Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor’s high-taxing; high-spending budget is a slap in the face for the working families that the Rudd government promised to fight for. The working families in my electorate of Greenway are feeling the effects of incompetence as they experience higher prices at the checkout and the bowsers. The first budget of the Rudd government is one of arrogance. The Treasurer can do as he wants with his ministerial salary, but the hard-earned savings of the Australian people ought to be off limits. Working families have been let down by the Rudd government and the Prime Minister—and he, the self-proclaimed champion of working families, has been let down by his inexperienced buddy, the member for Lilley.

The changes to the Medicare levy show the failure of the Treasurer to understand the economic consequences of his actions. Sydney Morning Herald’s Mark Metherell identified the straightforward concept that our Treasurer could not understand: ‘the loss of many young, low-risk members is likely to push up premiums and add to public hospital pressures.’ It is now predicted that private health insurance premiums will rise by six to 10 per cent, taking away the choice for Australian families by pushing premiums out of reach of the typical household budget. These are mums and dads who previously had the choice to do what was best for their families, mums and dads who are now forced onto the ‘waiting forever’ list in New South Wales. This is the very same government that requires additional federal funding just to fix its desperate hospitals and other strained medical facilities.

The Rudd government’s $10 billion health and hospital fund has been earmarked to fund the development of health infrastructure and medical equipment, but the government does not understand that there is no point in funding additional infrastructure and equipment if there is no-one to operate it. New South Wales Rural Doctors Association President, Dr Ken Mackey, rightly points out that there is no point in funding this infrastructure in a budget that makes cuts to training programs for enrolled nurses in regional Australia. I will be writing to the Minister for Ageing requesting that the additional funding made available for the ACAT program be directed to Greenway in the form of a sub-ACAT team to be based in the Hawkesbury. The ageing population of the Hawkesbury is an issue that this government must address. The closest ACAT team is in Penrith, almost two hours drive from the remote parts of the Hawkesbury district.

This high-taxing, high-spending budget delivers successive blows to young families trying to establish a future in an uncertain economic climate. The first strike is the Treasurer’s plan to exclude some families from receiving family tax benefit B. By placing a means test on the family tax benefit, Mr Swan shows his ignorance of why it exists. It is a recognition not only of the communal social value of families to the nation but also that significant expense is incurred on the part of those providing the social good. Rising interest rates, petrol prices, grocery prices and inflation in general seem to be all Mr Swan can talk about. Why then has he forgotten the challenge they pose to his championed working families? Mortgages now take up to a third of most family’s incomes in repayments, groceries are constantly increasing, and petrol costs hit harder than ever as mums and dads taxi their kids around. The family tax benefit is an acknowledgement of these difficulties that face families and is society’s way of contributing something to the production of social value.

The double whammy on working families is the restriction of the childcare benefits. The Rudd government is once again all bark and no bite as it drums up the increased childcare rebate but fails to mention the restrictions in place. This discriminatory policy is an attack on stay-at-home mums. Mothers who do not work 25 hours a week do not get any childcare rebate, making it hardly worth working at all. The third prong to this government’s vendetta against families is the new payment arrangement and means test for the baby bonus. Our Treasurer has introduced fortnightly payments of the bonus, once again demonstrating he simply does not understand. All families ought to be supported. Hard-working families pay their tax and they deserve some of that tax money back.

This budget not only fails working families but also sneaks through reforms that will hurt the young and vulnerable in our society. These reforms are straight from the union movement. The Work for Dole program has been effectively terminated, as job seekers now have a year before they must take part in the program. The Labor Party seeks to encourage dependence on welfare rather than giving job seekers skills and confidence they would otherwise not have had: a handout, not a hand up. At least 40 per cent of people who have been in the Work for the Dole program have entered into full-time employment. In light of the Treasurer’s apparent inability to understand basic mathematics, I will personally guarantee that 40 per cent of participants finding full-time employment is a much better result for Australia than zero per cent. As a growth area in Western Sydney, Greenway has many working families with young children, and parents are legitimately concerned about their future.

The Rudd government is also clearly not committed to the environment. The Hawkesbury River is in desperate need of the funding package of $132.5 million promised by the Howard government, which includes amounts for recycling, desalination and maintaining the health and sustainability of the South Creek catchment. Nowhere is this to be seen in the budget. (Time expired)