Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to acknowledge at the beginning of my contribution to this debate the passion, the knowledge and the commitment of the member for Tangney, and say on the record that I think it is a great disadvantage for this parliament that his knowledge is not being utilised properly. I think he can contribute so much to the scientific debate. We heard him tonight. It is really sad that his knowledge is not being utilised in this place.

This budget would have to be the most unfair budget that I have seen delivered in this parliament in the 15 years that I have been here. This budget attacks those people that look to government for support whilst on the other hand, as we have just heard from the member for Tangney, it is not really building our knowledge base for the future.

This budget is working towards creating a two-tier society in Australia. It is a budget that is based on ideology, not on what is best for Australia. At the end of the day, what will happen to Australia is it will have an underclass. We will have those people that can afford to enjoy the best that the country has to offer and we will have those people that struggle from day to day, week to week and find life extremely hard. On the global perspective, we will be missing opportunities when it comes to science and technological advancements, and we will also be missing out when it comes to being out there and being really active in the global market.

This budget has delivered a number of cuts in areas where, prior to the election, the Prime Minister said that would be no cuts. He said there would be no cuts to health. There will be cuts to hospital funding plus add to that the $7 GP copayment. There will be extra charges for x-rays and blood tests and there will be extra charges for medicines, an increase of five dollars for prescriptions. These things really will impact on the people that I represent in this parliament. Shortland electorate is not a wealthy electorate. There are a lot of senior Australians living there. It is one of the oldest electorates in the country. I know why represent find it really difficult to make ends meet. They will have to pay more for prescriptions. It is going to cost them more for fuel. Once again, the fuel excise is another of the 'no new taxes'. This is something that people in my electorate are very upset about. It is all very well to say that the pension is not going to be cut and that people will still get increases, but in actual fact the increases that they will get will be a lot less than what they would have received if the indexation method were not being changed. It is really important to put on the record that, if the indexation method to be implemented post this budget were in place, a single pensioner would be $1,560 worse off today than they were a year ago. It does not stop there.

Health and education cuts will have an enormous economic impact. A cut to education means a cut to our future knowledge base, our future expertise and our opportunities to be at the cutting edge when it comes to creating new jobs. With the cuts to health, the up-front payment may be less—people may contribute through a co-payment—but people will end up being sicker. People will not go to the doctor when they need to. They will not manage their diabetes. They will not have the immunisation that they should have. They will not do all those things that are about preventative health care and that make us a healthier nation. It is so important that people go to the doctor when they need to and not put it off until they are really sick. At the other extreme, it can lead to loss of life.

There are the increases to university fees and the higher HECS debts. The interest rate that will be placed on those HECS debts will create long-term debt for those young people. It will act as a disincentive for some people to go to university, particularly if they come from a fairly disadvantaged background. I struggle to come up with any positives in relation to this budget.

I look at the families in my electorate and at what the cuts to the family tax benefit will mean for those families. Family tax benefit B finishes when a child turns six. For some people in my electorate, this will have a devastating impact. People who cannot get a job or who do not have the skills to get a job—or the jobs just are not there—will be forced into a situation where they will receive a lesser amount of money. The 'earn and learn' aspect of this budget has created some concern for me. It is going to put additional pressures and costs on job seekers and low paid workers, amongst others.

This budget has also removed the majority of support programs that people who are looking for jobs rely on. Hundreds of jobs will be gone from the Hunter and Central Coast region, which is the area that I represent. We are still waiting to see what is going to happen in areas such as AusIndustry and Enterprise Connect. The Partnership Brokers will be cut from the end of this year. Youth Express in the Hunter, Carelink in Lake Macquarie in Newcastle and Youth Connect on the Central Coast provide great services and support to people who are out there looking for work. Youth Connect providers have been involved in a lot of the work that I have been doing in my office in looking job creation and setting up forums and activities to create employment. But Youth Connect providers will be gone from the end of this year. JobQuest is another group that has been actively involved in my Shortland group that has been working on job creation. There is also Joblink Plus in the Hunter and Youth Connections on the Central Coast. The Apprenticeships Access Program is gone. The Local Employment Coordinator is gone. All the pressure will be on the job seeker and job seekers are going to be paid less money. If they are under 30 and unemployed, they will receive nothing. What does that mean? The pressure will be placed on their families. If this is not a move towards creating a very unfair and inequitable society, I would like to see something that is more unfair. These are not changes that will actually bring about what the government is seeking to do. It will actually make things worse for a lot of people.

Whilst I am talking about that issue, one of the factors that determines whether a country is a happy country, a prosperous country, is social mobility. Australia has a high level of social mobility. It is one of the top six in the world. Social mobility is an incentive that helps people be productive and active members of the community. The changes that I have outlined will lead to a decline in social mobility.

In the time I have remaining, I will share with the House the thoughts of three constituents who have contacted me. I have been contacted by hundreds of constituents about this. I have had my weekly street stalls in shopping centres and people have come up to me and have made really strong, negative comments. I do not accost people; they come up to me. Members of the government really need to understand that people out there are hurting and this budget is not going down well.

Cam wrote to me about the budget. He said:

I don't understand how the clear, direct, unequivocal comments/promises, core or non-core made are different to the reality now, and for you Mr Hockey to stare down the camera in my parliament and tell me the age of entitlement is over and we need to do heavy lifting sticks in my ribs.

Why?

He earns over $119,000 per year. He is too well off for his wife to qualify for the Disability Support Pension. His wife is 40 and far too young to qualify for aged-care assistance. The GP has indicated that they only have a month left together. She is terminal. It is inevitable that soon she will no longer be with him. But they have fallen through every assistance program because of his salary and age, and they still owe $300,000 on their house. Cancer has depleted all their savings. He said:

I don't know how much more heavy lifting I can do ... We don't have spare money to make up for increased fuel costs, we have a weekly $70 medication bill and our GP does weekly home visits for my wife.

…   …   …

Cancer makes you strong, my kids have seen their mother fit on the floor—

and many other terrible things. He went on to say:

We know how to heavy lift, we do more to look after each other with no assistance from the FEDS—

the government. He then said:

Do you see what the Libs have achieved with this budget.

Then he makes a comment about politicians:

You have kicked and kicked hard the heavy lifters and you tell us to lift more!

He said the government thinks they are 'hopeless money managers on the drink, smoking cigarettes and need a lesson to become a good Liberal'. I had never met Cam before I received this email. I met with him last Friday and I know just how hard his life is, how he has tried and how he has worked so hard.

The next letter is from Anthony, who is employed full time in the research area. He earns $68,000 a year, is paying off a HECS debt and takes home $49,301 after tax. He pays $18,500 per year to the ATO. His wife gets family tax benefit A and B, and a part carer's payment of $168 per fortnight. He has a daughter with cerebral palsy. His wife is in a wheelchair after being injured in a motor vehicle accident. He has car repayments of $387 per month and spends $20 a day on petrol. They have private health insurance. He said to me that he throws all the bills in the air and whichever one lands on the table first is the one he pays. He is another man who has done the heavy lifting and done it hard. My heart goes out to them. I do not know where it will end for them.

Finally, I will read the words of Susan. She wants to voice her extreme displeasure about the budget. She has worked for 43 years in both private industry and public hospitals. She says the system is overloaded and 'the budget will disadvantage everyone'. She goes on to outline her problems in the budget. I include that in my speech.

I conclude by saying that this is an unfair budget. It is going to hurt those people who can least afford to be hurt. The government had choices they could make. They have made the wrong choices and they have done so saying one thing before the election and another thing after the election—and the Australian people recognise this. (Time expired)

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