Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

People in my electorate of Chisholm are angry. People across Australia are angry. Many of them voted for a government—and, indeed, individuals opposite—that, they were promised, would deliver a budget of 'no surprises, no excuses.' What did we get on budget night? Surprise after surprise and, indeed, shock after shock. I could everyone opposite, who were out chanting time and time again: no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS. What did we see on budget night? We saw cuts to all of these things and more. We had surprise after surprise, shock after shock, and people are angry. People are palpably angry—and not about their own hip pockets but about how it is affecting everybody else. I have quotes from my constituents, and all of them are quite remarkable. It is not like in the Howard days when it was all about 'What's in it for me?' These are real concerns about how this budget is going to affect people who are less well off than others. John from Mount Waverley said:

I would like to let you know that many voters like myself who are relatively well off are dismayed and disgusted by the way we and those wealthier than us have been protected by this present government at the expense of the poor and less fortunate.

Andrew from Mont Albert North said:

After voting Liberal in all but one federal election over the last 30 years, I intend voting Labor at the next election. While I'm not against budget tightening, I don't want Australia to become like America and I believe the Liberals have seriously misjudged many of their own traditional voters by the ideology apparent in the latest budget.

Peter from Burwood East said:

I am a 61 year old accountant and I don't mind paying my share but have seldom been so incensed by a conceited and arrogant government and its war on the vulnerable in our society.

Curt from Box Hill North said:

I am so absolutely furious with disgust about the deceitful way Australians are being treated as is evidenced by the budget presented last week by the Abbott/Hockey circus.

Brendan from Mount Waverley said:

I have a 9-year-old daughter and am terrified about losing my job. I have a $250,000 mortgage and educational expenses to meet. Abbott has killed my future and my family's future—what do I do?

Finally, Diana from Surrey Hills said:

This budget is full of slogans and mantras totally out of touch with the real experience of real people.

Those are just a few of the messages I have received in my electorate, and I would be astounded if anyone opposite is going to be honest about the messages they are receiving in their electorate offices. Again, these people are not talking about what the budget is doing to them but to those less fortunate, and they are asking how we are going to share this pain. We are not sharing this pain; that is the problem. It is the people who are less able to afford these cuts who are going to be hurt the most. It is particularly harsh on anybody who lives on a fixed income, like the many, many thousands of self-funded retirees and full pensioners who live in my electorate.

In my electorate, 79 per cent of all GP visits are bulk-billed. It is not the largest bulk-billing rate in the country but, with the $7 tax added to every visit to the doctor, it will cost the people of Chisholm at least an extra $5.5 million in the first year alone of this cruel tax. That figure is just for the visits to doctors; it does not count the extra millions that families and retirees in my community will have to fork out for pathology services, mammograms and the many other medical services for which they would make a bulk-billed payment; now they will have to make a co-payment.

The Australian Medical Association, the Australian College of Emergency Medicine, the Doctors Reform Society, the Public Health Association, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Consumer Health Forum, the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association—not many great Labor supporters amongst them—and countless other health academics and economists have advised against this tax, but the government is doing it anyway. How can the family of an ill person feel confident that they can get access to the health care they need? This government's $50 billion cuts to hospital funding will also put pressure back on the hospital system—and that will be a double pressure, because you will not go to the GP but to the emergency ward. That is what is going to happen.

To add to their pain, when sick people need to get their medication they will have to pay an extra $5 for every prescription they need. We all know people who have multiple prescriptions. My mother is an absolute walking pillbox. This is going to cost her a fortune. What part of their fixed budget should they cut? What part of their fixed budget will they cut into? They will lose out. This is an atrocious budget and this government should be condemned.

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