Australian people want the schoolkids budget cut, according to the member for Solomon. But let us just be very clear about this. What those opposite actually said about education during the campaign was misleading. They misled the Australian people by saying that they were on a unity ticket with the Labor Party when it comes to education funding. I wish that were the case. But if you are on a unity ticket, I tell you one thing, there would be 1.3 million Australian families who were not about to have their funding cut.

We know that this is incredibly important to these Australians. We have heard today from grandparents in Victoria—and what did they say about the Schoolkids Bonus cut? I think the term was 'unusually cruel' for a government to want to come in here and do this.

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