Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Later this year, at a date still to be determined, Australians will be faced with a choice. It's a very clear choice of a Labor government with a very clear, strong, sustainable agenda with no secrets, no multiple ministries, no carparks and no sports rorts—just really clear, honest government. The other choice that they have is Mr Peter Dutton, who has been very clear—again, very open and honest—that he is going to cut wasteful government spending. What's not so honest and clear is the fact that he's said he's not going to tell you what he's going to cut. He's just going to cut what he feels like should he get into government. That's hardly the honest and transparent government that this country is looking for—having no intention to tell people where you're going to cut, just telling them you're going to absolutely cut things.

There have been some hints on some items that they're obviously in no way supportive of, but they've got two really large policies—just two policies. They're the only two that they've announced. It's not difficult to keep track of them. It's quite straightforward. One is the nuclear plan, Australia's nuclear future according to the coalition, which has a price tag of $600 billion, and that's before we even start unpacking the fact that the plan—it's called a plan, but it's a bit sketchy, let's be honest—doesn't provide anything like the demand for electricity that we have in this country. It's not even close. It is a fraction of what we need. Then of course there's the fact that nuclear is the most water-hungry source of energy. In a country that really has issues with water, we have to be very cautious with our water. Anyway, it's a $600 billion price tag.

The second policy—like I said, they're not hard to track because they've only got two—is to have workers pay for their bosses to take long lunches. I'm still scratching my head on this one, because from what I experienced with small business, this isn't their primary issue. But the coalition and Mr Dutton will tell you that it is—that this is their biggest issue. They want to be able to go to lunch and claim it on their tax. I think they're probably talking to way different businesses than I am.

What is he going to cut to pay for these things? That is hundreds of billions of dollars on things that aren't going to deliver what they claim to. What are they going to cut? Let's go to the history of the coalition. To be honest, it's not that long ago that we were in a disgraceful decade of the coalition being in government, so you don't have to look far back to see what they did when they were in government. It's not the rubbish they're telling us now. I sit here and scratch my head sometimes at some of the things that they claim to care about now but they spent an entire decade in government not caring about one iota.

We know that, when Mr Dutton was the health minister, he was voted the worst health minister in living memory by Australian doctors, which is not really surprising, because he tried to destroy Medicare. He cut money from all parts of the health service. He was the one that introduced the idea—it didn't come off, thank heavens—that you'd pay to go to the emergency department. Every single person would just pay because his basic theory is that, if you don't pay for it, you don't value it. That's all very well to say for a man that wealthy; just look it up. But, for the rest of the population, for ordinary Australians looking to go to the doctor and be bulk-billed—no. He has no history of any credibility in that area. We do. We have restored so many of the things that were crushed by the coalition. We will continue to do so and build Medicare. That's just one area.

There's free TAFE. They hate that. That's probably going to go. They hate our historic funding agreements for schools. They had 10 years to bring in the Gonski reforms and did nothing. We did. The tax cut that we expanded to go to low-income and middle-income and all Australians—no. They'll be going straight back to just giving breaks to wealthy Australians. Be careful when you choose.