Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw those remarks, and rephrase them: he did not tell the truth to those workers when he was talking to them about the increases in tax. He did not let them in on the government's secret that it would be introducing a petrol tax.

For those who do not know much about regional Australia, petrol is a big issue. The drive from one end of the Bendigo electorate to the other takes 2½ hours. It is 150 kilometres. That is a lot of petrol required to get from top to bottom. An increase in the petrol tax hits regional Australia the hardest. For those rurally based members of parliament, good luck when you get home and have to hear the onslaught from your constituents, upset about the fact that every time they put petrol into their cars they will be blaming you and this government, because you are the ones that have increased the petrol tax.

Let's not stop at the petrol tax. When these two were in town, they did not talk about the GP super-tax; they did not talk about slugging every single person that goes to a GP clinic and every single person that accesses bulk-billing in the Bendigo electorate with an extra $7. At the moment, bulk-billing in Bendigo is at 76 per cent. It is at its highest rate in over a decade. Yet now those households will have to pay an extra $7 every time they go to the GP. And, like people in most rural areas, they are not wealthy people. Thirty per cent of the electorate is surviving on less than $600 a week—and yet in this budget, the government are asking them to pay the most. Whether it be an increase in the cost of going to the doctor, an increase in the cost of paying for their medicine, paying extra via a petrol tax, cutting funding to their schools or cutting funding to health, the government have demonstrated one thing—and that is they simply do not care about Bendigo or regional Victoria.

I am going to finish on an email that I received from a single mother who lives in Strathfieldsaye. Strathfieldsaye is one of those suburbs in the growth corridor of Bendigo. It is an area where people are just starting to get by and are doing it tough. This single mum has three children, and she is worried about the attacks in this budget. (Time expired)

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