Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to weep at the contribution from the member for They will be the first generation that we leave worse off than previous generations. That is what we are giving to our children. We are giving them less in environment, less in the economy, less in education and less in health. You talk about a better tomorrow. You should hang your head in shame.

This Abbott government is full of broken promises and cruel cuts that are reaching from cradle to grave. But the ones who will be most impacted are our children and their children. Every one of us in our maiden speech talked about creating a better future, a better world. You are not doing that. You are creating a worse world. We have a prime minister who said there would be no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions, no changes to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS. All of those things have come true. He has hidden behind each barefaced lie. He has lied, and he has hit and hurt the Australian public. He is driving up costs and he is pushing up unemployment. This is not for a better, brighter future; this is for a worse future.

In my electorate of Chisholm, I will see people footing an extra $5.5 billion in out-of-pocket healthcare costs, and I have an electorate that does not have a huge bulk-billing rate because of the socioeconomic demographic I represent. But I have an ageing population. Thanks to the GP co-payment, many in my electorate will not see a doctor. We have heard that the president of the AMA, Brian Owler, has said that its report confirms there is no need for a GP tax. This makes a mockery of the fact that the government has been claiming healthcare expenses are out of control. They are not. They are at their lowest level ever. The government has used this as a narrative in terms of the lead-up to its federal budget, saying healthcare expenditure is out of control. It is being used it to justify the introduction of the GP co-payment. There is no justification for the GP co-payment. There is no justification for getting rid of universality of Medicare, something that is the envy of every other country in the world.

In my electorate of Chisholm, home to two of the largest universities in the country where 53,000 students studying on campus and tonnes more study off campus at Monash in Clayton and at Deakin in Burwood, they are facing the prospect of massive student loans. They are facing the prospect of not going to university. We will see students in my electorate making the decision that it is too costly to literally walk across the road to the Clayton campus to go there. We have seen this at a time where unemployment is at its highest level in Victoria in 15 years. We are going to take away this opportunity and drive people out of education.

At the other end of the scale, we have seen a reprieve for 12 months with childcare fees. But we have also seen them taking the axe to family day care. This is going to hurt in my electorate. This week, Monash Council is deciding whether they will scrap family day care altogether. This will impact 54 educators—phenomenal members of our communities—and 314 families. This includes people like Laura, who has been in touch with my office. She is devastated that, after 20 years of providing family day care, she will be thrown on the scrap heap. She will not be able to support those children who need this kind of service—children like Mason, a child with autism, who was rejected from all the other centres because, at three, he did not have any language. Now he is a thriving four-year-old, the chattiest in Laura's care. You stand condemned.

See this speech in context