Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

'The land of the fair go is disappearing,' is what the former Liberal leader John Hewson had to say in the wake of the 2014 budget. That was the budget, remember, that shone a dirty, big spotlight on this government's twisted priorities for this nation—the most unfair budget this nation had ever seen. But the Australian people were a wake up to you. Even John Hewson was a wake up to you. You would have done well to heed some advice, but, no, you guys know what is best. Well, there are social consequences of growing inequality in Australia. We know what those are: it compounds disadvantage already existing in this nation, it leads to poorer physical and mental health in this nation and it leads to poorer living conditions for people. But it is also bad news for our economy. It makes no sense whatsoever to further entrench inequality in this nation.

Resources are becoming concentrated in fewer and fewer hands and that is resulting in reduced economic participation for the majority of people in this nation. Practically, that means fewer new businesses, fewer house purchases, less purchasing of goods and services—all the things that members opposite purport to actually care about, I might add—all of which face massive downturns as a result of this growing inequality. There is a widening gap between the highest and the lowest income earners, and this is something that we are seeing emerge across the globe.

Growing inequality is a problem for any society. We know that across the developed world it is ordinary citizens everywhere who are seeing wages stagnate and growth stall—the middle classes are shrinking. Living standards are dropping and daily living costs are mounting. In fact, since 1980 nearly half a trillion dollars has been shifted from the bottom 99 per cent to the top one per cent. Inequality is not just bad for those on the poor side of the equation; it is bad for social cohesion and bad for our economy. Even the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have recognised that growing inequality is a drag on economic growth. A recent study by the Chifley Research Centre found that economic inequality in Australia would cost each and every Australian $500 a year within three years if we continued on this current trajectory. The same study found that the loss to the wider economy is greater than the expected gains from the Japan, China and Korea free trade agreements combined. We are at a crossroads and the decisions we make on the way are incredibly important to the future of this country. Sadly, we know that under this government the country is going in the wrong direction.

I just want to spend the remaining couple of minutes shining light on the fact that all of the policies that members opposite are progressing in this parliament that purport to have gender neutrality do, in fact, have a disproportionate impact for Australian women and their families. In particular, I want to go to the cuts around family payments that are still to come. We are going to see a single-parent family with an income of around $40,000 and two kids in high school left $3,000 worse off. Proposed cuts to paid parental leave will see 80,000 new mums left stranded and worse off. The will be a one-month wait for those people on income support—those cuts will be aimed at young job seekers who will be left with nothing to live on for an entire month.

But it is actually women who are particularly impacted by the inequality that is growing under the watch of this government. There was an interesting study by the IMF on how that inequality looks around the world. The system that this government is putting in place wants to entrench further inequality that will set up gross disparities here. We know women have less savings. We know women have less superannuation. This leads to increased economic insecurity and vulnerability And that leaves women, particularly older women, in atrocious situations in Australia. We are a country that prides itself on egalitarian traditions, but the reality is there is income inequality— (Time expired)

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