Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

There is no tax increase on low-income earners but a temporary debt levy on high-income workers, those who earn more than $180,000 a year, and it is a levy I am more than happy to pay. I also support the pay freeze for federal parliamentarians and Public Service department heads.

These are hardly vicious attacks on low- and middle-income Australia. This is an honest federal budget, something Australians have not been used to for awhile. We did not fiddle the figures and we did not put all the spending beyond the forward estimates. It is an authentic, realistic budget, compared to the fallacious surplus of the previous Labor government, promised 500 times but never delivered.

It is a tough budget; it had to be. Labor inherited a string of budget surpluses and no debt. In fact, $60 billion was in the bank and, in just six years of Labor government, that money was wasted. We ended up owing $667 billion. That is the reality. That is half the Defence budget. It is about what we spend on aged care and it is more than we spend on universities.

Senator Singh interjecting—

You do not like to hear it, but these are the facts. The coalition did not create this Labor mess, but we have a duty to fix it. The Australian people elected us to fix it. We are the firefighters and Labor are the arsonists. The Abbott-Truss government's Economic Action Strategy will reduce the Labor deficits by $44 billion over the forward estimates. If we do nothing to the budget, as Labor planned, then we will not be able to afford the welfare and the education, health and defence systems that we currently enjoy.

There is good news in the coalition budget for low- and middle-income Australians. The budget has plenty of good news, including infrastructure. Infrastructure benefits all Australians but particularly job seekers, as better infrastructure means more employment. We will invest $50 billion in infrastructure by 2019-20, strategically to grow our economic potential, to grow jobs.

The budget includes major reforms to education, particularly in higher education. The deregulation of the university system has allowed Labor to screen $200,000 arts degrees, but the fact is—

Opposition senators interjecting—

and you do not want to hear it, that the cost of some degrees will go up and the cost of some degrees will come down, depending on demand. Deregulation will allow our universities to compete with the best on the planet, by giving them the freedom to innovate. It has been welcomed by the vice-chancellors of the very universities that service the lowest income earners in the nation. The Regional Universities Network has come out in support of the education initiatives that this government handed down last night.

When we talk about health, how will the $7 co-payment for GPs visits affect low-income earners? We are actually making sure that there are safeguards within the budget to protect the most vulnerable. The Medicare safety net threshold will be adjusted to ensure that those most vulnerable in our society will still be able to access excellence in health care.

The fact is that the Medicare surcharge and the Medicare levy only funds 20 per cent of our Commonwealth healthcare spend. It is unsustainable. If we want to enjoy state-of-the-art X-rays, state-of-the-art diagnostic tests and world-class health delivery from our GP right throughout the hospital system, 20 per cent of our federal Commonwealth government collection is not going to cut it.

Older Australians will also be able to make a modest contribution. The pension age will rise to 70 but not for two decades. So that is time to prepare all you 35-year-olds to put some money away. That is the reality and it is a fallacy to believe that the working population in the future will be able to support a huge number of Australians living upwards of age 100.

To conclude, the reality is that it is a tough but fair budget. However, Labor's claims that it unfairly targets low- and middle-income Australia is demonstrably false. Just get real! (Time expired)