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

But there is no Prime Minister who has ever broken so many promises. Look at this smirking fellow—he is so happy with himself. What did he say today? 'I didn't say there'd be special treatment.' He has attacked the media, the ABC, for being wasteful. Who are you to defame so many people in our public broadcaster?

It is not just the submarines. What about the petrol tax? How many Victorian MPs have asked Tony Abbott to come and open their launches in the state campaign? If there are more than none, I will be amazed. But it is not just that. Then we look at the GST. This is a Prime Minister who has turned his back on all his own views in Battlelines and believing in a strong national government. He is disowning the functions of the federal government, he is turning his back on 50 years of cooperative federalism and he is saying, 'We are going to cut and cut and cut the funding to the states to force them to have a GST debate.' This is a Prime Minister who does not have the courage to advocate his own reforms. I would have more respect not for his ideology but for his policy courage if he would come out and advocate a GST, because that is what he thinks. And Australia knows what he thinks.

Then of course we get to arguably the greatest travesty of this government—the attack on the hopes and dreams of millions of Australian students and their families. Those opposite want to create a two-class Australia and a two-tier education system. What they wish to do to higher education is disgraceful: a 20 per cent cut to the funding of universities, doubling the bond rate of the repayment debts of students who go to university. Listen to the silence now. It speaks volumes. Even those opposite know the truth.

This is a government who deserves to be held to account, and that is why standing orders should be suspended. No cuts to pensions, no cuts to the ABC or SBS, no cuts to hospitals or education, no changes to taxes. This is a government who not only lies to the Australian people, who cheated their way into the election by lying to the Australian people; they now lie about lying. Shame, Prime Minister, shame.

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