Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm not surprised that members of the LNP from Queensland have been thrown under the bus by this government, because this is the party, for Queenslanders, that has a reputation for cutting, sacking or selling. You only need to look at the recent disgraceful comments, which I want to place on the record at the beginning of my remarks, about a tragedy that occurred in Brisbane yesterday. A very sad event happened when a mother was hit by a bus in the CBD. I extend my condolences to that poor family, but I want to place on record just how out of touch and offensive the former LNP Premier Campbell Newman is. At this time of tragic loss for a family, the loss of their mother, when the first responders came onto the scene the former LNP Premier decided it was more important to complain about traffic congestion—to issue tweets attacking the police and saying they do not do enough to ease congestion. I think those remarks stand on their own. I extend my deepest condolences to that family, and also place on record in the parliament my thanks and recognition for those dedicated first responders who were on the scene, the brave men and women of the Queensland Police Service and the ambulance and fire services. They risk their lives and do everything they can to keep us safe. They deserve our respect and support; they certainly deserve much more than the former LNP Premier criticising them and not showing compassion.

But the time for excuses is over. The time for shifting blame is over and the time for underdelivering for the Australian people is over. There is nowhere that this government can hide with the budget. They've had five years. For five years the Australian people have had to put up with this poor excuse of a government. For five years they've been kept waiting for this government to deliver. But, year after year, we get nothing but cuts and chaos from the government.

Put simply, this budget fails the fairness test. It fails the family test, it fails the infrastructure test, it fails the health and hospitals test and it fails the education test. Perhaps the only area where the budget delivers is for the Prime Minister's and this government's big mates at the top end of town. We know that in this budget the centrepiece, the signature piece, is an $80 billion tax handout to big business, including, as we keep hearing in the community time and time again, this government's priority of delivering $17 billion in tax breaks for the big banks. How on earth could any member of the government get up on their feet and defend that? How could any person in the parliament think that with the banks—with the royal commission, the rorting and the rip-offs that we're seeing— it's somehow a good economic policy to deliver a tax break to the same people who are seen time and time again ripping off mainstream, ordinary Australians.

While the government continues to defend, support and look after the top end of town, Bill Shorten, the Leader of the Opposition, and members of the opposition will continue to fight in this place every single day to bring fairness and opportunity to hardworking Australians. I note the members in this chamber now are getting upset at what I'm saying. They're not happy I'm pointing out the fact that their special interest mates, their millionaires and billionaires, are their priority. I know that's who they want to look after, and that's fine. Many Australians are waking up to that: 31 Newspolls in a row show that. We understand that. They don't like the fact that we hold them to account.

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