Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Payments Structural Reform and Participation Measures) Bill (No. 2) 2015. This bill is yet another example of the Turnbull Liberal-National government's continuous attack upon families. We see it on so many different occasions, and this comes on top of many other harsh measures that have impacted families right across the country. In fact, this bill continues the trend of budgetary cuts affecting families and, indeed, the most vulnerable in our community. At the base of it, these cuts are fundamentally unfair. In terms of the impact on families, these measures comes on top of other harsh cuts such as the government's $80 billion cuts to health and education.

These cuts are particularly detrimental for those people living in regional and rural areas. If we look firstly at health costs and the cuts to the health budget, we know that when it comes to health the costs are much higher in the country areas. So those cuts of over $50 billion to health are very damaging in terms of accessing services for those in regional and rural areas. We tend to feel that so much more than people in the cities.

As for the education cuts, the $30 billion in cuts means that children just cannot get the education they deserve—or the opportunities that they deserve as well. That is why our plan that has been announced, 'Your Child. Our Future', is so important for the future educational needs of our nation's children. We need to make sure that they are able to access their full educational opportunities. We are fully funding the Gonski reforms on time and in full, investing more than $37 billion in this particular plan, because we understand how important it is to invest properly in the educational opportunities for our children into the future.

We also have many concerns that we have mentioned many times in this place about this government's plans for $100,000 degrees. Again, it makes it so much harder for students from regional areas. It is already hard for them to access university, and this makes it so much harder.

So much of what we see from this government is blatantly unfair. We have heard the Prime Minister say not too long ago that his approach to family payment changes would be all about fairness. In this legislation single-parent families will be around $5,000 a year worse off. It is another case of saying one thing and doing another. We seem to be seeing a lot of that lately.

How can you then trust a Prime Minister when he talks about fairness yet wants to take $5,000 away from the budgets of those low- and middle-income families? It is for those reasons that those of us on this side of the House will be opposing these cuts and opposing this bill. We oppose it because we believe in fairness. That is what we believe in. That is what we are fighting for. We believe in putting people and families first. We believe it is important to do that.

As I said, this is a Prime Minister who always says one thing and does another. The potential increase in the GST to 15 per cent is a great example that we have seen, particularly over the last few weeks. He may have pretended to say in the last week that he was not convinced about it, but how could you trust him? Every day he changes what he says. We know that those on the other side of the House want to see an increase in the GST to 15 per cent, but how could you trust this Prime Minister and the government to keep their word about anything after their record in the past 2½ years? They are all over the place most of the time. Families in my electorate of Richmond, on the New South Wales North Coast, are very concerned about the government's plans for the GST and how it will impact and hurt them, particularly many people on fixed incomes. Over 20,000 pensioners are very concerned about the potential increase in GST to 15 per cent—a GST on everything really does worry them so much. Indeed, so many families are concerned about an increase in their costs of living.

We have seen from the government over the last few days complete and utter chaos when it comes to their plans for a 15 per cent GST. They have so much internal division and such a chaotic approach to all forms of tax reform; they are just all over the shop. Yet, yesterday, the Prime Minister said in question time he would not rule it out, so we know it is back on the table again. We have also heard the finance minister and the Assistant Treasurer refusing to rule out a 15 per cent GST. The reason they are not ruling it out is that it is on the table; it is what they want to do and intend to do. No matter what sorts of weasel words they use here and there and their chopping and changing, they will not rule it out, so we know it is on the table, just like so many other of their harsh measures.

When it comes to these harsh measures—the attack on family payments or the cuts to health and education or the 15 per cent GST—in my regional area, on the far North Coast of New South Wales, people blame the National Party. As I have said before, National Party choices really do hurt regional and rural Australia, and a 15 per cent GST will definitely hurt the people in my region, just as the $80 billion in cuts and the cuts to family payments will hurt. Let us remember that the National Party represent some of the lowest income electorates in this country, and yet National Party members are prepared to take thousands of dollars out of the pockets of those people on those lowest incomes. The fact is that this is going to come out of the pockets of some of the poorest families across the nation. That is where it will come from if the National Party get their way.

The measures contained within this bill will hurt families, and that is why Labor will be opposing it. Labor has always stood up for families and will continue to stand up for them against the current government. Since their first budget, in 2014, we have been fighting the Liberals and Nationals' unfair cuts to families. They just seem to keep on going. In the 2015 budget, the government again went after families with a range of very savage cuts. Again we fought those changes because they were fundamentally unfair. They would have seen low- and middle-income families lose thousands of dollars each year. We have been very proud to work very closely with so many sections of the community to fight against the government and force them to back down on many of the measures in last year's budget. We were very proud to stand with the community and force the government to back down. Another example is that, because of Labor's pressure, the Turnbull government had to finally scrap some of the appalling cuts to grandparent carers that were contained in the budget. Because of this pressure, Australian families are being protected from some of these harsh and unfair cuts. I think measures like this and the plans that the government had for cuts to grandparent carers really show how out of touch the government are with the concerns of ordinary Australian families, but I am pleased to say that Labor have been able to get some concessions from the government. We were able to get exemptions for around 4,000 grandparent carers from the cuts to family tax benefit B, which would have applied when the youngest child turns 13. But we should not forget for a minute the rather appalling way in which the government were prepared to treat grandparent carers. Of course, the members over there voted for this. They supported it and, indeed, the Minister for Social Services stood up in this place during question time and told grandparent carers that what they needed to do was go out and get a job—that is what he told them. It was very offensive and out of touch. That certainly seemed to be the government's approach, and, indeed, it still continues.

The Prime Minister's cuts continue to fail the fairness test. Since that first budget, we have been calling on the government to go back to the drawing board when it comes to family payments and come back with some fairer savings that will not impact and hurt so harshly those low- and middle-income families that the government seem to be after all the time. This latest version of cuts to family payments, quite frankly, still is not good enough. They again fail the fairness test. The Prime Minister's new cuts to families will leave some families worse off than the previous Prime Minister's cuts would have done. This is despite the many promises we received before the last election. We all recall those Liberal and National party candidates running around saying there would be no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no cuts to family payments and no increase in the GST—all those sorts of things—yet all we have seen since then is a massive array of cuts. No wonder people feel very betrayed by the government when they look at the extent of their cuts.

Let us have a closer look at some of the changes in this bill. One point five million families are going to lose their FTB A supplements, a cut of more than $700 per child every year. Around 600,000 of these families are single parent families. Around 500,000 of these families are on the maximum rate, meaning they are on a combined family income of less than $51,000. Three hundred thousand of these families will not get the increased FTB A per-child amount, which does not start until 2018, two years after the supplements start to be reduced. One point three million families will lose their FTB B supplements, a cut of more than $350 per family every year. Single parent families will be hit even harder, having their family tax benefit B reduced to $1,000 per year when their youngest child turns 13 and then cut entirely when their youngest child turns 16. This impacts around 136,000 single parents with children aged 13 to 16 with a cut of around $1,700. Single parents with children aged over 16 will have their FTB cut entirely in 2016, a cut of more than $3,100. So the measures in this bill are quite harsh.

When it comes to fairness, this Prime Minister is, in some ways, probably even crueller than the last. When we look at it overall, this is a Prime Minister who is refusing to make multinational companies pay their fair share in tax. He refuses to curb very generous tax concessions for wealthy superannuants. These are very reasonable policies that we put forward, but, no, instead over there the Prime Minister and his government would rather be taking money from the pockets of ordinary families and then hitting them with a 15 per cent GST on everything. That seems to be their plan.

Many organisations have spoken out about this bill and its impact upon the most vulnerable in our community. Jo Briskey, Executive Director of The Parenthood, said in October last year:

… the new package still leaves thousands of families losing a significant amount of support that they currently depend on.

She went on to say:

We remain fundamentally opposed to the notion that you have to take from one family in order to give to another …

It is simply unfair of the Turnbull government to expect families who depend on FTB payments to be the ones to front the cash to fund the changes so desperately needed in childcare.

…   …   …

Families cannot afford to lose out here and nor should they.

In responding to this bill, ACOSS has urged against looking for budget savings in family payments for single parents and low-income households. The ACOSS CEO said:

Single parents and their children have already been hit hard with cuts over the last few years which have reduced their safety net significantly.

On the latest analysis, there are over 600,000 children living below the poverty line and children in single parent households are in poverty at over twice the rate of children living with two parents.

The proposed changes will also hurt low income couple households, including those without paid work. The $5 per week increase to Part A will not offset the losses for these families.

We are also disappointed that the proposed package does nothing to address the gradual erosion of family payments as a result of indexation to prices.

So a range of different groups are really concerned about this government's harsh changes and the impact they will have particularly on single parents. Many workforce experts—such as the National Foundation for Australian Women, Equality Rights Alliance, economic Security4Women and the Work and Family Policy Roundtable—have stated that whilst this latest bill is less appalling than the government's original proposals, the revised reforms are unlikely to have a significant effect on workforce participation, particularly in those states and territories with high unemployment. This is especially true in regional and rural areas where we do have very high levels of unemployment. It is only going to make it harder for so many of those people, and single-parent families will be in a much more difficult position.

Labor have demonstrated that we are not opposed to changes that are fair and reasonable, and we would be happy to work with the government if they did have fair and reasonable changes, but we are not going to support unfair and cruel measures such as the ones outlined in this bill. That is the reason that we will be opposing this bill. As we have said, it is not just the attack on families; it is the cumulative attacks that we have seen from this government right from their very first budget. We have seen it with their cuts to health and education. Speaking as a member from a regional area, the government's cuts and plans are so much more severe for areas like mine.

One area that we have not touched on yet is this government's plans for cutting penalty rates, which will severely impact on families in regional areas. So we have got the cuts to health, education and family payments coupled with their plans for a 15 per cent GST and their plans to cut penalty rates. Those things impact families across the nation but they impact families in regional and rural areas a lot more harshly. They are the ones who will be feeling it the most, and it is the opportunities for future generations that are taken away. This government seems absolutely committed to making it harder and harder for people, and I can tell you that people in regional and rural Australia are struggling. It is the National Party choices that hurt the most, and in the country we blame the National Party for its harsh attacks upon families.

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