Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, it is lovely that you are in the chair for a change and I'm not addressing the Deputy Speaker. It's nice to have you in here while I'm giving a speech!

I rise in support of my colleagues who are opposing the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enterprise Tax Plan No. 2) Bill 2017. We have just spent an hour in this House debating something that is absolutely trivial and ridiculous—playing politics rather than spending an hour addressing one of the key issues affecting the hardworking men and women of Australia.

This bill we are talking about now will deliver companies with a turnover of more than $50 million a progressive tax cut to 25 per cent. This follows the Turnbull government's tax cuts to 25 per cent for businesses with a turnover of up to $50 million and a tax cut bonanza for individuals, if they are millionaires, in the order of a $16,000 bonus. That's a $16,000 bonus for some of our wealthiest Australians. That's nice for them. I take nothing away from them; that's fine. But there are real stories and real people who actually need that and who could do with having access to tax cuts. We know that the OECD has already said that, when you give tax cuts to low- and middle-income earners, the rest of the nation benefits.

The forward estimates provided for this bill show that the Turnbull government will suck $600 million out of the bottom line over the forward estimates and $36.5 billion over the medium term from hardworking Australians. Let that just sink in: $36.5 billion over the medium term. For a government, a party and an outfit that ran around during the election and cried, 'Debt and deficit!' to anybody who would listen, to increase that kind of debt to our nation's bottom line is crazy. We've heard the figure: $36.5 billion. I actually still can't believe the numbers that have passed my lips, given the opportunities in our community where that money would be better spent and invested—and not just in my community but in the nation as a whole. This is $600 million that won't help all Australians. A trickle-down world just doesn't work.

Whatever happened to fairness? On budget night, we heard it was all going to be fair, but I don't know how stripping $600 million out of the budget for the forward estimates is actually going to be fair to anybody other than the people who are beneficiaries of it. And there are not too many beneficiaries of those cuts in my electorate, for example.

Whatever happened to ensuring we leave in this place in a better state than we found it in? As the member for Rankin pointed out in his speech, which was an hour ago—before the comedy hour that we just had—the Turnbull government's record stinks after four years. To suggest anything else is absolutely fanciful. They keep coming in here, and their favourite topic of the day is Labor, the unions and Bill Shorten, the opposition leader. They never talk about what they've done. They never talk about what they've invested in. They never talk about the opportunities that they're providing, or particularly the opportunities that they're not providing, to people in Western Sydney. Just take a look at the budget and you might see why.

The Turnbull government will deliver new record net debt for the next three years. That's a deficit for the 2017-18 years which is 10 times bigger than predicted in the Liberals' first budget—10 times!—and gross debt equivalent to $20,000 for every man, woman and child in this country. That is absolutely at the end of extremes. It's another gift from the Abbott-Turnbull outfit that the community is going to have to swallow.

Given what we know and what we already see, why would the people I represent in Lindsay think the Turnbull government could possibly understand the issues they face in Western Sydney? Those opposite have failed them abysmally, time and time again. When you consider the legislation before the House, you get an insight into how useless they actually are.

Yesterday we witnessed the embarrassing scene of a government gagging a debate over cuts to university funding and burdening students with more debt. These are cuts to education and universities—the future-proofing assets we should be investing in. The government is scalping universities with $4 billion worth of cuts, and ripping off another section of Australia and exposing more underfunding.

The Turnbull government thought it could slash funding the easiest in Western Sydney, with the largest university funding cut in New South Wales and the second-largest in Australia—just another kick in the guts for Western Sydney. The first and the second come from my electorate. The Turnbull government believes you have no right to a decent education and certainly not to a degree. The member for Banks over there told me about all the great warehousing opportunities that Western Sydney was allowed to have. Well, thanks very much. I've got enough warehouses now. What I'd really like is a few degree-qualified kids who can go into the jobs of the future. The government does want you to have a job, because it needs to raid your pockets. It's happy for us to work in warehouses; it's just not happy for us to get qualified. All this, just so that it can keep supporting the big end of town.

Western Sydney University is an unfortunate example of how this bill before us attacks the very fabric of what is right and what is decent. Western Sydney uni has been a leader in addressing educational inequality facing our community. It's a university where 60 per cent of the students are the first in their families to attend university—an amazing figure, and one that only goes to highlight what educational opportunity is actually about. Those in the government want to give these tax cuts to the big end of town on the backs of universities in Western Sydney. Western Sydney uni is home to 20 per cent of students who are considered of low economic status and 37 per cent of students who speak a language other than English at home. These are more than just statistics. These are realities that are changing Western Sydney. We are not one-dimensional stereotypes that wear high-vis vests and work in warehouses, thank you very much. Western Sydney is an area that is transitioning from a traditional jobs base to a more diverse and broad base. It is an area that wants to create and keep those jobs local. We can't rely on those people opposite to support them.

If this government is not cutting university funding and burdening students with debt, it is going to the other extreme and ruining apprenticeships and vocational training. We've had a 37 per cent drop in the number of apprentices in training in Lindsay. What does this government want Western Sydney to think? Do you want new jobs for the future? It appears not. There is nothing agile and innovative about making cuts to education to low socio-economic communities. Do you want more tradies? It also appears not. It's just a confused rabble of noise coming from the other side, and that last hour that we spent in here highlights that more than anything. Let me give you guys opposite some professional advice—

See this speech in context