Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the failure of the government to provide stable and competent government at a time of increased cost-of-living pressures for Australian households and families. We have seen some extraordinary scenes in the last few weeks from those opposite. We have seen the division, the leaking, the spill motions, the manoeuvring, the betrayals and the ongoing plotting. In recent days, particularly today and yesterday, we have seen the frustration building up in those opposite and we have seen them taking it out in Senate estimates, with appalling behaviour—the sort of bullying that we have never before seen in this parliament. We have seen this in the last couple of weeks. While some people observing this may have found it interesting, many people have found much of the behaviour entirely extraordinary. Some people may have found it a little bit satisfying to see the Prime Minister under such pressure, as he faces his now inevitable fate, but the truth of the matter is that this is a time when, more than ever, the Australian public need a government that is focused on them, a government that is focused on their households and their families.

We just heard from the member for Hasluck, who would have you believe that Australian families have never had it so good as they now have it under this government. The truth is that, if you go out and speak to the community, speak to Australian families, about what is actually happening and the pressures that they are debating around the kitchen table each night, you know that there are great levels of concern out there, that there are huge pressures on the family budget and that, far from the rosy picture that the member for Hasluck would paint of what is happening out there in today's Australia, we are actually faced with unemployment at a 13-year high. That is not just a statistic; that is something that is impacting on real families right across Australia. Those opposite, particularly my South Australian Liberal colleagues, seem to be going out of their way to increase the unemployment rate, to drive out jobs in the automotive sector, in submarines and in shipbuilding. In the last 24 hours, we have actually had the member for Hindmarsh cheering along the loss of Airservices Australia jobs in Adelaide. We know that this is having very real impacts on family budgets. Far from having a government that is focused on solutions for Australian families, instead what we have in those opposite is a government that brought down a budget which only made things worse. We have a government that introduced severe cuts, of more than $5.5 billion, in family payments, leaving some families in Australia $6,000 a year worse off. That is the reality we are dealing with.

I am particularly interested and involved in the Australian childcare debate and the childcare space. We know in this area that, when the government—who got elected promising that they would make child care more affordable and more accessible—came to office, the first thing they did was cut over $1 billion from childcare programs. We have seen in recent days the long-awaited Productivity Commission report and the recommendations on childcare reform for the future. I should say that I and the Labor Party are absolutely supportive of constantly working to improve our childcare system. We want to see greater affordability. We want to see greater accessibility. But we also want a government that does not just talk; we want a government that acts. So, whilst we are hearing from those opposite that they are just about to fix all of these problems, the reality for Australian families is something quite different. The reality is that those opposite are still currently pursuing more cuts to the Australian childcare sector.

At a time when the Minister for Social Services may go to the Press Club and talk about the solutions which are about to come out, we actually have a bill before this parliament right now—which those members opposite are supporting—which cuts the modest, means-tested childcare benefit, which only low- and middle-income families receive. We have a bill which the government's own department has said will be detrimental to over 500,000 Australian families. That is still on the agenda of this government. We have cuts to the family day care sector which we know will increase fees by $35 a day. So we are saying that we will absolutely play a constructive role, we will work with the government, with any other stakeholders, towards improvements for the childcare sector, but we are also very clear: they need to remedy the damage that they have already done and they need to stop their cuts. (Time expired)

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