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

I rise today to oppose the Turnbull government's Social Services Legislation Amendment (Omnibus Savings and Child Care Reform) Bill 2017 in the strongest possible terms. This is a bill which shows just how cruel, how vindictive and how manipulative the Turnbull government really is. This is a government that is soft on multinational tax avoidance but hard on families. It is a government that is ruthlessly determined to take from those who cannot afford it in order to prop up those who do not need it. And it is a government that has shown there are no levels it will not stoop to in order to maintain privileges for the top end of town.

In the past month, we have seen some of the most deplorable divide and conquer tactics from the Turnbull government in its desperation to get this bill through the parliament. Because, of course, the government desperately needs the cuts levied in this legislation as a down-payment for its corporate cash splash. That is what this bill is really about—slashing brutally from families and low-income Australians so Mr Turnbull can give big business and the banks a windfall. The Prime Minister has promised $50 billion of tax cuts to big business and now he is trying make families, jobseekers, young people, income support recipients, new parents and pensioners pay the price.

If those opposite were honest about their intentions, they would link welfare cuts to corporate tax cuts. They would make these wasteful and reckless cuts contingent on the passing of the savage cuts to ordinary Australians in this bill. But of course, they are not honest. No. Instead, they have cynically and arbitrarily tied these cuts to greater investment in child care. Now, let's be clear. There is nothing inherent or natural about the link between childcare and welfare cuts. They did not need to be in the same bill. Linking them was nothing but a crude political strategy to blackmail the parliament into passing this regressive legislation. Holding child care hostage is spiteful, sneaky and completely unnecessary. And, as we have seen, it has not worked, with reports that the Senate still will not pass the legislation in its current form. Of course, what the government would do if it was honourable would be to split out all the measures so the parliament is able to consider each measure on its own merits. This is exactly what literally tens of early education providers and representative organisations have called for. But, as we see far too often, this government is far from honourable. In fact, rather than splitting the bills to ensure that the things the parliament does agree on do not get held up, the government has upped up the ante in the most deplorable way.

When pitting parents of young children against pensioners, jobseekers and families did not work, they did not back down. No. They doubled down and held a gun to the NDIS, suggesting that if the parliament refused to pass the cruel cuts before us today then the NDIS would lose billions of dollars. Four years ago, those opposite said they were at one with Labor on the NDIS. But this month they trashed this vital bipartisanship, put a question mark over future funding for this landmark social reform and plunged thousands of Australians into uncertainty.

It is appalling that this government has no problems with using the NDIS and childcare funding as pawns in their cruel political games. And it just goes to show that the Prime Minister's promise to place fairness at the centre of all government decisions was as hollow as his belief in marriage equality or his commitment to real action on climate change. It also demonstrates that Mr Turnbull has completely failed to learn the lessons of his predecessor and the thoroughly toxic 2014 budget. In fact, the majority of the items in the legislation before us today are recycled zombie measures that were fundamentally rejected by the parliament and by the Australian people three years ago. These are the very same measures from the budget that led to Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey losing their jobs. But the Prime Minister has again showed just how beholden he is to his right wing masters by putting up this bill before us today. He has chosen to try to save his own job rather than saving millions of Australians from further hardship.

I would like to spend some time now looking at the specifics of the bill, starting with the childcare measures. Those opposite went to the 2013 election promising more affordable and accessible child care. For three years, they did nothing. Then they went to the 2016 election promising to spend $3 billion on reducing the childcare cost burden on Australian families. Now, we find that the actual investment is little more than half that at $1.6 billion. And a recent ANU analysis found that one in three families will actually be worse off under the government's childcare plan. In fact, more than 71,000 families earning less than $65,000 a year will go backwards. Many children in low-income families will have their access to early education slashed from 24 weeks to just 12. It will also make it harder for parents who work part-time or casually to get stable access to early childhood education and care.

Rural and remote childcare services, particularly those for Indigenous communities, are also at risk, as the government has refused to commit to guarantee ongoing financial support for 300 Indigenous and mobile services. The government's plan to transition them to the mainstream model is completely unrealistic. These services perform a key role by providing childcare services in areas where the market would otherwise have failed to deliver. Indeed, most of these services are the only childcare providers in their respective regions. If they are lost, the impact on these communities will be significant.

In fact, Deloitte Access Economics has found that the impacts will be severe. Fifty-four per cent of families will face an average fee increase of $4.40 an hour, 40 per cent of families will have their access to early education reduced, and over two-thirds of Indigenous early childhood education services will have their funding cut. But, despite the clear failings of the childcare package and despite the massive drop in the government's investment, Mr Turnbull still sees fit to hold support for families, pensioners, young people and the NDIS to ransom.

Labor support increased investment in child care, but we will not support it at the expense of vulnerable people and Australian families—and that is exactly what this government is asking us to do today. Even the government itself has admitted that 1.5 million Australian families will be worse off as a result of its cuts to family tax benefits.

The first thing the government wants to do is abolish the family tax benefit A end-of-year supplement. This will cost families $200 per child. Those families that receive family tax benefit B will take a $350 hit each year. These cuts would see a typical family on a single income of $60,000, with two kids, lose around $750 a year; a couple on $75,000, with one child, lose over $1,000 per year; and single parents whose youngest child is over 17 and still in high school, lose their FTB B payments entirely, a loss of $3,186 a year including the supplement. It is ridiculous that the government should be trying to sell this legislation as a boon for families when it clearly gives a little with one hand and rips away a whole lot more with the other.

Labor is also deeply concerned about the impacts of this legislation for new parents. This government wants new mothers to have less time to recover and bond with their babies, and will cap the current scheme at 20 weeks. The government's suggestion that women who use the current paid parental leave system are double dipping is totally unfair and utterly wrong. Let us not forget that the government scheme was deliberately designed to encourage employer contributions to help as many new parents as possible get the World Health Organization's recommended 26 weeks off work to recover, bond and breastfeed. The government's proposal in this bill will leave around 70,000 new mothers worse off each year, and undermine the very purpose and design of the existing scheme. This removes the incentive for employers to offer paid parental leave to their staff, and forces new mothers to choose between returning to work early and cutting their living standards.

But it is not just families and parents-to-be who are targeted by this legislation; anyone who receives government income support will also be hit. The government plans to freeze income-free areas and means-test thresholds for three years for working-age allowances, except student payments. Students will be forced to endure a three-year freeze to income-free areas and other means-test thresholds, including the student income bank limits. This will mean that income-free areas will fail to keep pace with the cost of living. Labor is particularly concerned about the impacts on jobseekers, who rely on an already low payment rate. It is good to see the minister, the Minister for Social Services, in the chamber for this debate.

But the cuts do not end there. The government also plans to close the energy supplement to new pension and allowance recipients. This means that single pensioners will be $365 a year worse off, and pensioners in a couple will be $550 worse off a year. Newstart recipients will lose $229 a year. Again, Labor is aware that there are significant concerns about the adequacy of Newstart as it is, and these cuts will just serve to drive jobseekers further into poverty. When the Business Council says that Newstart is so low that it is actually a disincentive to finding work, you know there is a problem! Even KPMG has called for the Newstart rate to be increased.

It is an appalling indictment of this Turnbull government that it is driving jobseekers further into poverty so it can prop up its tax cuts for big business. This is especially galling when the government is refusing to lift a finger while hundreds of thousands of the lowest paid Australians are having their penalty rates cut. Let us not forget Mr Turnbull gave himself a $6,500 tax cut this year. But now he wants to force all income recipients to live on nothing for a week.

Not only will young jobseekers have to wait a week, with no income at all; the government also plans to make 22- to 24-year-olds ineligible for Newstart, instead forcing them onto the much lower youth allowance. This will be devastating for the 240,000 young jobseekers who will lose $48 a week. This might be loose change for Mr Turnbull, but for young jobseekers it could mean that basic expenses like rent and power bills do not get paid. But it gets worse. Shamefully, jobseekers under 25 will also have their waiting periods extended by four weeks, on top of the one-week waiting period for all other payments. This is a horrendous measure that will see around 75,000 young jobseekers trying to survive with absolutely no income for five weeks. Despite what those opposite seem to think, unemployment is not a lifestyle choice for the vast majority of jobseekers; and starving young Australians will do anything to improve their chances of finding work. The Turnbull government should focus less on punishing jobseekers and a lot more on creating the jobs.

It is clear that the legislation before us today is a recipe for increasing poverty and entrenching inequality. The bill demonstrates the depths those opposite are willing to plumb to attack the most vulnerable Australians so they can continue to prop up big business and high-income earners. It is an appalling indictment on this government that, when wages growth is at its lowest on record and when inequality sits at a 75-year high, those opposite continue to hit the poor so they can reward the wealthy. This bill is a direct attack on the social contract that sits at the core of our national identity and it is a shocking affront to our sense of a fair go.

Labor will continue to defend families and the lowest-paid people in the country and we will continue to oppose the Turnbull government's vicious agenda of tax cuts for the big end of town and income cuts for low-income Australians.

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