Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Moore, I move:

That the Senate notes the Government's Budget is an affront to Australians' sense of fairness.

Mr Acting Deputy President Furner, can I also make note of the fact that this is your last session in the chair. I commend you on the way in which you have conducted yourself in the chair, which has been with humility and a sense of humour. I congratulate you. I know that I share with others in this chamber when I say that we will miss your contribution.

I rise today to reflect on what this current Abbott government is doing to this country and how the coalition's 'budget of broken promises' is hurting Australians who are already under significant cost of living pressures. Those on this side, those opposite and the Australian people know that Tony Abbott's vision for this country is built on a web of deceit, lies and policies which hurt low-income people, families, pensioners, students and job seekers.

Unfortunately of late, this place has become a political plaything for the current government. The Abbott government continues to try to pass legislation which is detrimental to Australians—more specifically, low-income families and low-income earners and, more recently, small business and industry. The coalition continues to spin lies to the Australian people about the financial strength and economic resilience of this country. However, the Australian people see through this. The Australian people understand the strength and resilience of the Australian economy and they know in their hearts that the coalition lied their way into government and that they fabricated the sense of a crisis. It was a shameful and deceitful way to seek to govern this country. Those lies have continued and are continually rolled out on a daily basis in this chamber.

The first Abbott-Hockey budget will go down in our country's history as a budget which tried to prosecute a shift in the Australian way of life—a shift in the very nature of how our country operates. It is a budget which attacks the very principle which makes this country the greatest country on earth—egalitarianism. The principle of egalitarianism permeates our culture, but this principle was hung, drawn and quartered in the first Abbott-Hockey budget. It was undoubtedly treated as a principle of insignificance by those opposite. It was tossed aside with blatant disregard, and those opposite cannot hide from this fact. They have done very little to try to defend this heartless budget.

We are the party which will defend the principle of egalitarianism, because Labor understands its importance to our history and our society. It is who we are; it is who we will always be. We will always be governed by the principle of egalitarianism because we understand it to be a principle which has served our country well. We as Australians understand that we should not leave our neighbours behind. Over the last 100 years, a social contract has been shaped in this country. It is a contract of principles which conducts the Australian way of life: access to universal healthcare and education; a fair and secure pension system; support for people who cannot work due to disability or caring responsibilities; and support that helps to get people into work. Over the last 100 years, Australians have fought for these principles and defended them at all costs. Successive Labor governments have stood by these principles because we believe they are fundamentally right. We have strengthened these principles to ensure that Australia is a place of fairness and that there is prosperity for all. Australians are rightly proud of a society which cherishes these principles.

Since it entered office, this government has failed in its responsibility to maintain and further strengthen these principles of the Australian way of life. Those opposite have engaged in a determined effort to change the way in which Australians see each other—that is what they are trying to do. They are determined to tear away at the fabric of what makes this country so great. This does not serve our country, it does not serve our society and it certainly does not serve our democracy. This government's attempts to do this will be resisted, because we on this side of the chamber will stand up for the principles of equity and fairness in our community.

Labor is working hard here in the Senate and in the other place to fight against the budget cuts to schools, universities, hospitals, pensions and family benefits. These cuts are not only deeply unfair; they represent reckless economic policy, because education and health are critical to Australia's future prosperity. As I have said on numerous occasions, we must invest in health and education because these are the bedrock of Australia's future security. And what does this government do? It rips away $80 billion in education and health funding and leaves the states out in the cold to wither away and die a very slow death

I am sure that those opposite have been keeping tabs on the media in relation to the effect this budget is having on their state colleagues in Victoria.

This Abbott government has engaged in wilful conduct to hurt low-income families, pensioners, students and job seekers. And Australians are aware of this. They are alert to the deceit and destruction by those opposite. They are standing as one in their condemnation of the first Abbott-Hockey budget. Australians are protesting across the country against this budget. Yet another protest will be held in my home state on Saturday, because the Tasmanian community have already felt the impact of this budget, let alone what will be theirs to endure when finally the state Liberal government brings down its budget in August.

The amount of correspondence to my office alone is unprecedented. And it would be no different for my colleagues on this side of the chamber. People are writing to us and contacting us through all mediums to enlighten us about how they are feeling about the impact of this harsh and heartless budget. Australians loathe this budget because they will be affected dramatically by its measures.

Let me start by reviewing the coalition's attack on pensioners and families. The Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 1) Bill 2014 and the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 2) Bill 2014 are perhaps the most significant legislation in Australia's history, because they represent a direct attack on families and pensioners. Both legislative instruments are built on Liberal lies and will push up the cost of living for all Australians. These bills betray Australia's 3.2 million pensioners, who were promised by the Prime Minister before the election that there would be no changes to their pensions. They are hateful measures which will impair the living standards of age pensioners, disability support pensioners, veterans and carers.

Hundreds of thousands of senior Australians, who have worked their entire life, will have their payments cut. These bills also include a cut of $1.1 billion through the abolition of the seniors supplement for older Australians. This payment of $876 to people who receive the Commonwealth seniors health card will be gone. Further, the government is cutting $1.3 billion in pensioner and Commonwealth seniors health card holder concessions that help pay for their water and electricity bills and their rates and public transport. And, Mr Acting Deputy President, as you well know, that is not all. I wish it was, but it is not. Further pension cuts will follow. They may not be tomorrow, but they are coming. These bills also seek to increase the pension age to 70.

These bills are disastrous for all Australians who believe in a fair and caring society. And why are these measures necessary? Because the Prime Minister wants to pay $50,000 to wealthy women to take six months off work to have a baby through his $22 billion unfair and unaffordable Paid Parental Leave scheme.

These bills represent a total of $7.5 billion in cuts to family payments. Those opposite are tearing down family payments. And low-income families will be the worst off under this budget. Family tax benefits will be frozen by those opposite. A freeze to the low-income free area for FTB A alone will see more than 370,000 Australian families around $750 a year worse off in 2016-17. Further, the Department of Social Services has revealed that 700,000 families will lose their FTB B if the government gets its way and kicks families off the payment when their youngest child turns six years of age.

These vicious cuts have been brought down by an arrogant government. They will hurt these families and will hit my home state of Tasmania extremely hard. That is not all. The Prime Minister is trying to abolish the schoolkids bonus. Families will lose $410 per year per primary-aged child and $820 a year per secondary-aged child. A single income family on $65,000 with two school-aged children will be around $6,000 worse off each year by 2016 because of those opposite. Do those opposite care? Clearly they do not, or they would not be condemning these families and hurting these families in the manner in which this budget is doing.

Further to these attacks on families, the coalition wants to attack every other citizen of this country with the new $7 GP tax and $5 tax on prescriptions. I can assure the Australian people that Labor will vote against these new taxes when these bills are voted on in this place.

Now, I am not finished. This budget has more broken promises and twisted priorities, which continue with a further attack on the cost of living, with a 'great big new tax' which pushes up prices on everything. The increased petrol excise tax will not only hurt individual motorists; it will cripple small businesses across the country. Labor will vote against the government's plans to increase fuel excise, because of the cost-of-living impact on low- and middle-income earners, which will be so detrimental to their budgets.

You must be thinking: 'Who else could this government hurt?' Who else could they slug with cuts or a new tax?' Students. Students are just starting out in life. They are looking to better themselves and want to contribute to the prosperity of this country, and Tony Abbott sees them as an easy target. Increasing university fees and student debt—