Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

yes, from the Gold Coast—to do the remaining two units in a block. So there was a block of six units and they got a fellow from Sydney to do four, but he could not do the remaining two, even though he was asked to, so he disappeared back to Sydney and they sent a fellow down from the Gold Coast to do the remaining two. It is that sort of waste that the Australian people cannot tolerate, especially when you think about what this budget did to try and ease the squeeze on cost of living pressures. It did nothing.

We have seen electricity prices rise by 50 per cent since 2007. What is the government doing in the budget? It is hiding the fact that, when a carbon tax is introduced, electricity prices will go up by another 25 per cent. So our families, the forgotten families, are going to deal with a 75 per cent increase in their power bills.

Locally there were three outcomes which I would like to mention. We have seen south-west Victoria being promised a Medicare funded licence for its MRI machine. The funding has been promised for 18 months time. Obviously the community and I would have liked to have seen that occur right here and now, but we do have a promise that the Medicare funded licence will be provided. I will be looking forward to making sure that that promise comes true. We also saw two commitments for funding: one for Ararat hospital and one for Timboon primary health care. Those two million-dollar allocations were allocations for which the community had put forward compelling cases. I was glad to see that the government listened to the compelling cases and delivered on those two bits of funding and the promise of a Medicare funded licence for south-west Victoria.

What has been alarming, though, is that, while we have seen some small instances of health funding, the broader funding to regional Australia has seen pork-barrelling at an extreme level in the two rural Independent seats. This is not good government. Government should govern for all Australia. They should not pork-barrel for two rural Independents who are propping up what is a very weak government.

Before I conclude, I could not sit down without mentioning the budget reply speech. I think without doubt it was one of the best budget reply speeches which has been heard in this new parliament. Tony Abbott gave a speech pitched to the forgotten families in Australia, those families who are doing it tough as a result of this government's policies—a government, and especially a prime minister, that does not seem to understand and want to understand or listen to these forgotten families.

The cost of living pressures that these families are under are growing daily. Yet this Prime Minister, having lied to them by saying she would not introduce a carbon tax before the election, is now introducing a tax which will increase their cost of living pressures and is doing nothing else to help them in this regard. Tony Abbott nailed that. But he also nailed what the coalition would offer as an alternative: how it would help the Indigenous people, how it would help those suffering from mental health issues, how it would help families meet education costs; and also how it would stop Labor's waste and would put in place a government which actually values the taxpayers' money—a very positive agenda.

It was a compelling budget reply speech and one which sent a clear message to the Australian community that we on this side are listening. We are aware of the cost of living pressures they are facing. We will not put a carbon tax in place which after one year leads to your petrol prices going up. We will not put a carbon tax in place which is likely to lead to you losing manufacturing jobs, losing agricultural jobs, losing services jobs. We will listen; we will get Australia heading in the right direction.

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