Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a tax. And it is a good thing. Mining companies should pay that when they achieve superprofits. We raised the tax-free threshold. We brought in the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We brought in the Clean Energy Fund. We brought in the Gonski reforms. We instigated the royal commission into child sexual abuse. That is just some of the achievements that Labor governments have focused on. These are real achievements. Many of them are difficult, particularly in that minority government of the 43rd Parliament.

Let's lay out the achievements of the Prime Minister, the current Prime Minister—I say that at eight minutes to seven. It will not take long at all. He has doubled the deficit. That is something. There are some things he can be proud of; I think history will probably say, rightfully, that he is the fittest Prime Minister this nation has ever seen. So he will leave office with that—if he should depart tonight.

Let's look at some of the other achievements. He has ripped $2.4 billion out of the pockets of pensioners. And there are still plans to cut $80 billion from states in terms of the people who provide front-line health services and front-line education services. They want to introduce $100,000 university degrees. Already doctors in my electorate are complaining about this new sideways tax, which was like the tax that the Prime Minister complained about to world leaders when they were in Brisbane. That was his opportunity on the world stage. We had the Treasurer and the Prime Minister. What did the Treasurer do? He said: 'Hey, guess what? You should go for growth'. Wasn't that a blinding bolt from the completely obvious side of the well. 'Go for growth.' And what did the Prime Minister do? He said, 'I can't believe we can't bring in our GP co-tax'. They rolled out a miserable climate change response which betrays future generations. Anyone with children knows it is a complete betrayal of future generations. They have made it more difficult for young people to get a job, by starving them of income support for a month. And I see that Minister Abetz has committed to reintroducing that, despite the Senate rejecting it.

These are not achievements that any sensible government, any adult government, would be proud of. This government has no plan for the future, no plan for education, no plan for housing affordability and no clue where the jobs of the new economy will come from.

Labor of course does have a plan. And it is not about attacking commas, attacking full stops, attacking semicolons—all those things that this government can say that they did. I can just see those opposite in their retirement, sitting in a rocking chair, saying, 'I remember after two years in office, I took out a couple of colons, I took out a couple of commas'.

We have a plan to grow the economy, to create the jobs of the future, a plan to invest in our most valuable resource—our young people—with the skills needed for the new workforce. Labor will encourage our young people by empowering them with the knowledge they need in the digital age. Labor will boost the skills of the teachers and encourage graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to teach our future generation. Obviously with government debt now at $114 billion, that is a problem, but Labor will still be able to focus on the skills of teachers and encourage graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to teach our future generations. With an ageing population it is important that we not only ensure our next generation have the skills to succeed but also that our older generation will be equipped to maintain a comfortable standard of living in their retirement.

Currently the top 10 per cent of the highest income earners receive more superannuation tax concessions than the combined benefit of the bottom 70 per cent. That is just unfair and unsustainable.

Mr Feeney interjecting—

Member for Batman, I think you are misleading the House surely with that statement.

Labor will ensure that we have a sustainable retirement income system that delivers fairness. Labor has always been a forward-looking party, a party that gets on with the job and delivers—often without fanfare, certainly not by putting out a press release whenever we take out a couple of commas or, heaven forbid, change the word 'iPad'. We want to make this country a better place to live.

In 2004, Queensland abolished Aboriginal courts. It is a bit of jump but I am running out of time and I do want to touch on this. This is touched on in the legislation before the chamber now. Repealing legislation should be the unacknowledged day-to-day grunt work of government. It is what responsible government should do. Labor did so while we were in government but we did so without a brass band and red carpet and asking for a medal. A responsible government should ensure that there are no unintended consequences from repealing legislation. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has raised questions about the impact of the repeal of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Queensland Discriminatory Laws) Act 1975. They have asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister to provide further information about equivalent protections that exist for the right to equality and nondiscrimination.

Previous Labor governments have tirelessly fostered equality and nondiscrimination. Future Labor governments will continue to promote equality and non-discrimination. These values are not and never will be out of date. The safeguards that were enshrined in the legislation brought in by the Whitlam government are just as important today as they were in 1975. So it would be very regressive of the Abbott government to reverse any of these safeguards. I hope that the government has been diligent in their responsibility to ensure they are not promoting inequality or discrimination in their haste to find something— (Time expired)

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