Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you Madam Acting Deputy President, you are indeed right to draw my attention to me needing to refer to Mr Abbott by his correct title. Mr Abbott has to find some $70 billion worth of savings to fill that black hole in his budget.

Just as with his state Liberal colleagues, that black hole exists in Mr Abbott's budget not because the world faces the biggest financial crisis in our lifetime but because the coalition have made reckless, unfunded promises to the electorate. That irresponsibility, that planned financial mismanagement, will force them to cut jobs and services if they are elected. So the coalition must explain which services they will cut to deliver their budget surplus. Will it be Medicare? Will it be schools funding? Will it be infrastructure? Australian families deserve to know where the coalition will get their $70 billion worth of savings from so they can know just how much Mr Abbott's government would cost them. The massive cuts to education, health and community safety that we have seen under state Liberal governments are, I think, just a warm-up act for what Australia would see under a Mr Abbott government.

Labor, on the other hand, will move to protect jobs and services. We know that budgets sometimes take hard decisions, and we have made many of those hard decisions, but there is a very clear difference between the way Labor and Liberal governments approach these decisions, and that is because there is a very clear difference in values between Labor and those on the other side of the chamber. Labor values a fair go for all Australians, including those doing it tough. Labor values a strong community and the services that support it. If you want to know what those opposite value, just take a look at what their state colleagues choose to cut and choose to fund: nurses and police officers gone to pay for fancy offices for Liberal premiers.

This Labor government has made hard decisions, but we have found efficiencies rather than cut services. Finance Minister Penny Wong only recently said that she and Special Minister of State Gary Gray had found new savings in the Public Service of $550 million over the forward estimates by doing things like reducing allowances, travel and external consultants. Similarly, the WA Labor opposition have announced their plan to increase secure employment in the WA public service and cut recruitment costs. The plan will also, I think, make public service jobs more attractive, helping to recruit and retain higher quality, more experienced public servants. That, in turn, will boost public service productivity and create savings.

So Labor's plans show how savings should be made in government: by becoming more efficient. In contrast, the coalition at both state and federal levels is simply focused on slashing jobs and vital community services. We are a government focused on delivering in accordance with Labor values. This means making sure that people get the support that they need when they need it. It also means that, when Labor puts together a budget, we do it with fairness and with the wellbeing of local communities in mind, making hard decisions like funding the trial phase of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Labor is putting the budget back into surplus, but we are not going to do it at the expense of people with disabilities.

To Premiers Newman, O'Farrell and Barnett, who have complained about how tough public service cuts were to make, I say this: no matter how tough these cuts were for you, they will make life much tougher for millions of ordinary Australians. Every dollar ripped out of our schools is a dollar ripped from the future of young Australians, every dollar ripped out of our hospitals is a dollar ripped out of a person's life when their life hangs in the balance, and every dollar ripped out of infrastructure is a dollar ripped out of a more competitive and sustainable economy. So I am proud to be a member of a federal Labor government that stands against these kinds of cuts to jobs and community services, I am proud to come from a state where the Labor opposition has a plan to keep our public services strong, and I am proud to say that I will fight every day alongside my Labor colleagues to make sure that the people of Western Australia have the quality public services that they need and deserve.