Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. So we have the GP tax. It is absolutely devastating families and they are terrified of what that is going to mean if they have got a number of sick children and they have to see the GP and they have to get blood tests done as well. Elderly people as well are very worried. On top of that, the $50 billion cut to hospitals is going to have a huge impact upon those people. Another thing of course are the cuts to family payments, freezing the family tax benefits and cutting the family tax benefit B. Families are terrified in relation to what that is going to mean for the family budget.

Mr Hutchinson interjecting—

But let us get to the petrol tax, the National Party petrol tax. You go out to regional Australia and tell them what you are doing. We heard a lot today in question time about the National Party being duped by the Liberal Party, which was really no surprise to anybody, but the fact is that at the end of the day you own this petrol tax. So you go out into the streets in regional and rural Australia and you tell them about the National Party petrol tax. I can tell you that in areas like mine and other regional areas they are really angry about it. In regional areas you have got to travel further to get somewhere and therefore you are going to pay more in petrol tax. Do you understand that? Can you get that? That is the reality of the National Party's petrol tax.

But, on top of that, some of the other cuts in this budget will really impact families. Look at the education cuts: $30 billion—horrendous in terms of the impact on families. And of course many families are also worried about what is happening in terms of universities and deregulating university fees. That means that their children cannot go to university, full stop, thanks to you. We have heard some of the figures about how university fees are going to skyrocket. That will be your legacy, each and every one of you. That will be your legacy to—

See this speech in context