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

This is the week that truth has caught up with the budget and caught up with the government. It is fair to say that the parallel universe that this Liberal regime inhabit is shrinking fast. Reality keeps getting in the way of their rhetoric. The truth keeps shining a light on their broken promises and lies. On five different matters this week the truth has mugged this lying government. Firstly, we have learnt about the GP tax, justified on the basis of an out-of-control health spending crisis that does not exist. Secondly, we have learnt that university fees will increase in a manner which will discourage many students from studying. Thirdly, we have discovered that the government has been systematically engaged in a wilful conspiracy to destroy the renewable energy industry in this country. Fourthly, we have seen that when it comes to keeping promises on building submarines in Adelaide this government cannot lie straight in bed. Furthermore, fifthly, we have seen warnings from the banking sector of Australia that this government has gone too far in deregulating consumer protection. They are five matters this week where the truth has uncomfortably reared its unwelcome head in government considerations.

The GP tax, an attack on the sick and the vulnerable, has been justified on the basis of out-of-control health spending. The government has said that the GP tax is being imposed because we have an unsustainable health spending system, yet they propose to put the money from it into a future fund for medical research and none of that money will be used to deal with the health spending crisis that they allege exists. This is a government that is addicted to scaring Australians and inventing false crises to justify unfair tactics. But the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has blown a big hole in the logic and the rationalisation of the government. Federal government health spending is at its lowest in 30 years—its lowest. How on earth can you justify taxing the sick and the poor and the vulnerable on a rationale that does not exist? We have discovered this week that Australians are spending more on their own health care than Medicare is, and yet this is a government that wants to transfer more of the burden onto ordinary Australians. AMA president Brian Owler has belled the cat. He says that this research makes 'a mockery of the fact that the government's been claiming that health care expenditure is out of control.' He goes on to say simply and purely and unequivocally on behalf of the patients of Australia, 'there is no justification for a GP co-payment.' Look at those government members opposite—their heads are bowed; they are not arguing back because they know the truth when they hear it.

There is a second truth this week that has embarrassed the government. Education is essential to our future. Going to university should depend upon your hard work and your good marks, not your parents' wealth. Letting universities charge what they like will mean crippling debts and higher fees. People are worried—not just young people but families and mature age students. The Minister for Education visited the United Kingdom recently. You would have thought he could have discovered that fees are trebling under the system he advocates. He challenged us this week to look at what some of the university groups have said, and then he had the cheek—what a cheeky fellow this Minister for Education is—to accuse Labor of selectively quoting. We have discovered in the Senate submissions that no-one universally and unanimously supports all these recommendations. Frankly, we cannot get enough of this out-of-touch, arrogant fellow because we selfishly want Australia to see what this government is like. Never hide Christopher Pyne—keep bringing him out. We love him, but the people of Australia don't.

We have discovered this week that the University of Western Australia has said that medical degrees will cost $100,000. Fantastic, Christopher Pyne—the worst Minister for Education we have ever had is introducing the highest fees we have ever seen in Australian education history. They can put that on his tombstone. The cost of doing a science degree is going up 82 per cent, and economics is going up 56 per cent. This government have a plan to create a two-class Australia, and they cynically keep arguing that the people who have not been to university should be presented with a bunch of flowers by the people who have gone to university. Christopher Pyne is so out of touch it is breathtaking. I know not what planet he lives on, but it is not the one the rest of us live on. When he says that parents and grandparents who have never been to university somehow begrudge their children and their grandchildren going to university, he is being so shockingly arrogant it is a disgrace.

It is not just universities—there is also the renewable energy target. This week se have seen the government continue to do everything it can to destroy an industry. Let me quote John Hewson, Tony Abbott's former boss. He has said it well, thus proving that even a stopped clock can be right twice a day:

You're asking people to make long-term investments and then you change the policy in the middle of that and you reduce the value of those investments.

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