Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Before the last federal election, when he was opposition leader, the Prime Minister campaigned on trust, on honesty, on keeping promises. He famously said: 'The government has no mandate. There should be no tax collection without an election.' Now we have the pot calling the kettle black. Now that he is in government, he believes in taxation without elections. Five weeks ago, I and Labor challenged the Prime Minister and his merry band of gaffsters to go out and listen to the voices of the mighty Australian people. The last five weeks have shown time and time again that there is no mandate for this government's budget because it is built on lies, lies and more lies. This government has the exact opposite of a mandate for its budget: its budget is illegitimate. This is a government trapped in its budget, and this is a nation's budget trapped by this government.

We asked the Leader of the Government and his team to go and talk to families about the $6,000 they are losing and to talk to pensioners about the $4,000 they are losing. We asked them to talk to the motorists, who are paying more—even some of those poor motorists! We asked them to talk to the students and teachers, who are losing $30 billion. We asked them to talk to the GPs collecting the GP tax from aged care and palliative care facilities. We asked them to talk to university students about the doubling and tripling of university fees. We asked them to talk to veterans about how they feel about having their pensions cut. We asked them whether they could find some carers to talk about cutting payments. And what about unemployed people under the age of 30? They will have no income for six months. For Indigenous Australians, half a billion will be cut from programs.

The government have had five week to change their mind but, in the last five weeks, all they have done is change their tactics. They have had five weeks to listen to people and dump their dishonest, rotten and unfair budget. This is an incompetent government led by an incompetent Prime Minister and an incompetent Treasurer. I am sure, in quiet moments of reflection, that government members wonder, 'Is it possible; can we to get a new Treasurer?' Every day there is new disaster for this government.

Let me remind the Australian people about the accomplishments of this government in the last five weeks. We have Mr Right for being a bigot, the Attorney-General himself. He went out to defend watering down the anti-hate laws less than 24 hours before he dumped on himself. Then he followed up with that interview on metadata—surely one of the most bizarre and awkward pieces of television since the John Hewson cake interview. And of course, Senator Abetz, Leader of the Government in the Senate, did not like the attention his deputy was getting, so he decided, in an act of political bravery, to go onto The Project, a show I am not sure he had never watched, to re-investigate the latest in 1950s medical science. And of course we have the Monday, Wednesday, Friday budget emergency, interspersed by the Tuesday and Thursday not such an emergency. There is no doubt the star of this government's sitcom over the last five weeks is no other than 'No average Joe'. He is an albatross around the neck of this government but the Prime Minister must keep the Treasurer because it is very careless for our Prime Minister to lose a Treasurer. Once you lose your Treasurer, you have no-one else to blame but yourself.

I did certainly enjoy the book reviews. In his most famous book, in his must-buy book—according to him—the Treasurer stated, 'I was a little too soft in my budget'. What planet does this Treasurer live on? What I really admire is the marvellous Hamletesque Shakespearean quality of our Treasurer, who says, 'Woe unto me. Why is it that everyone is against me—my backbench, the commentators, the people, Peter Costello? What an ungrateful ex-Treasurer he is.'

The real problem with this unfair budget is that this government does not know where it is going or what it is doing. It has relied on lies. This is a bits and pieces budget, devoid of very much other than a ruthless, right-wing ideology. But today, just when I thought this government could do nothing else to surprise me, it declared war on the War Memorial. It is the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I—

Mr Whiteley interjecting—

Do not shake your head over there! It is your problem because he is your Treasurer. What the government have done is an utter disgrace. On the anniversary of the start of World War I, they have decided to cut the travelling exhibition because, of course, 'We will fight to the death for rolled gold paid parental leave, but we need to net the $800,000 being spent on a travelling program.' This is a great program; 3.8 million Aussies have seen this program.

Mr Whiteley interjecting—

I do not mind you muscling up to me; I just wish you would do it in your caucus room! Community galleries all over Australia, in towns some of the city based Liberal MPs have never heard of, are going to be disappointed by this heartless decision. What a clever government. Why would you take away from display in Perth the story about soldiers? Why did we never think of that? Why would you take away from display in Brisbane and Adelaide the story of the forgotten diggers of World War I? Of course, the brain surgeons writing the script for this sitcom government said to each other, 'Let's take away the story of the nurses going from Zululand to the modern time.'

Our veterans deserve better than this government. We deserve better than a government that will cut the funding to its own War Memorial. Where this travelling exhibition goes is a map of Australia and the government is seeking to erase it. These cuts must be reversed. I call upon those members in the government to find a little bit of spine on this question. We do not mind if you get the credit for this; reverse this decision.

The real issue, though, in the last five weeks is that the government has had the chance to demonstrate it can be trusted. The truth of the matter is that in the last 105 days Australia has learnt that you cannot trust Tony Abbott, that you cannot trust Joe Hockey and that you cannot trust this government. This government, in what can only be regarded as a feat of some remarkable foolhardiness, has said to people, ' If you don't vote for our unfair budget, we will tax you more, we will cut research more, we will punish you more.'

This government will stoop to pressuring the Australian people, saying that unless the Senate takes on our unfair budget proposition, it will go harder and worse. This Prime Minister loves to quote to us about mandate—'mandate this, mandate that.' Where was the mandate for this budget? He made himself very by famous criticising the former government and saying that there was no mandate, that there should be no new taxation without an election. Well Tony Abbott, what was good for you then is good for you now. I state here clearly, loudly and unequivocally that you have no mandate for your budget, that you have no mandate for your cuts, that you have no mandate to punish pensioners, that you have no mandate to punish the schools and hospitals, that you have no mandate to hurt ordinary Australians. If you really believe in what you say, test it in an election. In the meantime, do not punish ordinary Australians because you told lies before the last election. (Time expired)

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