Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Twelve months ago this week, the then opposition leader, now Prime Minister, told Australians:

We will be a no surprises, no excuses government … the worst deficit is not the budget deficit but the trust deficit.

One election and 12 months later, the trust deficit in Australia is at a record high! The Prime Minister has broken promises to the Australian people on tax, on health, on pensions, on the ABC, on the NBN and today we see the formalisation of yet another broken promise on higher education funding.

Today the education minister told Australia that his plans to impose $100,000 debt sentences on Australian students were 'a very significant reform, the biggest in 40 years'. But you did not hear anything about this massive change to higher education, this tax on the dreams of Australian students and their families before the last election. In fact, on page 41 of the coalition's Real solutions policy pamphlet, the coalition promised that they 'will ensure the continuation of the current arrangements for university funding'

That would be the funding that the Abbott government is now cutting by $5.8 billion, with further cuts to research funding threatened if the Senate does not bow to the government's extreme agenda. The education minister flippantly dismisses Australian students' and families' concerns about these radical changes by telling them it is not like he is asking for a kidney. But, with $100,000 degrees on the way, he is certainly taking their pound of flesh.

Twelve months ago this week, the then opposition leader and now Prime Minister also told Australians that:

This election is all about trust.

Well, I can assure the Prime Minister that the next election will be all about trust too, and the Australia people will not forget this betrayal.