Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on these appropriation bills, and will focus in my contribution about the impact of this government's very cruel and unfair budget, and what it means for the people of far northern New South Wales in my electorate of Richmond. I will be particularly focusing on many of their broken promises as well. There is certainly a lot of anger in the community about the impact of these broken promises upon the people of the North Coast of New South Wales. In fact, here we are, many months and months after the budget, still talking about how unfair it is and how it has impacted. We have had 18 months of the government's broken promises and policy failures across a whole range of different issues, and it has indeed impacted everyone across the nation.

But in terms of those broken promises, they have been very severe for those living in rural and regional Australia. People there have really felt some of the impacts of these harsh policies. Before the election, we had the Prime Minister and all the members of the Liberal and National parties out there saying there will be no cuts; no new taxes; none of this will happen; none of these changes will be there. I know in areas like mine, the North Coast of New South Wales, he had members of the National Party out there running around saying that to everyone. That is why now no-one trusts the National Party in my area, because it was those representatives that were out there saying now cuts, no new taxes—yet that is precisely what happened when they got into government.

We will have a look at some of those measures and how they are impacting on people, particularly things like the GP tax, which we know has just been paused for a little awhile—we know that it is still on the table. It really is a tax on the very sick and vulnerable. We see things like the $100,000 university degree stopping kids from regional areas actually getting to university. We see the petrol tax pushing up the cost of living. We see cuts to the age pension robbing our older Australians of $80 a week. We see cuts to community services, youth services and family payments. We see cuts to schools and hospitals, and cuts to the ABC. For regional Australia, this is indeed another betrayal by the National Party, because these cuts will be devastating to regional areas like mine. You can call these broken promises, what you like—deception, untruths, whatever you want—but one thing is very clear: the Prime Minister and the Liberal and National parties, with this absolute trail of broken promises, just cannot be trusted.

We will start first with the doctor tax. Hasn't that been interesting? Today we hear that it has just been paused for the moment. What we saw, essentially, in this government's first budget was them declaring war on Medicare and universal health care. We know that is on their agenda: to destroy bulk-billing and get rid of it. I think this was perhaps one of the worst broken promises ever, again, for regional areas. We had the doctor tax plus the PBS hike. Department of Health data show that people in these regional and rural areas will be hardest hit by the Abbott government's more than $1 billion hike in PBS medicines. The top 12 electorates that will pay the highest out-of-pocket expenses for PBS medicines are in regional and rural areas—that is a fact. So they are getting a double whammy. They will have the cost of this GP tax, in whatever form it may be—we have seen so many different forms of it so far—and they also have the PBS increases. So that will increase the total out-of-pocket expenses to patients.

We have all this on top of the cuts we are seeing from within NSW, from our Liberal-National government as well. We saw that government slash funding when it comes to health and hospital services. They slashed $3 billion, and that has had a really big impact on the hospitals in my area on the North Coast—there is Tweed Hospital, Byron, Murwillumbah Hospital and Mullumbimby. All of these have been severely impacted by this state-wide slashing of funding by $3 billion. Those $3 billion in cuts includes $2.2 billion in program and operating costs, and $775 million from hospital staff budgets. In fact, New South Wales now has the longest elective surgery waiting list times in Australia.

What we are seeing now is this state government going around making lots of false promises to people—in fact, blackmailing them—saying, 'We might pretend to fund something,' but what they are going to do is sell off the electricity network. I can tell you, there is a lot of opposition to that in my area. People are seeing through it. They are seeing their state Liberal-National government for what they are—that is, a government that is trying to bribe and blackmail people to vote for them, saying, 'You might get this, but we will sell off your electricity network.' But what happens when that is sold off? We know their prices will go up. People are very much aware of what they are trying to do. But those severe health cuts by that state government, added to the Abbott government's cuts as well, have really been devastating for people in regional areas, and particularly within my area.

If we turn to the GP tax, we have seen so many different rumours and have heard about so many different actions that they may or may not be doing. We know it will be coming back. We know the Prime Minister is committed to it. We know the Liberal and National parties are committed to a GP tax in some form, because they are committed to destroying bulk-billing. That is their agenda. But if we look at some of the things that we have previously heard the Prime Minister announce—he had a $7 GP tax, a $20 cut, then a $5 GP tax, then four years worth of cuts to Medicare rebates—what is next? We heard the health minister saying that it was a pause, but we also heard her say at a press conference today that 'the policy intent was, and remains, a good one'. So we see that there is a strong commitment to having it; we will just wait to see what form that it comes back in. The one thing that we do know is that on at least 53 occasions the Prime Minister has supported the GP tax as good or decent policy and one that he is committed to. He has said on many, many occasions that he thinks it is good policy. And we have seen all this on top of the $57 billion cut in hospital funding. We are seeing a whole range of health and hospital measures that are devastating to people right throughout the country.

We can move on to issues like the petrol tax. That is an incredibly fair one for people in the regions—indeed, in my area, they call it the 'National Party petrol tax', they are so angry about it. The reality is that people in regional and rural areas have to drive further to access a whole range of activities. Of course, they also read what the Treasurer said in relation to that issue—that poor people don't drive, which really does reflect how out of touch he is. Indeed, all those opposite just do not understand people in regional and rural areas at all.

Their education policies are one of the main areas that highlight how out of touch they are, particularly when it comes to higher education. The fact is that a university degree should depend on your capacity and ability to work hard and should depend on the marks you get, not on your bank balance. This government has put university out of the reach of so many people. What people in my electorate tell me is that it is just not something that their children will be able to achieve; the costs make it too difficult. We saw the government recently continue its attack on regional and rural students through its Higher Education and Research Reform Bill. I spoke in the House to condemn this attack on young people wanting to go to university and their families. That bill contained $1.9 billion in cuts to universities, which is a huge amount. People in my electorate really object to these massive cuts, they object to $100,000 degrees and they oppose the Americanisation of our world-class university system. It really highlights the unfairness of this government when it comes to education.

We have also seen from this government cuts to youth programs. These cuts have been devastating in my area. In the budget we saw the Abbott government completely cut all three youth unemployment prevention programs: Youth Connections, Partnership Brokers and National Career Development. This cut was made despite the programs delivering excellent results since they were established by Labor in 2010. In my area, the Byron Youth Service, which does an outstanding job of providing services for young people, have spoken out about the impact of cutting programs like Youth Connections. Youth Connections has a truly impressive success rate in finding alternative ways to help people finish year 12, with over 80 per cent of participants in work or study 18 months after completing the program. It is a great program that makes a huge difference.

We also saw some very unfair cuts to community service grants. It was on Christmas Eve last year that many community service organisations in my electorate were informed that their funding would be cut—another bad decision by a bad government. In regions like mine they blame the National Party for these cruel and heartless cuts. We saw $270 million being slashed from some of the most important front-line services across the country, from organisations that are the backbone of communities. They provide services to often our most vulnerable people—services like emergency relief, financial counselling, parenting programs, housing and homelessness organisations and youth support. I have spoken in the House before about the impact of some of these cuts on programs like the wonderful REALskills program, which provides such great support and life skills for young people. That is another cruel and unfair attack by the National Party in our area.

The North Coast branch of the St Vincent de Paul charity has said that the federal government has cut its emergency relief budget by 70 per cent. That is a huge amount in terms of the emergency services that they provide. There is a huge amount of distress right across my electorate when it comes to the cuts to these community services. People desperately need them. I implore the government to make sure these services are put in place. People need these every day. These are emergent situations, and people do require these services. There is so much chaos and confusion surrounding all of these cuts. I really implore the government to put all of those services in place.

I have spoken in this House many times before about this government's environmental vandalism. We see it at a federal level and we have also seen it at a state level. That has been highlighted recently in our area. I have said many times that the North Coast of New South Wales is such a great place to live—the best part of Australia, in fact. As locals know, there is a threat posed to everything we have, and that is from harmful coal seam gas mining. Our community's view is very clear: they do not want to have that on the North Coast. That has been shown through a variety of ways over the years. Whether it be thousands going to demonstrations, signing petitions, lobbying all levels of government, people are very vocal about this. I, of course, have made my position very clear: I do not support coal seam gas mining and other unconventional gas-mining activities within our region.

With the coming New South Wales state election, I am very pleased that New South Wales Labor's election policy is very clear. In fact, New South Wales Labor leader Luke Foley has reiterated that Labor will ban harmful coal seam gas mining and unconventional gas-mining activities across the North Coast. It will absolutely be banned.

In contrast to all of this, we see a very shameful policy from the North Coast National Party representatives. They have come out and announced their support for a pro-fracking gas plan. The National Party's plan is harmful to communities, water resources and farmlands. In fact, the National Party's coal-seam gas policy puts at risk existing clean and green businesses like tourism, agriculture and food production, businesses that are at the heart of our local economy on the North Coast. It really is shameful that all those National Party MPs and candidates in the Liberal-National government have this pro-CSG expansion policy that will put CSG wells into our valleys, farmlands and villages. The National Party policy will see rural families being forced to live some 200 metres from CSG wells. That is why people are so opposed to the National Party's expansion of coal seam gas mining.

Under the National Party's plan it is business as usual in existing licensing areas for risky CSG and other unconventional gas-mining activities. It is particularly because of this plan that people do not trust the National Party. The National Party reissued all of those licences on the North Coast in September 2012. They have this gas plan, and they are absolutely committed to expanding it right throughout the North Coast. It is for this reason that people are holding them to account, because without a doubt the vast majority of people on the North Coast of New South Wales oppose harmful coal seam gas mining and other unconventional mining.

We can see from both the federal government perspective and the state government perspective that many of their harsh policies are quite devastating for the people of the North Coast of New South Wales. From the federal perspective, we have a government in complete chaos. We have a government of broken promises, a government of unfair, cruel budget measures that are really impacting people. We have the ongoing saga of the GP tax. We will see what form it takes in the next few days. We know it has just been paused for a short while. We have the petrol tax, which, as I said, is really devastating for people in my area. We have $100,000 university degrees, making it completely unaffordable for people from regional and rural areas to even think about accessing higher education. We also have cuts to pensions and family payments.

The cuts to the aged pension and family payments are very distressing for many people in my electorate, particularly those older Australians. It will be devastating for them. For people who are living week-to-week, those increases in costs of living will be very difficult. This is compounded by state government cuts as well, which are making life very difficult for them. They have many concerns, as I have said, about the fact that the Liberal-National state government wants to privatise electricity networks. This will mean we will have electricity prices going up on top of all of these other harsh cuts and new taxes. All of that will increase the cost of living expenses for locals as well.

At the end of the day, for areas like mine, it is the National Party who are seen to be responsible. It is the National Party who will be held to account for all of these harsh measures. They are very much part of this government and part of this decision-making process. They are out there talking about these policies, and they will be held to account. It is because of the National Party's actions that we are now seeing people being severely impacted. I believe that at both state and federal levels we will see people holding them to account and making it clear that they do object to the very harsh policies that are devastating our region and, I imagine, many regions throughout the country. I think rural and regional Australia have really given up on the National Party, because the National Party gave up on them a long time ago. They do not represent the interests of regional Australia. It is only Labor that will stand up for those people in regional and rural areas, whether it be on health, on education or, in my area, on harmful coal-seam gas mining.

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