Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in relation to Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2013-2014, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2013-2014 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2013-2014 which are before the House. Once again, this is legislation that contains what we have become used to with this coalition government—cuts to education and cuts to health. Notwithstanding that the Prime Minister when he was the opposition leader made it clear that there would be no cuts to health, no cuts to education, no cuts to SBS and no cuts to the ABC, we see cuts to health and cuts to education. Here in front of the parliament we see $4.8 million in cuts to education, $13.2 million in cuts to health and $4.6 million in cuts to legal policy reform and advocacy funding. Coalition governments, whether state or federal, do not like organisations that advocate on behalf of their members or constituents. That is why the Howard government put gag provisions in there. That is why, when the Campbell Newman government came to office in Queensland, one of the first things that Lawrence Springborg, the health minister in Queensland, did was put gag provisions in place in relation to funding contractual arrangements.

One of the most egregious things in this legislation is the cuts to the Building Multicultural Communities Program—$11.5 million. Once again, it is hard for those opposite to justify the cuts they are making, and certainly across the portfolio areas that I am responsible for—for example, snatching $1.1 billion away at the end of last year from the workforce supplement to assist lowly paid aged-care workers, nurses, administrative workers and carers. There is no evidence at all that that money will ever go into the aged-care sector to assist in the much-needed increases in salaries and improved conditions. A worker in that sector, such as a registered nurse, can earn $300 or $400 a week less than someone working in a public hospital. That is hard for those opposite to justify.

The Commission of Audit report of 900 pages has been in the possession of the Treasurer for more than a couple of weeks. Parts of the Commission of Audit report that have been revealed and leaked to the media only pertain to what Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister, calls his signature policy—that is, his paid parental leave scheme. He called it his signature policy at a doorstop in Adelaide on 26 April 2013 and described it as 'settled policy' on 29 May 2013. That Commission of Audit slammed the paid parental leave scheme—an unfair scheme that will in fact cost an estimated $5.5 billion, paying full recipients their full wages for six months capped at $75,000 a year.

So a baby born to a cleaner at Ipswich State High School in my electorate is potentially worth much less than a baby born to a banker on the North Shore of Sydney. That is simply unfair and it is unwarranted. We have got a fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme in this country and we need to support it. Three hundred and forty thousand women in this country have applied for and received paid parental leave and 95 per cent of women in this country are now covered by a paid parental leave scheme—a 50 per cent increase in coverage since the paid parental leave scheme was brought in. What those opposite want to do is take away the schoolkids bonus from 1.3 million Australian families and, at the same time, give their friends massive increases in support.

See this speech in context