Ross Hart (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Omnibus Savings and Childcare Reform) Bill 2017. This bill is effectively the reintroduction of the remainder of the government's 2014 zombie cuts. Families, new mums, pensioners and young people are all in the firing line as a result of the Turnbull government's latest round of harsh cuts. For many Australians already struggling to make ends meet these proposed cuts are deeply concerning. Indeed, there are few who will not be impacted one way or another by these unfair changes proposed by the Turnbull government. And that is even before the government's failure to act to protect the incomes of low-paid workers.

Before I go into detail, let me point out some of what I might call the low lights that are found in this legislation. Firstly, there are cuts to family benefits that will leave a typical family on $60,000 around $750 a year worse off. There are cuts to paid parental leave—70,000 new mums will be worse off. Scrapping the energy supplement is a $1 billion cut to pensioners, people with disability, carers and Newstart recipients. A five-week wait for Newstart will force young people to live off nothing for five weeks before they can access income support. There are cuts to young people between the ages of 22 and 24 by pushing them onto the lower youth allowance—that is a cut of around $48 a week or almost $2,500 a year. The bill scraps the pensioner education supplement and the education entry payment, and cutting the pension to migrant pensioners who spend more than six weeks overseas.

These changes are just the latest move in the Turnbull government's sustained attack on the living standards of everyday Australians. This is an attack which has new targets, given the loss of penalty rates just last week and the Prime Minister's refusal to stand up for the rights of low-paid workers.

Labor's position with respect to this legislation has been consistently put since it opposed the unfair cuts first mooted in the 2014 Federal Budget. The government of the then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was roundly criticised for being out of touch and failing to recognise the widespread community disillusionment in not addressing the issue of fairness in the 2014 federal budget. Who can forget that iconic photograph of the then Federal Treasurer, the former member for North Sydney, Mr Hockey, and Senator Cormann smoking cigars in a haze of self-congratulation and hubris? There was sustained public criticism regarding the unfair 2014 budget, and ultimately even this government, a government with a tin ear for public opinion, was able to concede that errors had been made and that some changes needed to be made.

However, this government's deception has constantly been laid bare in that these so-called zombie measures have been included in subsequent financial reporting and are now exhumed in all their rotting glory. We therefore had a government that promised it was listening to the concerns of the community in respect of a program that was fundamentally unfair, but nevertheless was unprepared to abandon these measures in a quest for budget repair. Its duplicity is laid bare in this package of legislation. This bully government is unable to articulate the need to disadvantage families, mothers returning to work, pensioners and young people—those who are often already disadvantage. It just prefers the interests of the big end of town. Why does this out of touch government wish to attack the most disadvantaged in our communities? What they are seeking to do is to hurt some of the most disadvantaged in our community, including regional and remote communities doing it tough, so that they can gift big business—who, I might add, are reporting record profits as of today—a further $10 billion of tax cuts.

Labor's message has not been against repair of the budget, but has been consistently in favour of budget repair that is fair. I say it again, because those opposite choose to ignore our message around fairness: we propose budget repair that is fair, budget repair that does not rely upon flawed trickle-down economics that prefers the interests of those who are better off at the expense of those who are not. We speak about investment in nation building, in education, in the social safety net. They cut; we build the nation and we protect our communities. Labor has consistently argued for the retention of Medicare, fully funding Gonski and the protection of the disadvantaged in our communities. Instead, with respect to the most recent budget, the government has chosen to spend in excess of $50 billion on tax cuts to large corporations on the basis of the failed mantra of trickle-down economics when their own Treasury figures rely upon economic growth being delivered as a consequence of changes to taxation in 10 years. This government continues to pursue the lines of a confidence trickster using distraction, hyperbole and, if all else fails, a message which boils down to: trust us as the better economic managers. The government admit that their family payment cuts will leave 1.5 million Australian families worse off.

Nothing this government says or does should be taken on trust. There is no residue of trust in this government, for good reason. The Prime Minister has taken positions with regard to a range of issues that demonstrate that he is a hostage to the conservative right of the Liberal-National Party. Now we see that this Prime Minister and this Liberal government are prepared to formally preference the One Nation party, rather than pursue a course that John Howard ultimately imposed upon the state divisions of the coalition—that One Nation should not receive Liberal or National preferences. Now we have the Prime Minister talking up the positive aspects of this childcare package and linking cuts to social services to supposedly pay for the childcare package. Again, this is deception and distraction from a failing government.

This government is not only holding families to ransom to pay for child care, but it also continues to have in its sights those who are pensioners, young Australians and also new mothers. The numbers involved are significant. There is $2.7 billion worth of cuts to family payments, which are supposed to pay for $1.6 billion in a package of child care. The minister some weeks ago went dangerously close to misleading the House as to the fact that the cuts to family payments were being applied towards the cost of the childcare package and, when pressed, had to concede that families were losing more than the cost of the childcare package. In other words, the cuts were being concealed by the extra expenditure in the childcare package. The extent to which this confidence trick is sought to be foisted on Australian families is illustrated by the fact that for every $1 spent on child care in the proposed childcare assistant package, $3.30 will be ripped off pensioners, families, new mums and young Australians—that is, for every $1, $3.30 goes to fund tax cuts for handouts to big business and this government's administrative incompetence.

The numbers involved in this heist are amazing, if not terrifying. In total, these measures rip $5.6 billion from the household budgets of low-income Australians. These cuts add up for families who are struggling to make ends meet. Some of these families will have additional burdens come 1 July or whenever the unfair cuts to penalty rates take effect. For example, a single income family with two children on an income of $60,000 will lose around $750 per year, while a couple with one child on $75,000 will lose over $1,000 a year. Around 8,120 families in my electorate of Bass receive family tax benefit part A. Many of them will lose over $200 per child. Around 6,335 Bass families will lose $354 as a result of the abolition of the family tax benefit part B end-of-year supplement. Labor opposes these unfair cuts to family tax benefits.

After years of sustained attack since the horror 2014 budget, Australian families know they cannot trust the Liberals to help them get ahead or to protect Medicare and fully fund Gonski. This government is so dastardly that the worst hit by their mean-spirited policies are single parents, who will lose $3,000 a year in family tax benefit when they need it most. And when might that be? For their teenager's 17th birthday, just as they are entering one of the most stressful times in their life—the HSC. We want our young people to be focused on finishing their high school studies, not worrying about the already difficult financial pressures of their single parent. My son has relatively recently gone through this very period, and those in this House who have had the pleasure of a teenager know the growing costs involved as they get older. How does this government assist these growing costs for single parents? That is right, a $3,000 a year cut to the family budget.

Labor has consistently stood up for low- and middle-income Australians. We know what is fair. We know that a strong social safety net is important. We cannot allow this place to become like the USA. I know in my electorate of Bass that there is sound economic argument that small business is sustained by the fact that those on low and middle incomes typically expend most of their income on nondiscretionary spending. In other words, most of the income of low- or middle-income families goes directly into the local community buying goods and services. It is for this reason, for example, that cuts to penalty rates adversely affect small business in small communities and regional Australia, due to the fact that all reduced wages of the workers are unable to support the goods and services in those workers' communities. This is why I am concerned not just for those facing cuts in their take-home pay, I am deeply concerned for the effect of the cuts to income and these cuts to benefits and allowances will have on my part of regional Australia.

Community is what Labor stands for. Families, workers, children, pensioners, mothers, fathers: Labor wants our families to grow and prosper in a vital and flexible economy. But we want them to participate in economic growth that is fair. We know that Australian women traditionally taking on the burden of workforce participation and the majority of unpaid domestic and caring work is a large contributing factor to Australia's 16.2 per cent gender pay gap. That is why Labor has had the sense to refer to an inquiry the means of parental assistance to the Productivity Commission. It was clear from the commission that this was a financially beneficial change for the community and businesses. Labor's original scheme was designed to complement payments available under existing employment arrangements so as to generate the greatest impact for the least amount of financial assistance whilst also ensuring that businesses could continue to use these schemes as a recruitment incentive for talented women. This government should stop focusing on gifting $50 billion dollars to big business and focus on the real issue at play here; ensuring children get the best start in life. That is a prescription for long-term sustainable growth.

The government also wants new mothers to have less time with their babies, capping the parental leave scheme at 20 weeks. This means that new mothers will have 20 weeks of paid leave at home instead of 26 weeks, although experts recommend mums need six months at home caring for their newborn; not to mention that the same new mother will also lose around $4,030 in support. Labor does not believe that new mums should be forced to choose between returning to work early and missing out on time with their newborn or staying at home and having their living standards cut. This legislation is emblematic of the difference between those opposite and Labor. Labor will stand up for families. Labor will stand up for disadvantaged in our communities.

This government has stopped listening. It is led by an out-of-touch Prime Minister who is determined to pursue an unfair agenda.

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