Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Brown, for this question. I can advise the Senate that the opposition spokesperson for human services confirmed that the coalition will be seeking to adopt the approach of the United Kingdom Tories in terms of its application to service delivery in Australia. I can also advise the Senate that I recently had the opportunity to discuss the implementation of the so-called Big Society with British ministers, shadow ministers and community organisations. I can indicate to the Senate that the overriding impression that I have been left with as a result of those conversations is that, when the Conservative government were elected in the United Kingdom in 2010, they promised to expand the role of volunteers and to empower citizens, but what in fact they have given has been budget cuts and privatisations.

I understand how important the thinking of the British Tory party is to those opposite. They have always seen their guiding light as the high Toryism from London. What we have seen in the name of so-called strengthening of communities in the United Kingdom has been a 52 per cent cut to social housing development and a 25 per cent cut to community development. This approach undermines the various rhetorical claims that have been made about empowering citizens which, of course, we saw were a hallmark of Toryism in Britain. On this side of the chamber—