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

It was a year ago today that the Prime Minister, the then opposition leader, visited Rooty Hill and he made a promise to Australians—what will go down as one of the most outrageous and egregious lies in Australian political history—where he said, 'No cuts to health, no cuts to education, no cuts or changes to pensions.'

A year on we know and, more importantly, Australians know that the leader of the Liberal Party misled Australians at the last election. The Prime Minister got up here in high dudgeon in question time, outraged, and he said, 'Stop going around, Opposition, and scaring Australians.' We do not scare Australians; we tell them the truth of their unfair budget. And the budget scares Australians.

Then I listened to that blowhard of Australian politics, the puffed-up Treasurer, saying, 'Everything we do is good for Australia.' Oh no, it isn't, Treasurer, not by a long shot. To remind the people of Australia, because this mob sitting opposite us have stopped listening to people a long time ago, the government have in the last 12 months broken promise after promise. They have a pathology for breaking promises and the victims of their broken promises are legion. They talk about taking the pressure off the cost of living, so then they cut child care, family support and increase the cost of petrol. Of course Tony Abbott is all against putting a price on carbon in Australia, but he is sitting down with President Obama, saying, 'Oh yes, Mr President, we've got a carbon tax, because we are putting up the price of petrol.'

The government said there will be no new and increased taxes. There is the GP tax and the higher cost of medicine. They say they do not want to cut health. But $50 billion has gone from health. No cuts to education, they say. No-one believes them. We see $30 billion gone, $1 billion from schools and $5 billion from universities. Look at this self-satisfied mob opposite me. They think that if they repeat the lie long enough, people will believe them. Do not underestimate the wit and wisdom of the Australian people. They will certainly remember your lies at the time of accounting.

The coalition talk about jobs. They say they are going to create one million new jobs and yet they have now given us North American unemployment rates. They have done nothing to defend shipbuilding, the aluminium sector or a whole range of manufacturing jobs. They do nothing at all. They almost seem to dislike blue-collar manufacturing jobs. But it is not only in the big issues that they are a mean government. The government are addicted to random acts of parsimony and small gestures of random meanness. The bar can never be too low for this lot. They are petty and there is no group that they do not go out of their way to lie to, mislead and deceive.

What about the cleaners in Parliament House? Remember Tony Abbott saying, 'I'm the best friend the cleaners in Parliament House have? He was gracious enough to remember a couple of their first names, as if that is enough. That is a regal way from the Prime Minister and a cheerio from the green benches of parliament. That does not put bread and butter on the table. Cutting their wages is the real judge of someone's words.

Look at the ABC. What did the ABC ever do to the government except occasionally criticise them? They attack the national broadcaster. No-one struck home.

Who else does this government not talk about? We waited all question time this week for one question from the government to the Prime Minister about the budget. We did not wait for two questions or three. Even one question would have done. A cursory survey of the government questions to the Prime Minister shows that this brave bunch say nothing about the budget to the Prime Minister. I am sure they leak about it to other journalists. I am sure that perhaps in the dark of the night, as they sit there wondering what is to become of their parliamentary careers, they realise this unfair budget is indeed deeply unpopular.

Mr Sukkar interjecting—

I would not laugh, Member for Deakin. Take it from me: I would not laugh. But when we look at other acts of random meanness, this MPI is important because there are other groups who never get the attention of this government. What did the full-time Disability Commissioner in Australia, Graeme Innes—a distinguished Australian, who has done more for people with disabilities than this mob combined together ever did—do wrong? They got rid of him.

Then we look at the War Memorial. I love what the government said today about the War Memorial. They said, 'Labor promised $10 million for Anzac. That gets us off the hook for breaking our promises.' Oh no, it doesn't. When Brendan Nelson is criticising cuts to the War Memorial, this Prime Minister, who lives in a sufficiently parallel universe, says, 'The War Memorial does not know if they are being cut—what would they know'? His own minister, Minister Ronaldson, says, 'Yes, it's a cut,' but not this Prime Minister. This Prime Minister is very good at denying the truth in front of him.

This travelling exhibition, which the Prime Minister says can be replaced in one year by a Centenary of Anzac, is a map of Australia—3.8 million Australians have seen it over 17 years. What John Howard started, Tony Abbott has ended.

Then we go to another area, which I vow on behalf of the Labor Party we will ensure every coalition member lives to regret. It is the privatisation of Australian Hearing services. There are nearly 500 outlets of Australian Hearing services. We asked a question this week of the Treasurer: 'Why are you privatising Australian Hearing; why are you doing this to families in regional Australia?' He got up, as he loves to do, and gave a pious speech. He said, 'How dare you criticise my credentials? I was a good minister for Human Services.' Certainly, he might have been better at that than at being Treasurer!

There are good minded people over there on that side. There are people who care about the profoundly deaf. What I say to them is: it is time that you awaken. It is time that you stand up for families in regional Australia. I love getting a lecture about the bush by Comrade Turnbull from the eastern front of Sydney! What about all the Australian Hearing Services centres in the bush? What about in regional Australia? The fact of the matter is that families are contacting Labor and asking, 'Is it really the case that this government will privatise Australian Hearing Services?' And we say, 'We're afraid that's right.' Then we get this B-grade acting—this ham acting—from the wannabe poor man's Hamlet of treasurers, 'Woe unto me,' and then he says that it is a good thing.

Please, I ask the government—and I will even use the word 'please'—please reconsider the privatisation of Australian Hearing Services; 450,000 kids use this service, as well as adults. Why on earth do you want to wreck something that is working so well? You know, and there are good National Party members here sometimes—I do not mean to make eye contact with a couple of them—but I say this: do not sell out the bush and let the city based people privatise Australian Hearing Services, because it is your voters who will miss out most of all.

But it is not just Australian Hearing Services, it is not just the War Memorial and it is not just many other small voices. Today, Labor wants to put on the record here the attack on legal services in this country in this unfair budget. What does this government have against advocates? They got rid of the disability commissioner—well, that is a shame. They are going after Indigenous legal—

Mrs Wicks interjecting—

Half these people over here, including the member interjecting—I do not know if she has ever been to an Indigenous legal service—let me tell you, you are weakening the protections for ordinary Australians by cutting the funding to legal services, including Indigenous legal services.

There are topics which do not make the front page of the newspapers of this country. There are pockets of misery which you are inflicting upon ordinary Australians. We give you fair notice—fair notice—that we will fight you on all of these measures, not because we wish to fight you but because we cannot let you wreck a whole lot of good services and the lives of a whole lot of ordinary people because they do not come up to be represented by the mob on the frontbench.

The Prime Minister quoted Ben Chifley in some words earlier today. Let me remind this party about a term that Robert Menzies coined—'forgotten people'. Your unfair budget has many forgotten people. You are unfair budget robs people of aspiration, it robs people of opportunity and it takes away the mobility in this country. You are a party who seek to punish the many for the few. I love looking at the outraged eyebrows being raised by coalition members, saying, 'How dare he say that!' Well, how dare you give this budget to Australia! I cannot wait until you are defeated on your reforms in higher education. I cannot wait until you bury that GP tax—I am sure some of you cannot wait either! I cannot wait until we defeat the unfair taxes that you are imposing.

I look forward to you on the other side saying one day, after the battle has been had, after the pensioners' indexation rates are not cut, I look forward to you saying— (Time expired)

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