Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He is not here today, I note, but I sat here yesterday and watched the member for Braddon as he took a 90-second statement and desperately tried to defend this budget. And he told a few porkies along the way, in my view, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott—if that is parliamentary; I hope it passes your test! Well, it will take more than that from the member for Braddon to save him in his electorate, and that includes his mates in Lyons and Bass, his friends in Eden-Monaro, Page, Capricornia, Gippsland—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, those on my right.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

all those people representing rural Australia who will know that this budget falls disproportionately on rural and regional Australia. When you cut $80 billion out of health and education, it is axiomatic that those cuts will fall hardest on rural and regional Australia. Think of those small, struggling rural hospitals—that is where the state governments will look for savings first. Think of those small, rural schools that struggle to secure the critical mass of students required to keep those rural schools viable—they are the schools the state governments will go after first as a result of this tearing up of the agreements between the Commonwealth and the states. This budget is a fundamental breach of trust and faith. It is a bad budget. It is going to hit all Australians but, in particular, it is going to hit health and education services in rural Australia.