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

I too rise to speak on the appropriation bills. As many speakers on this side have pointed out, we do support the bills in the same way that convention has dictated for many years that we support supply; however, we also point out how our priorities are very different from those of the government. It must be stated that this budget, like every other one brought down by this Liberal-Nationals government, fundamentally and unequivocally fails the fairness test.

There will be an impact from this budget on my electorate. This budget puts big business and the banks ahead of the battlers on the North Coast. This National Party budget gives away $80 billion in tax cuts to big business, including $17 billion for the big banks, and it makes locals pay for it with savage cuts to schools, hospitals and pensions. That's what the National Party have done with this budget. In fact, they own it.

The budget fails the fairness test on so many levels. It fails the fairness test on pensioners. The government is cutting the energy supplement, costing pensioners $14 a fortnight, and forcing people to keep working until they're 70. It fails the fairness test on education. The government is still cutting $17 billion from schools, and it now has $270 million in new cuts to TAFE. It fails the fairness test on hospitals. The government's cuts means Australians will be left on hospital waiting lists for much longer. It also fails the fairness test on Medicare. The government's freeze on the rebate for specialists means that Australians will pay more when they visit the doctor.

It's important to note that, on the back of the best global economic conditions in more than a decade, this government has failed the fiscal responsibility test it set for itself. Net debt for this coming year is double what it was when the Abbott-Turnbull government came into office in 2013, and this year's deficit is 6½ times bigger than the Liberals and Nationals predicted in their first budget, their horror budget, of 2014—and we all remember that one! This budget is wrong in its priorities and it fails every test of fairness and every test of fiscal responsibility.

Pensioners and seniors in my electorate on the New South Wales North Coast are some of the biggest losers when it comes to this budget. The government is keeping the unfair plan to increase Australia's pension age to 70, meaning we'll have one of the oldest pension ages in the world. And it's important to know that in every single budget that the Liberals and Nationals have handed down they've tried to cut the pension in order to cut taxes for big business. Pensioners remember that the government tried to cut the pension indexation, a cut that would have ripped $23 billion from the pockets of pensioners. They also remember that the Liberals and Nationals did a deal with the Greens to cut the pension for around 370,000 pensioners by as much as $12,000 a year by changing the pension assets test. Budgets are all about choices, and once again the Prime Minister has chosen the banks and the big end of town over Australia's pensioners.

When it comes to health, Labor are the party that believe in universal health care, and we're determined to fix our hospitals. The Liberals and Nationals have cut funding for Medicare and hospitals in every year since they first got into government after the 2013 election. The budget fails in the hospital and health care area on a very large scale. At the same time they're giving that big tax cut to big business, they're persisting with their cruel $715 million cut to hospitals over the next two years and they're keeping their Medicare rebate freeze in place for years to come. This is forcing up out-of-pocket costs to see specialists. They've also failed to do anything to address the private health insurance affordability crisis and they've failed to adopt Labor's plan to scrap the unfair and discriminatory tampon tax. This budget proves yet again that the government cares more about tax cuts for big business and multimillionaires than it does about the health of ordinary Australians.

Meanwhile, their hospital cuts are putting doctors, nurses and hospital staff under increasing pressure, forcing delays in surgeries and making emergency department waiting times even worse. Contrast this with Labor's plans. We're committed to building better hospitals, with record funding for beds, doctors and nurses, and we've announced our plan to cap health insurance premium price rises at two per cent for two years. Labor's better hospitals fund will see a $2.8 billion extra investment, fully reversing the Turnbull government's cuts, and we'll be funding more beds in emergency departments and wards, more doctors, more nurses and more health staff. The funding will be targeted at reducing emergency department and elective surgery waiting times, which have blown out under this government.

A Shorten Labor government will also ensure more communities have affordable access to life-saving scans, expanding Medicare subsidised access to diagnostic imaging in areas where there are shortages. We'll invest $80 million to boost the number of eligible MRI machines and approve 20 new licences, which means half a million more scans will be funded by Medicare. This is vitally important for regional communities such as mine. Labor's commitment will mean more affordable scans for Australians, addressing shortages in communities that need them the most.

Also, as I've mentioned, many parts of Australian society are suffering because of this government's wrong priorities. On the North Coast of New South Wales, in particular, there is a homelessness crisis and a housing affordability crisis. Our state National Party MPs have done nothing to alleviate this crisis at a state level, and their federal mates just make it even worse. The Turnbull government's budget has again failed to deliver anything that will actually alleviate either the housing or the homelessness crisis. The government continues to ignore those young Australians who are seeking to purchase their first home by refusing to adopt our changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax.

Let's have a look at their record. Since coming to government in 2013, the Liberal-National government has presided over a crisis in which home ownership rates for young Australians have collapsed to their lowest level in the 30 years. Fewer than 40 per cent own their own home compared with 60 per cent just a generation ago. Rental stress has risen substantially. Anglicare's recent Rental Affordability Snapshot has revealed that less than three per cent of private rental dwellings are affordable for a single person on the minimum wage. Data from the 2016 census has revealed that the number of Australians experiencing homelessness has dramatically risen by 13.7 per cent since 2011. Those are damaging statistics.

I make the point that, despite the gross inaction of the Liberal-National government, in my electorate and in many others there are remarkable people, institutions and organisations that are doing great work when it comes to homelessness. One such person is John Lee, the president and founder of You Have A Friend. He has 80 volunteers providing over 300 meals a week to the homeless and marginalised in my region. He gets no assistance from any government agency to do that. I always like to congratulate John and those like him who do a wonderful job out there.

Another area that is subject to the government's cruel cuts is aged care services. The budget has revealed a cruel hoax at the centre of the government's aged care plan. The government is slashing residential care to try and fix the home care crisis it created. The fact is that there is no new money at all in the budget for the funding of home care and residential aged care. More than 21,000 residential aged care places will be cut over the next three years to pay for the very small increase in the number of home care packages, and none of this will solve the crisis in home care created by the government: 3½ thousand places a year will not keep pace with demand. The waiting list grew by 20,000 in the last six months of 2017. In my electorate, we have a very high proportion of seniors. This is a huge issue. They are desperately trying to get home care packages, and we've just seen cuts by this government.

Another harsh cut is that to the ABC. We all remember on the eve of the 2013 election that the member for Warringah, then the opposition leader who was to become the Prime Minister, said that there would be no cuts to the ABC. That is what he said. It turned out to be another broken promise. The government imposed cuts of over $250 million on the ABC, and now the current Prime Minister's budget contains a further $127 million in cuts to the ABC. The government just keeps proceeding with cuts to the ABC. The government has also frozen indexation of operational funding for the ABC, amounting to a cut of $83.7 million. What this means in reality at the ABC is cuts to jobs, cuts to content and cuts to services. This will have a devastating impact across the country, but particularly in the regions where we value so much our local ABC and the services it provides. It's another shameful cut by this government.

Also, under this government, education at all levels is under threat, yet again. The Prime Minister and his Liberal-National government insist on giving handouts to big business at the expense of our children's education and wellbeing. When it comes to preschools, our youngest minds are facing uncertainty, with around 350,000 preschools and families facing the prospect of absolutely no further provision of new funding. It means one of two things: fees will increase or services will close. Next year, families will have to start paying for their children to start preschool, without any certainty that the preschools will be funded. One in four families will be worse off come 2 July, under the Turnbull government's unfair childcare package. We believe education is an essential part of a child's development, but this government doesn't. It prefers to put big business before Australian families.

The government continues its assault on education with its schools policy. Its policy is not needs based, it's not sector-blind and it's certainly not fair. In contrast to the government, we're fully committed to the fair funding of our schools and, in particular, our public schools. In government, Labor will restore every dollar of the $17 billion that the Liberals and Nationals have cut from schools. Under Labor the neediest schools will get the biggest funding increases in the fastest time. Our public schools are among the nation's most important institutions, and one of the most fundamental responsibilities of any government should be to ensure public schools are fairly funded to deliver quality education.

There are government cuts for our TAFE students as well. The government cut funding for skills and TAFE in order to pay for those big business tax handouts. The budget cuts an extra $270 million from TAFE and training. That's on top of the $3 billion of cuts in previous budgets—shameful! In contrast, Labor will invest in TAFE, skills, vocational education and higher education. Under us the number of Australians getting a university education will soar by about 200,000, thanks to our plan to abolish the Turnbull government's unfair cap on student places. Australia's future depends so much on properly investing in our preschools, schools, TAFEs and universities so that all of them can deliver the best quality education to all of our students.

Labor's approach to budget tax cuts is much fairer for middle Australia, and so much fairer for locals on the North Coast in my electorate. We're proud of our much fairer tax plan that will deliver lower taxes for 10 million working Australians across the country. A Shorten Labor government will be guided by clear fiscal principles, including repairing the budget in a fair way that doesn't ask the most vulnerable Australians to carry the heaviest burden. The Turnbull government's budget makes those most vulnerable people carry the heaviest burden. We'll more than offset new spending with savings and revenue improvements. Our plan is much fairer and more responsible because we've made all the right calls when it comes to tax reform.

As well as making those correct calls, we will also, as I've said, deliver extra funding for public hospitals and 20 new MRI machines to regional centres and outer suburbs, and abolish the Prime Minister's cap on university places and the up-front fees for 100,000 TAFE places in courses where Australia needs the skills. That is a major commitment which is very important for training. We can deliver all these commitments across all those areas because of our choices and priorities. Unlike the Prime Minister and this Liberal-National government, we won't give out $80 billion in tax handouts to big business and the banks; we will particularly prioritise areas like education, health and hospitals.

The extent of some cuts in another area was only revealed yesterday—that is, the government's cutting of over 500 Australian Federal Police staff. As a former police officer I feel strongly about this. Yesterday we heard damning evidence at Senate estimates, which exposed the impact of the Prime Minister's savage cuts to the Australian Federal Police. At yesterday's hearing it was confirmed by the AFP Commissioner that there would be a $205 million cut to resourcing the AFP over the forward estimates. There's a cut of over 500 Australian Federal Police staff. That is a huge number when it comes to resources within the Federal Police. Instead of supporting those dedicated officers in the AFP to perform their critically important work, the Liberals and Nationals have chosen to cut AFP funding and slash over 500 staff. It is truly shameful that our AFP are being cut so harshly.

In conclusion I specifically note the role of the National Party in this harsh budget. They're wholly responsible for these cruel measures and how they affect the regions. The National Party own all the cuts and harsh measures. The Nationals have abandoned the people of the regions in areas like mine, the New South Wales North Coast. We will spend every single day up until the next election reminding people in the country, the regions and rural Australia that the National Party has abandoned them. This National Party budget gives away $80 billion in tax cuts to big business—including, very importantly, $17 billion for the big banks. It makes local people in regional and rural Australia pay for it with savage cuts to schools, hospitals and pensioners. That's what the National Party have done with their budget. They can go out to country Australia and explain why they have $80 billion for tax cuts, including $17 billion for the big banks, why funding for their schools, their hospitals and their ABC has been cut, and why there is no funding to support homeless people, education and other important services. I can tell you what people in regional and rural Australia will say to them: 'We've had enough of you. You've abandoned us. You're looking after the top end of the town and not people in rural and regional Australia.'

I can tell you this: the people who do look after those in regional and rural Australia are us; that's the Labor Party. We stand with them. We stand with those ordinary battlers who are doing it tough out there. That's our priority. You've got the Turnbull Liberal-National government, and their priority is big business and the banks. It's pretty straightforward. Labor's priority is the battlers, the working class, the middle class and people doing it tough. We stand with them, and we certainly stand with them in regional and rural Australia. We'll continue to do that. Every day up until the next election we'll be doing that, particularly across the country, and we'll be reminding them what the National Party have done to them with their support of this unfair budget.

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