Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is another shocker budget that hits regional communities, particularly those in central Victoria, incredibly hard. Unfortunately, the press release I put out post budget was very similar to the press release last year and the year before. It is another shocker budget by the Liberal-National government. It makes ordinary, everyday working Australians pay more and do more of the heavy lifting while again this government and the Prime Minister give their mates in big business another handout and another tax cut.

This budget is unfair. It does not matter how many times the Prime Minister and his ministers say 'fairness'; this budget is not fair. It is unfair. It delivers more handouts to multinationals and millionaires whilst hurting every Australian family, including many in my own electorate of Bendigo. The people in Bendigo are frustrated. They are frustrated by how this budget has failed to deliver for them and our community in a couple of key areas.

The government, despite all of their rhetoric about investing in Infrastructure Australia and regional rail, did not commit to partnering with the state government to upgrade the Bendigo-Echuca line. We saw the member for Murray's audacity yesterday when he made a 90-second statement about how great the budget is but failed to mention the funding that is needed right now to upgrade the Bendigo-Echuca line. Echuca, of course, is in the member for Murray's electorate. If the government wanted to help the people in his community get to Melbourne right now, you would have thought they would have invested in that line.

Instead, post budget we had the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, the member for Gippsland, turn up in Bendigo. He did not go to the train line; no, he turned up at the Bendigo Airport to talk about rail. Maybe this explains why they are a little confused about infrastructure—they are turning up at airports to talk about rail. Maybe it is because he did not want to be confronted by rail users at the Bendigo train station about their lack of investment in the regional rail network.

This budget as well hits a lot of working people in Bendigo by asking them to pay more tax. Someone earning $65,000 will be expected under this government to pay an extra $325 in tax in two years time. Now $65,000 is higher than the median wage in my electorate. In my electorate people do work hard but they do not earn a lot. Like most regional electorates, the median wage in our area is about $50,000. All of these people and families will be expected to pay more in tax. As I have said, this budget fails the fairness test. Australians can never trust this government to be able to deliver a fair budget.

This budget fails the jobs test. Unemployment is going up. Underemployment is spiking. Wages are flatlining. We have a revenue problem in this country yet, rather than addressing the measures and introducing reform that would help increase wages in a sustainable way, this government again is doing nothing and allowing wages in some sectors to fall and wages overall in our country to flatline.

This budget fails the health test and the Medicare test. This government is delaying reversing the unfair cuts to Medicare for three years. Just after the federal election I held my own series of round tables in the Bendigo electorate to discuss with people their fears. They are scared about the rising costs of health care and they are angry and upset at the way in which this government is undermining Medicare, the universal healthcare safety net.

On average, people in the Bendigo region are $21 out of pocket when they see a GP. Bulk-billing rates in our area are stalling. There is one 100 per cent bulk-billing practice left in the 3550 postcode area. Some other practices bulk-bill only children and some others bulk-bill children and concession card holders. When we surveyed not just patients but 23 clinics in the 3550 postcode area we discovered that, on average, patients were $21 out of pocket. It may not sound like a lot to a millionaire, but $21 just to see a GP is a lot to people in Bendigo in central Victoria who are on low wages or fixed incomes.

In one particular case that again shows how the government are failing, a woman came and spoke to me about her experience of Medicare. She is trying to stay healthy. She goes for a regular Pap smear test and she is $16 out of pocket. She goes to see the GP prior to that, to get her prescriptions renewed and to have a discussion with the doctor about her health, and she is $21 out of pocket—just for standard preventive health measures. These are the costs that people in regional areas are facing more and more. Despite the government's rhetoric, they have failed to address this and to reinvest properly in Medicare. Their con around Medicare is something that they should be called out for. Everyday Australians are paying more whilst big business are not. Budgets are about priorities, and again the government have said that their priority is not everyday Australians, not the people of Bendigo, but big business and their mates.

The other debate that is going on in this place is the $50 billion handout the government are giving big business while increasing the taxes of Australians earning over $21,655. That is a lot of regional workers. We are talking about people in hospitality and retail who will get hit on 1 July with a cut to their penalty rates. They will then get hit with paying more in their Medicare levy. The problem with this government is that they are handing out money to big business and making ordinary working Australians on minimum wages pay for it. The frustration that people in the Bendigo electorate have around this budget is that people who are being hit with penalty rate cuts—people who are trying to survive on low incomes—are being asked to pay more in tax whilst the government prioritises giving a handout to big business.

To remind those opposite about the minimum wage in this country: if you have two children and are earning the minimum wage, and if that is the sole income of the household, you are actually living below the poverty line. Our minimum wage has not kept up with its original purpose of supporting a household with three children to, through frugal means, afford meals and the occasional holiday. That was the original intent with the minimum wage. It is not a decent wage these days. These minimum-wage workers, who are by definition living below the poverty line and who are trying to support their children through school, have been hit not only with penalty rate cuts, if they work in the hospitality and retail sectors, but with a tax increase. At the same time, the government are doing very little to crack down on multinational tax evasion and the rorts occurring in negative gearing and capital gains tax, and they are handing out $50 billion to big business.

Labor supports increasing the Medicare levy, but only for those who are in the top two income brackets. That is the fairest way. When wages are flatlining, you cannot increase the tax on those people; it is not fair. Why should somebody earning $55,000 pay an extra $275 in tax when someone on $80,000 pays an extra $400? People on low incomes spend every single dollar of their income. When you take more away from them, that is money that you are taking out of the local economy.

There are new nasties and old zombies in this budget. Again, I cannot understand why the government thinks that it is entirely reasonable to increase the pension age to 70, the highest in the developed world. Nurses cannot work until they are 70. Plumbers cannot work until they are 70. In regional areas, like Bendigo, we are reliant upon traditional trades and traditional caring, like nursing and teaching. It is hard to work in those industries until you are 70. This is the government trying to save money. It is not being realistic about the jobs that people have.

There are new cuts to family payments, which will again hit regional communities hard. There are new cuts to health for veterans. The abolition of the energy supplement for new people coming onto payments will leave pensioners, for example, $366 a year worse off, when energy bills are going up as a result of this government's inaction. Remember, prior to the 2013 election, it said, 'Abolish the carbon tax, the price on carbon, and energy bills will go down.' Well, what a con! They did not go down; they have gone up. This winter, people in central Victoria know that they will be hit by an incredibly high bill. And this government has done nothing at all to try to curb the energy market. Instead, we are seeing it proposing to cut an energy supplement which would help those most in need of getting on top of their bills.

The bank tax was exposed yesterday and on Monday in question time. Whilst the government say that it is a new tax, it is actually a levy and therefore will become a tax deduction for the big banks. So the expected $6 billion they hope to make is not actually $6 billion, because these banks can then claim it as a tax deduction. We are all still trying to work out exactly how much this measure will actually create for the budget.

In the few moments left, I want to reiterate how the cuts to schools are disastrous. This is not needs based funding. It does not matter what those opposite say; it is not needs based funding. I will demonstrate the impact of this government's cuts to Bendigo schools. We have the Bendigo Senior Secondary College, the largest VCE school in the state of Victoria. It has VCAL and VET programs. Under Labor and the original Gonski needs based funding model, this school would have gotten an extra $1.6 million next year to ensure it has the resources to give every student the quality education that they deserve. Under this government's model it is down to $265,000. It has gone from $1.6 million to $265,000. There is a significant gap there that this government is ignoring.

Another example is Lightning Reef Primary School. Under Labor it would have received much more, but this government is saying that it will only get an extra $35,000. This is one of the schools in the poorest, most disadvantaged parts of Victoria, and it is only getting an extra $35,000. Meanwhile, an independent school in the Bendigo area that has the capacity to charge fees and that charges quite high fees is getting half a million dollars, $500,000, from this government next year.

Our Catholic schools in the region are very upset with this government's funding cuts to Catholic schools. We have a large Catholic school footprint in Bendigo and central Victoria, and they are angry that the government is cutting funding to programs like the Doxa School program, which gives kids a second chance. Its ratio is about one teacher to five students, and that is what the school has worked out it needs to get these young people back into school and back into education. The school provides a lot of social work. It provides a lot of activities. It rebuilds their confidence. All of these kids are from disadvantaged backgrounds, homes and families where there is significant trauma. The school has worked out how to reconnect these young people to a love of learning and, more importantly, to their community. This school is working, and the Catholic education system should be congratulated for the Doxa School. Instead of learning from it, what have the government done? They have cut its funding, and they have said, 'We don't trust the Catholic schools to be able to deliver the needs based funding in accordance with their values and principles and the school's needs.'

What this government has done to education is a disgrace, and the fact that it continues to misrepresent what 'needs based' is is just shocking. Previous speakers have demonstrated how they misunderstand it. They say, 'We want every school to be equal.' Schools are not equal. Not every school is equal, and not every community in our country is equal. If that is the aspiration, to get to equality, then you need to increase the funding significantly for the disadvantaged schools—not, like I have just said, with half a million dollars to the most wealthy school in the Bendigo electorate, which charges parents a fortune, whilst the other schools like Lightning Reef and Bendigo Senior Secondary College miss out. That funding should have gone to schools in need.

This budget is a shocker. It rips at the heart of regional and central Victorians. It does nothing to create jobs. Whilst Labor are not blocking supply, we call on the government to partner with Labor in fixing up a number of these loopholes. (Time expired)

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