Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President, welcome to Groundhog Day! We spoke in the chamber earlier this year on the bill to repeal the minerals resource rent tax. Like with the carbon bills that we have debated again and again and will debate again this week, we are back to debate legislation on the minerals resource rent tax again. This time the bill before us, the Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill 2013 [No. 2], may well pass with the support of Mr Palmer's friends in this place—although if those opposite try and double-deal with him again who knows what might happen. Those opposite need to start dealing with the crossbenchers honestly and with some respect.

As I said in my contribution earlier this year, those opposite claimed they would be a 'no surprises' government. What a joke, because this government are nothing but surprises. Australians are waking up to a new surprise every day. Unfortunately, those opposite are trying to fool all of the people all of the time; the Australian people are sick to death of it. I have never seen so much anger in the community over a budget as I have with the budget the government have just delivered. The people of Australia are stunned, absolutely stunned, that this government could try to pass changes that are so fundamentally against Australian values, and they are still in shock that the government want to utterly abolish the principle of universal health care for all, which has underpinned this nation for 30 years.

But the Australian people are not fooled by this government. They are waking up to this government trying to abolish the schoolkids bonus by stealth in this bill, costing the average family $15,000 over the period of their children's schooling. Small business owners are waking up to the fact that they will be thousands of dollars worse off as the instant asset write-off is slashed from $5,000 to $1,000 because of this bill. Regional communities are waking up to the fact that they have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in funding through the abolition of the Regional Infrastructure Fund and the Regional Development Australia Fund. And the Australian people have woken up to Mr Abbott's plan to abolish the low-income super tax contribution but keep generous tax concessions for high-income earners. Most Australian people have angrily spoken out against it.

The Prime Minister and those who sit on the opposite side of this chamber were not upfront with the Australian people. They did not explain to the Australian people that when they said 'axe the tax' they actually meant 'cut your retirement savings, hurt small businesses, make it harder to pay for your children's education and let rural and regional communities fall into disrepair'. I know that it is not as catchy, but it certainly is a lot more honest. But as they like three-word sound bites, the Liberal-National government could have found some to honestly campaign with to convey their intentions to the Australian people. 'Tax the sick' could have been one. They could also have used 'business tax increase', 'no new uniforms', or 'help rich miners'. 'Let regions rot' would have been another accurate three-word catchphrase for this government. I am wondering why the government did not campaign using any of these three-word slogans. Of course they knew if they actually took the time to explain their policies deliberately targeting those Australians who are least well-off then no-one would have voted them in.

Many Australians feel that they were duped by those opposite, that they were not given the full story. This government has put forward policies that the people of Australia are vehemently opposed to. Some may have been mentioned in the fine print, but they certainly did not appear in the TV ads or in the fliers that appeared in people's letterboxes. Others were not mentioned at all. No radio ad was targeted to people over 50 on Newstart saying the income support bonus for them would be cut. No Liberal doorknocker stood on a family's doorstep to tell them that there was going to be a $7 GP tax increase. No TV ads said the schoolkids bonus would be axed and it would not even reinstate the education tax refund, which it replaced. No fridge magnets were sent to the 2.7 million small businesses to tell them that the instant asset write-off would be reduced by 80 per cent. Perhaps the three-word slogan it should have campaigned on was 'lack of vision' because it takes an extraordinary lack of vision to not see that helping those on the lowest incomes builds up their retirement savings, helping the whole of Australian society. It takes an extraordinary lack of vision to not see that regional Australia is in need of infrastructure to drive growth, especially in the economies of rural communities, and to improve the quality of life of people in these communities. And it takes an extraordinary lack of vision to not see that ensuring that parents can afford the required books, stationery, computer equipment and uniforms result in better educational outcomes for their children and higher productivity for society as a whole.

The explanatory memorandum to this bill outlines the financial impact of discontinuing the Regional Infrastructure Fund and the Regional Development Australia Fund. It also explains that no legislative changes are required to discontinue the Regional Infrastructure Fund and the Regional Development Australia Fund. Then why is the axed money being counted in the financial impact of this bill? What a disingenuous stunt by those opposite. We have already seen the axing of the Regional Development Australia Fund and the purpose of the Regional Development Australia Fund—the RDAF—is to support regional areas of Australia with infrastructure needs.

I am really disappointed that the Nationals are once again supporting cuts to regional Australia. Despite what they say, the Nationals are not standing up for rural Australia—