Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent that Honourable the Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion immediately.

That this House censures the Prime Minister for:

1) repeatedly and deliberately misleading the parliament and the Australian people by:

a) promising no cuts to the ABC or SBS, but cutting over $500 million and at least 400 jobs from these organisations;

b) promising before the election no cuts to education, no cuts to health, but cutting $80 billion from schools and hospitals;

c) promising before the election no cuts to education, but cutting more than $5.8 billion from our universities, meaning Australian students will pay more than $100,000 for a degree;

d) promising before the election no cuts to health, but hitting every Australian with a GP tax every time they visit the doctor;

e) promising no changes to pensions, but cutting $450 million from pension indexation;

f) promising no change to the GST, but blackmailing states and territories to make the case for him;

g) promising to build submarines in Australia, but going back on this promise; and

h) promising no new or increased taxes, but ambushing the Australian people with a $2.2 billion petrol tax.

2) for his dishonest and unfair budget which is hurting Australians.

The Prime Minister stared down the barrel of a camera the night before the election and he promised:

… 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.

This is why we must suspend standing orders. In question after question in this parliament today, the words of the Prime Minister were put back to him. Did he have the honesty to say: 'I said this'? Not at all. Instead he ran all sorts of disingenuous, dishonest defences.

He said he promised no special treatment. Well, actually, he did. He said, 'no cuts to ABC, no cuts to SBS'. We did not make him say that script. I am sure there are now ministers in the government slapping their hands over their foreheads and saying, 'What on earth was the Prime Minister thinking?' But this is a Prime Minister who was adrift in terms of his own policy. He has no regulators or breaks in terms of what he says and when he says it. He promised no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions, no changes to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS.

This is why we should suspend standing orders: he is cutting half a billion dollars from the ABC. This Prime Minister says, 'It's just waste.' How dare this man say to 400 people that you are just a waste. How dare he say, as he shuts down the ABC radio in Morwell, that that is just a waste—and in Gladstone and in Nowra. This is a Prime Minister who does not know the value of the people who work for the public service of Australia. He has taken over $45 million as a down-payment out of the Australia Network. Then he sent Malcolm Turnbull, a man who spent his adult political life trying to pretend he is different from Tony Abbott—

Opposition members: Stay! Stay!

Actions speak louder than words for Malcolm Turnbull.

What we see with the ABC is that the Prime Minister is engaging in an extremist, ruthless right-wing campaign to silence the ABC.

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