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

I would not say it is a pleasure, but I appreciate the opportunity to be able to rise to speak on this particular motion, because it is an opportunity for me to speak about one of the greatest issues that I think face the modern world today, and that is inequality. We have seen very clearly in recent events across the world the kind of social unrest and division that inequality breeds. The election of Donald Trump to the American presidency is a prime illustration. In recent years, many Americans have watched in dismay as their jobs became more unstable, their wages stagnated, and the cost of living rapidly escalated with no apparent end in sight. At the same time, it did not escape their attention that the richest Americans were, all the while, getting richer, backed in by policies that entrenched privilege and advantage. Many Americans are legitimately outraged by this rank unfairness, and they are looking for someone to blame.

It is this vein of red-hot anger that Donald Trump successfully tapped into with his divisive policy platform, which effectively encouraged voters to distrust their fellow Americans. But the reality is that, unless Mr Trump does something meaningful to address the problem of inequality in America, the problem will simply continue to grow, because an economic system that does not deliver for the largest parts of a nation's population is a failed economic system indeed. If Trump is serious about tackling inequality, he is going to have to rewrite the rules yet again in a way that serves all of society, not just people like himself.

While we do not seem to have that extreme level of inequality in Australia that has caused such resentment and upheaval in the US, the reality is that inequality in Australia is now at a record 75-year high. That means that 2.5 million Australians live below the poverty line today, and hundreds of thousands of Australians are unemployed. The three richest Australians have more than the poorest one million Australians combined. A person in the top 20 per cent has 70 times as much wealth as a person in the bottom 20 per cent and, as ACOSS points out, we are trending in the wrong direction. The economic growth figures that were released yesterday are a case in point. While Australia recorded surprisingly strong quarterly growth of 1.1 per cent, it is important to recognise that this was not evenly distributed across our economy. The majority of the gains actually came from increased commodity prices and bumper company profits. Indeed, despite the headline rate, household disposable income only rose by a meagre 0.2 per cent.

This is mirrored by the ABS data that also came out this week, which showed that companies recorded a colossal 20.1 per cent surge in profits over the December quarter. Mining earnings were up 50 per cent; construction recorded a 35 per cent boost; and, staggeringly, the quarterly total was the largest on record at $77.8 billion, with gross profits up by 26.2 per cent on the same quarter a year earlier. But, regrettably, this prosperity is completely eluding working Australians. In fact, in the same time frame total employee salaries and wages fell by 0.5 per cent. That is right: massive growth is going on in the big corporate sector, but wages and salaries have fallen. While companies are clearly doing well, the experience of Australian families who are facing record low wages growth and record high household debt is very, very different.

While inequality in Australia has not reached the levels of the United States, these figures point to a very concerning trend that we cannot ignore. There are many lessons for Australia in the American experience, and many steps we need to take to avoid replicating it here. Firstly, we need to recognise and respect that people are rightfully angry at a system that entrenches this inequality. Secondly, we need to actually do something to address it. We need policies to drive inclusive growth for the benefit of all Australians. Sadly, those opposite seem intent on following the American model of cutting fundamental public services and spending taxpayers' money to reward the top one per cent at the expense of the vast, vast majority of citizens. As we have seen in the case of the US, this is a recipe for fear, hatred and division.

Australia prides itself on being an egalitarian nation; the notion of the fair go is indeed central to our national identity. However, in many parts of the country the reality is very different. There is an undeniable and a growing gap between those who have and those who have not. I see it in my own region, where there are pockets of disadvantage—Australians who do not see progress in their own lives. They hear this Prime Minister talk about what an exciting time it is for Australia, about jobs and growth, and they look at their own situation and ask: for who?

Excessive inequality is a problem for any society. It means that people have unequal ability to take part in the social and economic opportunities, and it undermines the cohesiveness of that society. Evidence shows that countries with low inequality tend to have faster and more lasting economic growth, and that countries with high inequality can experience high levels of violence, suicide, obesity, mental illness and imprisonment, and shorter life expectancy. Often this inequality is concentrated in societal groups which are already structurally marginalised. According to ACOSS, the people most likely to be found in the lowest income group include older people, sole parents and single people, people without paid work, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and women.

A major driver for me is this ongoing struggle for equality. I have spent much of my life fighting discrimination and inequality, wherever it emerges. That is very much how I view and analyse issues that come before this parliament. Everything we do in the 45th parliament should be viewed, in my opinion, through the lens of equality. The Australian Labor Party, my party, understands the importance of this issue. Our policy direction will always be guided by driving greater equality, making sure everyone has the opportunity to get ahead. We need strong, sustainable and inclusive growth, and good social policy is a necessary precondition for it. Unfortunately, we rarely see the same egalitarian emphasis from the Turnbull Liberal government. Their designs for improving equality are torn straight from the trickle-down economics playbook—cuts to vital services and tax breaks for the big end of town. That is the wrong approach; we know it is.

We know it does not work, and neither does standing by while up to 700,000 of the lowest-paid and most vulnerable workers lose up to $77 a week. This is a massive blow for hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers who rely on Sunday penalty rates just to get by. The fact that the Turnbull government is refusing to stand up for these workers but is willing to fight for a tax cut for big business, multinationals and the banks shows how twisted its priorities really are. You do not grow the economy and lift people up through tax cuts for big business and you do not do it by chopping the wages of ordinary Australians; you do it by investing in our people. Our people are our greatest strength and asset in this nation. You do it by ensuring that working Australians get fair wages and the confidence to spend money to keep the economy moving. You do it by ensuring that all Australians have access to quality health and education, regardless of their income.

I would like to use this opportunity today to offer my perspective on a number of areas of inequality which need some serious focus and attention from this government. Firstly, let us look at education. To confront inequality, we have to confront the disparity in our schools. Access to an affordable, quality education must be available to all Australians throughout their lives. Needs-based school funding must be re-established, as Labor planned to do, and access to higher education must continue to be based on the capacity to learn, not the ability to pay. We know that the Liberal Party broke their promise to back the needs-based funding model for our schools. They welched on their commitment to Gonski and continue to slash education funding today and turn their back on a generation of Australian children.

By cutting an additional $30 billion of funding from our schools, Malcolm Turnbull is entrenching disadvantage in our communities. Not only that, but he is shackling our economy for decades to come. Investment in education is also investment in the capacity of our people and the future prosperity of our nation, and it is a far superior driver of economic growth than the $50 billion worth of company tax cuts proposed by the Prime Minister. In fact, in a recent survey of 31 economists, the Economic Society of Australia and the Monash Business School found that almost two-thirds agreed with the statement that:

Australia will receive a bigger economic growth dividend in the long-run by spending on education than offering an equivalent amount of money on a tax cut to business.

Schools in my electorate of Newcastle are set to lose more than $33 million in funding over the next two years alone, due to these Liberal cuts. Without investment in our schools, Malcolm Turnbull's talk about innovation and the future economy is just that: talk and nothing else. It is time for this government to get on board and commit to funding years 5 and 6 of Gonski.

This government's disgraceful handling of the higher education sector is equally disappointing. Malcolm Turnbull's decision to cut the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program, HEPPP—that is, to cut $152.2 million from a program designed to increase the number of students from low socio-economic groups—is unacceptable and unfair. In my electorate this directly impacts of the work of the Wollotuka Institute, which prides itself on best practice for Indigenous students and participation in higher education. I have more than 1,000 Indigenous students enrolled at the University of Newcastle. That comes off the back of 30 years of deep commitment from that university to ensure that every student and all of the programs at the university meet both our expectations in terms of excellence and also our expectations in terms of equity and equal access. The HEPPP program, which this government has cut, was a critical factor in helping institutions like the Wollotuka Institute reach out into schools in my community to talk to Indigenous students whilst in that secondary schooling program and encourage them to take that extra step and move into higher education. I think the fact that 1,000 students now study across all sorts of disciplines at the University of Newcastle is testament to the effectiveness of that program. It is the most cruel and short-sighted of cuts to higher education that this government proposes. The 40 per cent cut to the program will absolutely damage Wollotuka and the amazing work that they have done over the last three decades. I sincerely hope that this government thinks about revisiting that decision and understands the importance of that.

The previous Labor government opened access to university and 190,000 more students are at university today as a result of Labor's reforms from when we were in government. We understand that education is the most important tool to ensure future prosperity and a more equal society. But Mr Turnbull is persisting with deregulation plans that would lead to $100,000 degrees and create a two-tier society of those who can afford higher education and those who cannot. TAFE has not fared any better under this government, and that is another area of great concern to many people in my community. I applaud Labor's commitment at the last election to ensure that we would have a guaranteed level of funding for TAFE.

There are many reasons to invest in education, but it is the backbone of human capital and productivity for our nation, and it generates so much more for our communities as a whole. We must also recognise that many of these cuts to education across the board have a disproportionate impact on different parts of our society. I have also mentioned the disproportionate impact the cuts to the HEPPP program will have on the Indigenous community. The debt impacts the higher education costs are having on women are of course of deep concern to this parliament. I should not need to remind the chamber that women are a good 50-plus per cent of this nation. Anything we do to unfairly encumber women's access to higher education is something that should worry every one of us here. Gender inequity still persists in Australia, and this government seems to either not notice or not care.

Economically, women in Australia are at a significant disadvantage: we earn less, we retire with less and we are less represented at the top. One needs no more stark reminder of this than to look at the frontbench of the government each and every question time. The lack of women's representation in the government's cabinet is deeply disturbing. I can only reiterate what I have said in this House many times: until the government comes to grips with the reality of the need to set good, high and ambitious targets for itself it is not going to achieve the gender representation that it should have—indeed, that this nation expects it to have—on the government frontbenches.

The government's cuts to Medicare are also an issue of deep concern to the people in my community. Universal access to health, and in particular to Medicare, is one of the egalitarian backbones of the Australian social contract. It ensures that no matter what your background is, or how much money you earn or where your parents lived that you will be able to access good quality medicines and treatment. The Australian people love Medicare. We know this because, despite every effort by those opposite to undo universal health care in this nation since its first inception as Medibank back in the Whitlam era and then again as Medicare back in the Hawke government era, they have done all they can to undermine universal health care in this nation. They have been spectacularly unsuccessful in their endeavours, I might say, which is good news for the Australian people. But they are on notice: we are onto you, the Australian people are onto you and we will do everything we can to protect universal health care. Labor created Medicare; we will always fight to protect it. Members opposite would do well to learn from the last election, as the Prime Minister professed to have learned some lessons from the last election. We are yet to see those, of course, because absolutely every one of those cuts into health are still on the table. Let's not forget that.

Let's hope that the government truly does learn some lessons from that last election and that it sees the worth of investing in people, in education, in health and in real jobs in our communities. Let's hope that we get to see some of those things in this next budget. They have a lot of work to do, but they are coming from a low base— (Time expired)

Debate adjourned.

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