Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to draw the House's attention to health care cuts in my electorate following this budget. Last year Tony Abbott promised no cuts to health, no cuts to education, no changes to pensions, no new taxes and no cuts to the ABC or SBS. But the very first budget handed down by this Abbott Liberal government directly contradicted each of these commitments. Yesterday in question time the Prime Minister stated, 'This is the budget that the Australian people elected us to bring down'. Well, Prime Minister, you may think you can play the Australian people as fools. But they know that this is a government that says one thing to get elected and then does the exact opposite afterwards. The cuts to health funding are already hitting the people in my electorate of Newcastle.

Hunter Medicare Local have today announced that they have had to make nine people redundant because they have lost 10 per cent of their funding. The chief executive of Hunter Medicare Local, Carol Bennett, has said it will affect their capacity to deliver the quantity and range of services they deliver to the Hunter community. This 10 per cent cut to funding comes before Hunter Medicare Local is set to close down in June next year—despite another pre-election promise from the Prime Minister that no Medicare Local would close under a government he leads.

Hunter Medicare Local helps keep the people of Newcastle and the Hunter well educated and healthy. This government is doing everything it can to undermine their good work. This is not a budget the Australian people elected the government to bring down. This is a budget of broken promises and twisted priorities.