Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It is always interesting to follow the member for Melbourne, who was brought to the parliament by Labor Party preferences. He says that the Greens are the only ones sticking up for students. Where was he in the last parliament when the independent rural youth allowance debate was happening, when it was raging? Were the Greens in there trying to help rural country students get a fairer deal? No, I think he was siding with Labor. I think he was actually in cahoots with Labor, blocking those important funding measures to help regional students—to help students in my electorate of Riverina. It is all well and good to come in here now like a voice in the wilderness to talk about how he is the only one sticking up for university students. Well, I have to tell the member for Melbourne: there are university students outside the bright city lights of Melbourne and outside the bright city lights of Swanston Street.

The Labor 2013-14 Budget Savings (Measures No. 2) Bill 2015 is important legislation because it goes to highlighting Labor's $52 billion budget black hole. But before I get into the real nitty-gritty, the real context of the bill, I want to also refer to some comments made by the member for Kingsford Smith in his contribution on this legislation. He talked about Gonski—the Gonski cash flow to schools—after Labor, thankfully, justifiably and rightly lost government in September 2013. The member for Kingsford-Smith was not in the House of Representatives in the last parliament but he was in the Senate, and he should know that we are governing for all of Australia. He should know that is why we call it a 'common wealth', because it is not just a few states and one territory. We govern for all of Australia. We govern for all states and both territories. But the Gonski reforms, the Gonski funding, did not cover all states and it did not cover both territories. Indeed, the model put forward by Labor, who suggested that it was going to go in the out years and cover five or six years outside the forward estimates, did not even consider Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. To come in with a funding model for the Commonwealth, you need to be able to consider all the states and both territories.

I am reading here from a report entitled the educator which talks about how the new Queensland government has changed the funding formula for 2016, implementing the needs based system envisaged by the Gonski review. It talks about Sam Pidgeon, the vice-president of the Queensland Teachers' Union, who says that many successful programs have been enacted across Queensland as a result of Gonski funds. That is correct. They have. But Ms Pidgeon also needs to understand that the Gonski model, as proposed by Labor, was not signed up to by all states and territories.

I have to tell the member for Kingsford Smith for his information that, under the coalition government, nine out of 10 teaching students have passed an Australia-first pilot test to evaluate their literacy and numeracy skills. On the plus side, of the 5,000 teaching students who participated in the pilot program, 92 per cent passed the literacy test, while 90 per cent passed the numeracy test. It would be nice to think that all of them did, but from 1 July 2016 all students undertaking initial teacher education training will need to pass the test before they graduate—and that is fair enough. We need to be able to make sure that our teachers are absolutely fully equipped and fully qualified and have literacy and numeracy skills sufficient to be able to teach our children. You can throw all the money you like at Gonski reforms and schools—certainly, in rural and remote and regional areas—but, under the former education minister, the member for Sturt, and under the new education minister, we are making sure that we have the very best teaching skills and the very best funding model for schools, and it is a little bit rich for Labor to come in and start criticising the coalition when its Gonski reform model did not cover all states and both territories.

This bill talks about Labor's 2013-14 budget savings measures. As I said at the outset, Labor has a $52 billion black hole. Regarding 2015 budget savings, Labor has already said that it would not support $1 billion. Regarding savings and revenue measures proposed by Labor, it is now blocking $6½ billion. Regarding savings and revenue measures put forward by the government, $17.2 billion is being blocked by Labor by an obstructionist Senate. Regarding spending Labor says we must restore from bank savings, Labor is blocking $31.1 billion—and it just goes on. Then we hear the Leader of the Opposition, the alternative Prime Minister, the member for Maribyrnong, talking about how Labor wants to ratchet up another carbon tax. It is the carbon tax that the former Prime Minister, the member for Lalor, said that we would not have on steroids. How are we going to pay for that? How are we going to put that in place and still have a manufacturing sector, a mining industry and agriculture?

The savings and revenue measures proposed by Labor that it is now blocking total $6½ billion from 2015-16 to 2018-19, as I mentioned a short while ago. If you drill down into it, you see that a change in Labor's Student Start-up Scholarship, to make it a loan repayable through HECS rather than provided as a grant is $2.1 billion. Applying an efficiency dividend to university funding is $1.2 billion. Ending the discount for paying HECS fees up-front is $336 million. They are big numbers. Cancellation of the 2015-16 tax cuts linked to the carbon tax is $2.8 billion. The figure for savings put forward by government which Labor is blocking is $17.2 billion. And you can go through the list. Maintaining the payment rates for family tax benefits is $3 billion. Limiting family tax benefit part B to families with children under six years old is $3½ billion. Changes to family tax benefit end-of-year supplements is $1.7 billion. Ceasing the seniors supplement to Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders is $1.1 billion. Switching under-25-year-olds from Newstart to youth allowance is $504 million. Ceasing the pension education supplement is $315 million. The one-week waiting period for working-age payments is $255 million. Ceasing the education entry payment is $76 million. Commencement of veterans disability payments from date of claim is $40 million.

Under the last parliament, when Labor was in, there were not too many provisions made for veterans—and shame on Labor for that. I represent a huge Defence electorate where all three arms of Defence are represented: Air Force, Army and Navy. Many come back to Wagga Wagga to retire. Many of them come back to the Riverina because of the cost of living, the fact that it is halfway between Sydney and Melbourne and a short 2½ hours drive from Canberra and the fact that it is a great lifestyle. During the previous government I heard endless complaints about Labor and its lack of support for veterans.

I will continue with this list. We go to revised higher education reforms where we see $1.3 billion. Fuel excise indexation is $3.3 billion. Increased co-payments for subsidised pharmaceuticals is $1.5 billion. Maintaining eligibility thresholds for Australian government payments for three years childcare benefit component is $50 million. Abolishing ARENA is $567 million. The list just goes on and on.

Labor just does not want to get on board with fixing the mess it created. When Labor was in government under the former member for Griffith in 2007, it inherited money in the bank by way of surpluses. It received money in the bank by way of the Future Fund—money it squandered; money it wasted. There was no limit to the spending. I appreciate that there was a global fiscal downturn. I understand that and appreciate that.

The economy went into a state where countries which had a bit of fat, which had a bit of money they could call on, were in a far better position than those which were already facing tough fiscal headwinds. Fortunately, Australia was one of those countries which had a bit of excess, which had a bit of a surplus, which was in the black. But, I tell you what, that money went pretty quickly. It dissipated fairly soon under the member for Lilley. I have not seen him in parliament for a few weeks. He is probably off writing another book. The surplus garnered, gained and built up by Peter Costello as Treasurer in the Howard prime ministerial years—alongside good National Party leaders such as Tim Fischer, John Anderson and Mark Vaile, with the good economic responsibility that the Nationals always put forward in a coalition government—soon disappeared.

If you look at the Labor 2013-14 Budget Savings (Measures No. 2) Bill 2015, you will see that schedule 1 talks about student start-up loans. Schedule 1 replaces the current Student Start-Up Scholarship with an income-contingent student start-up loan. The amendments introduce a limit of two loans per year of equivalent value to the Student Start-Up Scholarship. They are currently $1,025 each and will be indexed from 1 January 2017.

Schedule 2 refers to the efficiency dividend for higher education grants. This will apply an efficiency dividend to Commonwealth contributions out of the Commonwealth Grants Scheme for higher education. The member for Melbourne talked of the importance of tertiary education. We on this side of the House understand that. That is why we as Nationals in government are certainly in there—and I know many regional Liberals are too—pushing for a fairer, more equitable deal for country university students. That includes those students who want to do a course which is not available in their home town. Not every course is available at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga and so many of the students in my home town go to Wollongong, Sydney and, indeed, Adam Bandt's home town of Melbourne.

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