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

It's great to be speaking on these appropriation bills, also known as 'filibustering by a government that doesn't actually have a program or any legislation that we could be otherwise debating in here'. I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about this budget that has just been handed down by this very out of touch and arrogant government because the people in Western Sydney—we were looking forward to something in the budget that may have—

A government member: How's your citizenship?

My citizenship is great—thanks for asking. Outrageous. I'll take that interjection, because clearly he's a constitutional expert.

But look, to support a great future for the residents of Lindsay we need a government that is actually committed to Western Sydney, not a bloke who gets on a train to go out there every election cycle and who, when he gets a difficult question, decides to get in a car and scoot back off to where he came from. This is the same fellow who went out there but wouldn't advertise where he was going to be holding his community meeting. It was all clandestine because he didn't actually want to face the people of my community. If he did, he might find out something about the real world.

This budget has been delivered and, after five years, you would think they'd had a good opportunity to take off the training wheels. Their L plates should firmly be in the back street. We should at least be riding with some P plates on. But, no, not this government, not PM Malcolm Turnbull. He defies all sense of normality when it comes to being a Prime Minister. He snubbed the Prime Minister's residence at Kirribilli; he's living in his Point Piper castle because Kirribilli is obviously not good enough for Malcolm Turnbull. And while he's over there in his Point Piper castle—not living in the real world—he's taken away crucial funding for high schools in my electorate. More than $1 million has been taken from Kingswood High School, which has about 20 per cent of Lindsay's Indigenous kids being educated there. It is also one of the lowest socioeconomic areas of my community. That school was doing marvellous things with the additional funding.

We've seen $5.7 million ripped out of Nepean Hospital. For anybody who hasn't heard me speak about that place before, I will put on record this reminder: it is the most under pressure hospital in New South Wales. Why would you take money away from a hospital that is already doing it tough? That money equates to 220 knee operations. People in Lindsay have to wait three years for a knee operation, but over in the eastern part of Sydney they only wait about 23 days for the same operation. That money is also the equivalent of 8,500 patients being seen in the emergency department.

But instead of funding hospitals and places like Kingswood High School, this bloke wants to give the big end of town an $80 billion tax cut—$17 billion of which will go to the big four banks. We haven't seen any arrests of these big banks' CEOs like we have with other royal commissions—I'm waiting for a raid on banks by the AFP to be televised. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll see that happen because these people are friends of this government, so they're not going to be served with the justice that the people who have been victims of the banks' malpractices need to see. In spite of that, these tax cuts are still going to go to the big banks; $17 billion to the big banks. They've had five years to get it right, five years to come up with something that is halfway decent, but instead they do this. It just goes to show how arrogant and out of touch they really are.

I'm incredibly disappointed in this budget and I'm disappointed on behalf of all of the residents that I work very hard to represent. It was a chance for him to set out his priorities for our nation, and to talk about the things that he wanted to change or the things that he felt needed to be improved. His priorities have failed the fairness test. It is clear that Liberals are putting everyday, hardworking Australians at the bottom of the barrel, but that is absolutely where those opposite should be put come the next election—and, indeed, in the by-elections that we have got coming up.

I was given the ultimate honour of representing my community of Lindsay in 2016, and every day since then I have seen this government fail, fail and fail again the people of my community. Being in government is all about choices and priorities. I said that during my very first speech to this parliament, and it is something that I will continue to say as long as I am here. We tax around about the same amount and we collect around about the same amount of revenue, but it is up to us as to what we spend it on. When you see spending of $80 billion going to big banks and big multinationals and not to schools and hospitals, you have got to ask yourself where their priorities lie.

They are not doing enough for what matters to everyday Australians. Locals in my community are struggling to make their pay cheques last. Wage growth, as we know and as we certainly talk about on this side, is at an all-type low. We just faced losing penalty rates and that affected a number of people in my community. Meanwhile, services are being cut left, right and centre. Labor has an alternative vision for this country. It is really great that a couple of members are here, and I do hope they spread the news far and wide. They have a clear plan to bring back the fair go to the heart of our nation.

Government members interjecting—

I can hear the interjections on the other side. If they did have a plan for a better Australia, we might actually be up here debating some of their proposed legislation rather than filibustering in Federation Chamber. Our plan is one that we can afford. When you are not handing out $80 billion in a big business tax cut, you can actually afford to deliver services. We did ask the Prime Minister and the Treasurer a number of times where this money was coming from and how much it was actually going to cost over 10 years. They had no answers. They were given opportunity after opportunity to give that answer and they refused. Now, we will reduce the taxes for low- and middle- income earners and invest in schools, hospitals, services that rely on Medicare, child care and aged care. Labor will deliver bigger, better and fairer tax cuts for 10 million Australians.

Government members interjecting—

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