Ann Corcoran (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

This year’s budget represents nothing new from this government. The coalition has stayed true to form, with yet another round of vote buying at the expense of Australia’s long-term stability and prosperity. Two words define this budget: lost opportunity—a lost opportunity to invest in Australia’s future, a lost opportunity to invest in our children’s education, a lost opportunity to train our young people and a lost opportunity to upgrade our crumbling infrastructure. I support the tax cuts the government has announced in this budget. It is the least the government can do. That is the point: this government is doing the least it can do and nothing more. Rising petrol prices, reduced wages and working conditions, and growing interest rates have devoured the tax cuts even before they have been seen by most of us.

The government seems entirely focused on hoodwinking Australians into believing that everything is just fine, that the growing pressure they feel is an illusion and that an extra few dollars in tax cuts will solve all their problems. This is a government that taxes people to their absolute limit. It hoards our money, cuts our services, encourages fear and then, when it suits it, tries to buy our votes. This approach to the Australian community is wearing very thin.

The government’s so-called Welfare to Work scheme is a prime example of its willingness to marginalise and punish the disadvantaged. Under the current system, some of our most disadvantaged families are being punished financially for going to work. The tax and benefits system under the Howard government sees many low- and middle-income families losing 50c, 60c or even 70c in each additional dollar they earn to tax and to lost benefits. This is not a system of incentives, support and encouragement; it is a system that says to many families, ‘Work hard and you lose.’ The chorus of condemnation that this scheme has met from churches, charities and the social services sector reflects this dysfunction. It shows just how out of touch this government is or, even more sadly, perhaps how much it just does not care.

Poverty exists in Australia—this is a fact. If the Prime Minister thinks of Australia as a relaxed and comfortable nation, that is the Australia he chooses to see. It is his portrait of Australia and those who do not fit into it drift into the margins, rarely seen or heard and certainly not cared for. All over our nation thousands upon thousands of ordinary people are struggling to keep and, in some cases, even find a place to live. They are living week to week, trying desperately to feed and to educate their kids, to find a decent job, to build a future. The pressure that these Australians face is causing them to fade away, out of our community.

When you live week to week, you do not participate. You do not have the money to join sporting or social clubs. Even the price of a train ticket to visit family and friends can be out of reach. These pressures fuel the sense of hopelessness and despair that make it impossible for many people to claw their way out of poverty. The Howard government needs to truly realise that Australia is a society, a community and a culture, not simply an economy. We have seen over the past 10 years a government that was prepared to allow the growth of a new class of working poor. The casualisation of the workforce, the failure to invest in skills and training and the destruction of a fair system of industrial relations have contributed and will continue to contribute to this sad and ugly reality of Australian life. These developments are no accident. They are a result of policies that cater only to those who appear in the Prime Minister’s portrait of Australia. The changes to workplace relations and the creation of the new so-called Fair Pay Commission are set to drive average wages down, creating further hardship for those least able to cope. The changes to the welfare system will have precisely the same effect, placing even more pressure on some of our society’s most disadvantaged.

Let us be clear about the economic realities facing Australia right now. The government has received a massive windfall of revenue thanks to the resources boom. That boom will not last forever, but in the current climate Australia has wonderful opportunities to strengthen the fabric of our society and our economy. For parents raising their families, workers wanting to learn new skills, young people hoping for a decent education and all Australians who want quality, affordable health care, only Labor has a plan. The ALP is in touch with the lives of ordinary Australians and only Labor has the vision to improve these lives. To lead for all Australians—that is the key. Leadership needs a vision for the future, empathy with lives that are being lived now and a real sense of the range of everyday experiences that really shape Australian life. This is the essence of the difference between Labor and the coalition. While the ALP has begun to set out a comprehensive range of policies to meet the real needs of our society and to address the massive failings of this government, the coalition is only starting to try to buy our votes again.

Labor’s plan for school based child-care centres and extra places will mean that child care will become a reality for many families. This also means that parents will no longer have to deal with the dreaded double drop-off. I have heard some conservatives scoff at this notion and I am not surprised. This government does not understand Australian life or Australian families. A federal Labor government will provide $200 million to establish 260 new child-care centres on primary school grounds or other community land. Labor will ensure that these places go to the areas in our suburbs and our regional towns where there are child-care shortages. By improving the desperate state of child care we will also be able to address the nation’s shocking skills shortages. More people will be able to return to study, to training and to work.

The skills crisis in Australia is another result of this government’s ineptitude, neglect and lack of foresight. Under the Howard-Costello government 300,000 people have been turned away from TAFE training—that is, 300,000 people qualified to enter TAFE but for whom there is no place. This is an extraordinary waste of our resources from a society point of view. It is also an extraordinary waste of an individual’s skills and that person’s wish to use his or her skills to fashion out a useful and satisfying life for themselves and their family. In the lead-up to the 2004 election, Labor promised to create more places in TAFE, year on year. I will be working to ensure that this policy is in place again in the lead-up to the next election, in 2007.

The skills crisis will only get worse unless we begin to give Australians who want to learn a chance to do so. A Labor government will abolish TAFE fees for traditional apprenticeships. This is expected to benefit some 60,000 Australians beginning apprenticeships each year. Labor’s skills account policy will further encourage the uptake of apprenticeships. We will make an initial deposit of $800 per year, for up to four years, in an apprentice skills account. This will essentially get rid of the up-front TAFE fees that can be a barrier to learning for many Australians. A federal Labor government will also get rid of TAFE fees for eligible child-care courses by making an initial deposit of $1,200 per year, for up to two years, in a trainee skills account. Young people training to teach and care for our children will be able to use this to pay up-front fees at TAFE or other eligible providers or they can use it for materials and resources charges.

A federal Labor government will invest in a joint venture with the telecommunications industry to build a superfast broadband network. Labor will draw on the $757 million Broadband Connect program, as well as providing an equity injection from the $2 billion earmarked for the communications fund, to deliver the public funding on this in partnership with the private sector. This will deliver broadband that can instantly download documentaries, educational software and digital books and broadband that can host a digital classroom, where children can have videoconferences all around Australia. In addition, Labor will establish a clean feed system so parents can be assured that their kids on the internet are not being exposed to pornography and violence. This is the kind of investment for the future that shows Labor has a vision and the government has run out of ideas.

Labor will take the politics out of infrastructure spending, with an independent expert body called Infrastructure Australia. We will make it easier for super funds to invest in infrastructure. We will set up a building Australia fund to invest in productive infrastructure for the future. Making Australia competitive is about raising the standard of our performance, and that takes investment. This government believes the way to go is to lower standards, cut costs and ignore the need for investment.

This race to the bottom philosophy is nowhere clearer than in the so-called Work Choices legislation. This appalling attack on the hard-won rights of Australian workers completely destroys the idea of a fair go in the Australian workplace. Under Work Choices, Australians have no certainty in the workplace. They could be sacked for any reason or for no reason at all. Up to four million Australian employees, in businesses of up to 100 employees, now face the prospect of going to work each day not knowing if they will have a job at the end of that day. Employees working in nearly all private businesses across the country can now be sacked unfairly, with no right of redress or remedy for their sacking.

The recent example of the Cowra meatworks will be repeated. At Cowra we saw workers sacked for no reason, only to be offered their jobs back on severely reduced conditions. When challenged, the government made the unforgettable response that it did not know whether or not the action was legal under the new laws. It is now clear from a report issued by the Office of Workplace Services that the action proposed by Cowra is indeed legal. Although the government was able to momentarily undo the plans of Cowra at the time, it did so because of the embarrassment it caused, not because the action is not a logical flow-on from, or even the point of, this shocking legislation.

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission, the independent umpire, has had many of its roles removed. These roles include ensuring agreements meet a decent minimum standard and awarding increases in the minimum wage. Instead, the government’s so-called Fair Pay Commission will now be responsible for increasing the minimum wage. The Treasurer’s own department predicts that the pay of people who rely on the minimum wage will fall in real terms, as the Fair Pay Commission will award smaller increases. This will mean that Australia’s lowest paid and most vulnerable employees and their families will suffer a decline in their real take-home wages. This will have a flow-on effect for thousands of Australian employees.

The government has also abolished the safety net known as the no disadvantage test. This safety net provided a baseline against which all agreements were measured. Under the government’s changes, all agreements, whether individual or collective, will no longer have to meet an award standard of 20 conditions. Instead, agreements will only need to meet five new minimum conditions. They are: a minimum wage, which is currently $12.75 per hour; four weeks annual leave per year, of which two weeks may be cashed out; sick leave/carer’s leave of 10 days per year; a 38-hour ordinary working week; and unpaid parental leave of 52 weeks. That means that, at the stroke of a pen, entitlements important to working Australians, such as penalty rates, overtime, meal breaks, annual leave loading, shift loading, redundancy pay, allowances and certainty of hours and rostering, can be removed. We have seen that happen in just the last few weeks with the new Spotlight AWA, in which new employees have lost most entitlements and gained a pay rise of 2c per hour. How long will it take for those not on the new agreement to be sacked and replaced by workers prepared to sign it?

We have seen that the government not only does not understand the unfairness of those arrangements and the hardship they will cause but also says that it is a good idea and that more businesses should follow suit. Not only employees but also employers are going to be affected by the government’s workplace changes. Under the changes, many employers face the added complexity of navigating through the industrial relations minefield created by the government. The government has consistently failed to make the social and economic case for these extraordinary and unfair changes. Labor oppose these industrial relations changes. We will fight for the rights of ordinary working Australians and their families. We want working Australians and their families to have decent jobs with decent conditions and reasonable certainty. Labor will abolish AWAs.

In this year’s budget we once again see the government continue with its decade-long policy of underfunding the ABC, despite the modest increases. Any extra funding for the ABC is welcome. The extra money the government has handed out in the budget will allow the ABC to produce approximately 28 hours a year of new content, but it is too little, too late. According to media reports, in a report that Senator Coonan refuses to release KPMG have identified a need for $125 million above inflation for the next three years for the ABC to sustain its current services, but that is ignored by the government.

The government is determined to flex its muscle over the ABC by not only underfunding the broadcaster but also controlling the board membership. The ALP has always supported the establishment of an independent panel to consider candidates for the ABC board and for the minister to then make the final decision. We will continually look to making those processes more transparent and democratic. In March this year, Senator Coonan announced that the government intended to abolish the staff elected position on the ABC board; sadly, that legislation has now passed through the House. That position is a vitally important one for the board. The staff elected director is able to give the board an insight into the operations of the ABC and is, in some cases, the only person with the expertise to question advice that comes from the ABC’s executive. The staff elected position on the board is one position the government cannot control, and so it has moved to abolish it. It seems that the government will do whatever it takes to maintain its control over the broadcaster.

In conclusion, Australians know that Work Choices will hurt us. We know that we need investment for the future. We know that our lives are not defined by statistics. And we know that $10 in our pockets solves none of our everyday problems. Labor’s vision is based on connecting with everyday lives and understanding everyday pressures. In contrast, the government is miles away from understanding that. Senior government members seem completely detached from the realities of Australian life. The starting point of almost all policy development should be an understanding of the lives a policy will affect. After 10 years, it is difficult to see how any of the government’s policies reflect a sense of empathy with the Australian community. This budget, as I said at the beginning of my remarks, is very sad; indeed, it is a wanting and lost opportunity.

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