Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Hansard source

How could I possibly disagree with that sort of proposition? What we were being told was that, suddenly, there was a budget emergency. Remember that line? There was going to be a budget emergency that had to be fixed. Where is the evidence? On the question of debt, look at what we have got in this country: a AAA rating. And what is our international performance on the question of debt and deficits? Australia has a remarkably good economic record. We are amongst the world's leaders when it comes to economic management and that is what governments around the world have looked to. But not this government.

What they needed was an alibi, an alibi for what was their pre-election mantra that there would be no cuts. Remember that? No cuts to education, no cuts to health and no cuts to the ABC. What do we see after the election? Of course, we see a return to the famous old coalition fantasy of core and non-core promises. That is what we heard today: a return to the John Howard schema of core and non-core promises.

We have a position whereby the government are adopting the ruthless Thatcherite policies. They are seeking to pursue an ideological agenda of hatred against people they believe to be their political opponents. They have measures particularly aimed at the most vulnerable in our community, people who are the poorest, less powerful and not able to defend themselves.

This is a government that always seeks to advance the interests of the wealthy and the powerful. Now we have the ultimate hypocrisy: this Faustian pact that we are presented with, the suggestion that this Senate should embrace the prospect of actually gutting Medicare, one of the great achievements of this nation, in return for a medical research fund.

As the German legend of Faust is maintained, the scholar who was unhappy with the world sought to make a pact with the devil to secure great knowledge, we see that that is exactly what we have here: a Faustian pact being presented by this government to try to blackmail the Senate into accepting the gutting of Medicare, a proposition that I contend this Senate will not accept. We have a fraud being presented to medical researchers across this country—a fraud because the government knows that this parliament will not accept the gutting of Medicare because of the importance of Medicare to the Australian people and the welfare of this nation.

When it comes to education more generally, we have a series of measures. Once again, the government said before the election, 'There will be no cuts.' After the election, we have over $5 billion worth of cuts to higher education. There is even their mention of privatising the provision of education. The additional 80,000 places that they spoke of today come at a price. There is $1.1 billion in savings to underwrite that measure. We see a government that are cutting back the CSIRO, cutting back maritime research, cutting back our nuclear agency and cutting back Geoscience Australia. The government are making it much more difficult to advance research in this country, they are undermining science and at the same time they are suggesting that they are doing something else. There is a perfidy about the way in which this government seek to present their case—a perfidy that the Australian people will see through. My colleague Senator Mason pointed out that the political damage that they are doing to themselves as a consequence of their lies, deceit and treacherous behaviour during the election will be exposed to all those with eyes to see.

In terms of Indigenous affairs—and my colleague will talk more on this issue in a moment—the lies that were told about the attitude towards Indigenous affairs are plain for all to see now as a consequence of what the government actually have done as distinct from what they said they would do prior to the election. The real question is: what is the trust deficit? The trust deficit as a result of the budget last night has grown dramatically. We all understand the consequences for political parties that embark upon that sort of deceit, that sort of dishonesty, that sort of lie. That is exactly what this government has brought upon itself. (Time expired)