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

This is a Prime Minister who has no integrity when it comes to keeping his commitments to the Australian people. The reason we believe that standing orders should be suspended to censure this Prime Minister is that it is not just about the cuts to the ABC. What he is seeking to do is lay waste to the moral basis of pluralism and democracy in this country. He is a narrow man and he has no ideology other than extremism.

Look at what they seek to do to our hospitals. In the budget—the document that dare not speak its name, the document that has effectively destroyed the authority of the Treasurer in this parliament once and for all—they say there are no cuts to hospitals. But when you study their budget documents they clearly show that there are massive cuts coming to hospitals. Tony Abbott has now excised the state of Victoria from the Australian Commonwealth—that is why he sends his foreign minister to visit Victoria. And of course his poor old beleaguered Victorian MPs love the petrol tax three weeks out from an Victorian election—another gift from a foreign nation called Tony Abbott! They are going to cut $13 billion from the hospitals of Victoria over the next 10 years. Shame Liberal, shame.

Then we look at schools. Before the last election the Prime Minister said no cuts. They send out the petition meister, the education minister—I tell you what, if you ever need a cabinet minister, don't ring him, but if you want an ineffective petition, Christopher Pyne is your man. He would actually be hilarious if he were not a cabinet minister. The issue is that they are going to cut billions from schools.

This is a government that is adrift. They have no domestic policy. The budget indicates their failure to have a plan for Australia. There is no future plan for Australia under this government. They say before the election they support needs based funding. They say before the election that they are the best friends that public schools will ever see. Then, once they get elected, they break their promise. But it does not just stop at hospitals and it does not just stop at schools.

How about the submarines promise? Who knows what deal this Prime Minister has done with the Prime Minister of Japan and the Americans not to build submarines in Australia? That will come out. But the Prime Minister promised. It does not matter about the shouting from the beleaguered backbench of the government. Late at night, when they pull the doona over their head, in that fearful part of their heart they know that the Prime Minister has led them into a colossal disaster. Why on earth did the Prime Minister lie? This is a Prime Minister who made his reputation, more than any other figure in modern Australian politics, when he tried to crucify Julia Gillard by saying he would not break his promises.

Honourable members interjecting—

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