Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday we were denied the opportunity through the committee stage to ask substantive questions on this piece of legislation. Today we have seen the debate be gagged. This is the first time since I have been in this place I have seen a gag on a suspension. It's just disgraceful. Now we've been given the opportunity to speak for five minutes. This is $140 billion being ripped out of essential public services and the government want to ram it through the Senate. The bottom line here is that this is a package that does nothing for low-income earners. The bottom 40 per cent of income earners will get no benefit from this bill. The bottom 40 per cent will get no benefit from stage 1, 2 or 3 of this bill. This is a package that will flow to the top 60 per cent. If you look at stage 3, 95 per cent of the benefit will go to the top 20 per cent of workers.

This is the new definition of what a 'battler' is in Australia, according to One Nation. You are a battler in Australia if you are in the top 20 per cent of income earners apparently. If you are a banker, a CEO or someone on $500,000 or a million bucks, you get a tax cut. Senator Wong is right that $7,000 goes into the back pocket of these people as a result of stage 3, but the combined impact of the entire package is worth over $11,000. Every politician in this place will get an $11,000 tax cut. Bankers will get an $11,000 tax cut. CEOs and executives in industries, in big multinationals, will get an $11,000 tax cut. If you are a nurse, childcare worker or teacher, you will get a few hundred bucks in your back pocket.

The bottom line is that we face a choice here in Australia right now. This is one of the most significant pieces of legislation to ever pass through the Australian parliament. This is worth $140 billion. It fundamentally rewrites the fabric of Australian society. We cannot continue to afford to invest in all of the foundations of a decent society—decent health care, education and infrastructure, increasing Newstart and protecting our environment—if we strip $140 billion of revenue in a prescription to turbocharge inequality here in Australia.

This is what the government's already done. It's taken half a billion dollars from ARENA, over $300 million from the ABC and nearly $60 million in legal aid funding. Freezing Medicare cost nearly $3 billion. It's cut family tax benefit supplements, 4,000 jobs from the ATO, jobs from ASIC and jobs from the CSIRO. It has made huge cuts to the environment department at a time when we are losing biodiversity at a rate far greater than at any other time on earth. R&D tax offsets: $600 million gone. Local government grants: $900 million gone. There have been cuts to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs. This government has presided over a litany of cuts.

Can you imagine what will happen if we strip another $140 billion of revenue from those essential services? Can you imagine what we are going to be faced with in the coming years when it comes to the cuts that we've already seen from this government?

And of course you've got Senator Hanson over there. Let me quote to you what Senator Hanson said. She said, 'I am not getting a tax cut.' She said:

The tax cuts are going to be up to $200,000. I'm a very fortunate Australian to be earning more than $200,000. I am paying … 45c in the dollar on that. I'm not getting tax relief.

Well, Senator Hanson should come into this chamber and apologise for misleading the Senate. Senator Hanson gets over $11,000 as a result of her support for this legislation.

And over there we have Centre Alliance, who are selling out South Australians. For every dollar that goes into the back pocket of wealthy South Australians, $1.40 gets taken out in vital public services in South Australia.

This is one of the most shameful, disgraceful days that I've seen in my time in this Senate, with $140 billion ripped out of public revenue—taken out of our public hospitals; many people will need to languish for longer on waiting lists. There will be more up-front costs in public schools. Infrastructure that desperately needs investment isn't going to get it—and all because you want to ram this bill through without any scrutiny. (Time expired)

The CHAIR: A point of order, Senator Macdonald?