Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2017-2018, which is, effectively, where the coalition government have laid out their priorities for Australia. This 2017 budget delivers a clear picture of what the Turnbull government stand for: absolutely nothing. Contrary to the rhetoric from the Treasurer on budget night, the LNP certainly do not stand for fairness. Fairness is not a quality you can fake. It is not a quality that you can rote learn and trot out in a speech. It is not a quality that you can trot out when it suits your political interests and then shove back in the political drawer, waiting for the next year. Fairness comes from the heart, not a focus group. Let us look at some of the unfair budget announcements by the Turnbull government, to confirm that they just fundamentally do not get fairness.

Let us look at higher education. The Turnbull government thinks that it is fair to hike up fees for university students and make them pay back the debt sooner, all while cutting funding for universities by $3.8 billion. Not only is this unfair; it is short sighted. Increasing student fees and lowering the repayment threshold for students to just $42,000 will no doubt deter some potential students from embarking on a tertiary education and the career that follows. We should not be deterring students from participating in tertiary education; we should be encouraging them. That is how we boost productivity. Unlocking the educational potential of young Australians is good for them and good for our economy. All Australians should have the opportunity to pursue a tertiary education, no matter where they live or how much their parents earn. Cutting funding for universities will have a detrimental effect not only on university teaching but also on the availability of university programs and university facilities. Also—scarily so—it will damage Australia's research efforts.

We have a proud history of groundbreaking research endeavours. The vaccine for the human papillomavirus was developed by Professor Ian Frazer and his team at the University of Queensland, just down the road from my electorate. Professor Brian Schmidt, an astronomer at the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, at ANU, here in Canberra, was awarded a Nobel prize in physics in 2011 for his part in discovering that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Professor Barry Marshall, another Nobel laureate, showed that a bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, is the main cause of stomach and duodenal ulcers. He leads a team undertaking varied research into the bacterium at the Marshall Centre for infectious diseases, research and training, within the University of Western Australia. And that is just to name a few.

There are many more Australians who have made important research discoveries in varied academic disciplines, and there are many more researchers right now in our universities currently striving to make the next big discovery or medical breakthrough. So it is short sighted to cut investment to universities, and it will have a detrimental impact on such important research endeavours. Cutting university funding to pay for a $65 billion big-business tax giveaway is short sighted; it is dumb economics; and it is fundamentally unfair.

Prime Minister Turnbull's 2017 budget fails on child care. It is unfair that an average Australian family with two children will face childcare fee increases of over $2,500 per year, a $2,500 fee hike at a time when wage growth is at record lows. Effectively, living standards are going backwards. One in three families is going to be worse off. Over 70,000 families on incomes under $65,000 will have to pay more. The most vulnerable and disadvantaged children will have their access to early education halved. The out-of-pocket costs for child care have risen every year under the Liberal government—and, as you know, Deputy Speaker, the coalition is about to commence its fifth year in government.

The Turnbull government will also introduce a complex new activity test. This test will only make it harder for working women, especially those working part time and casually, to access affordable child care. Not only is this unfair; it is short sighted. The participation of women in the workforce in Australia is still 13 percentage points behind that of men. They are an untapped resource. Women in Australia have a lower participation rate than in New Zealand—and I can't stand it when the Kiwis beat us at anything!—in the United Kingdom and in Denmark. Affordable and accessible child care is essential to improving the participation rate of women in the workforce. Making it harder for women to access affordable child care is unfair to Australian families, unfair to Australian women and unfair to Australian children, particularly those who are most disadvantaged.

It is unfair that the Turnbull government's 2017 budget affirms that they will see an increase in the pension age to 70. The Minister for Finance confirmed last week in Senate estimates:

Increasing the pension age to 70 is a measure that we remain committed to …

He said it remained government policy. If so, Australia will have the oldest pension age in the developed world. Builders, tradies, nurses and farmers would have to continue what is sometimes backbreaking work until they are 70 before they would be eligible for the age pension.

And people on the pension are being hoodwinked by the Turnbull government, who want accolades for a one-off payment secured by Independent senators, effectively a paltry $1.50 per week for pensioners, while at the same time they are axing the energy supplement, which will cost those same pensioners $365 a year—all to pay for a $65 billion tax giveaway for big business, and many of those big businesses are foreign. And not everyone will get the one-off payment. People struggling on Newstart will not get a cent, but they will still get a cut of $8.80 a week from the axing of the energy supplement, at the same time that power bills are going through the roof. It is unfair to force people to work until they are 70 before they can access the age pension. It is unfair to rip money off pensioners while at the same time giving a $65 billion tax giveaway to big business.

It is unfair that the Turnbull government's 2017 budget totally ignores climate change. There was not one mention of climate change in the 2017 budget. Former President Barack Obama said last year:

One of the most urgent challenges of our time is climate change …

Why is it unfair for the Turnbull government to ignore climate change? It is unfair because Prime Minister Turnbull is leaving one of the most urgent challenges of our time to his children and to his grandchildren to solve. It is unfair because climate change is having an impact on our planet right now. It is unfair because, unless we tackle climate change now, my children may not get to enjoy the natural wonders that we enjoy in Australia, like the Great Barrier Reef, and the tourism jobs associated with it. A combination of two mass bleaching events has meant that half of the Great Barrier Reef has died over the past two years. This is on the watch of the member for Wentworth, the very same member for Wentworth who famously said:

I will not lead a party that is not as committed to effective action on climate change as I am.

Now, some might argue that the Prime Minister is not actually leading, but the Prime Minister and his government have shown that they are not committed to doing anything at all about climate change. We have even had bizarre suggestions that clean climate-change action might entail funding coal-fired operations.

When Labor was in government, carbon pollution fell by over 10 per cent. The Turnbull government has spent $2.2 billion of taxpayers' money under their Direct Action Policy, only to see pollution increase—not decrease but increase—by almost six per cent. The central pillar of the Direct Action Policy, the Emission Reduction Fund, has actually run out of funds. This government has no plan to tackle climate change. It is unfair—cowardly, some might say—to leave our children and our grandchildren to tackle dangerous climate change. It is unfair to fail to address one of the most urgent challenges of our time. It would be unfair to leave our children a dead Great Barrier Reef.

It is unfair to announce a major transport infrastructure project and not announce any plans for funding to connect that project to the Port of Brisbane. It is unfair and incompetent to end up 35 kilometres short. On budget night the Turnbull government announced funding of $8.4 billion to build the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail. In their media release they said it was the biggest rail project in 100 years. The problem is the railway line starts in Melbourne, which is okay, it heads north, which is okay, but then it ends at Acacia Ridge. Acacia Ridge is right in the middle of my electorate. The Turnbull government has announced no plan and no funding to get freight from Acacia Ridge to the Port of Brisbane. For those who may be from a little bit further south and may not know Acacia Ridge, it is near Stable Swamp Creek, which is a tributary of the Oxley Creek, which flows into the Brisbane River, which then goes down to the Port of Brisbane. I am not sure that the transport minister has ever been to this area, but you cannot take cargo ships up Stable Swamp Creek, I can assure you.

It is unfair to leave the people who live in my electorate in the dark about how this essential part of the project is going to be implemented—or, in fact, whether it will be implemented at all. If there is no new railway line for the freight to get to the port, the freight will have to be transported on trucks, which will increase the traffic congestion on the already choked up roads in my electorate, and you obviously cannot have trucks double handling coal or wheat—or even cattle, for that matter. It is not efficient at all. So, if there is a new railway line to be built to finish the project, there are only really three options, you could say. The first is a tunnel from Acacia Ridge to the Port of Brisbane going right under the homes of people living in Macgregor and Sunnybank and those places in my electorate. The second option is another train line to be built alongside the Gateway Motorway, which would need to cut into the Karawatha Forest, one of the largest areas of remnant bushland within Brisbane and Logan. The third option would be perhaps to connect with the Beenleigh line around the Princess Alexandra Hospital and out onto the Cleveland line, with a spur off to the Port of Brisbane.

Moreton constituents deserve to know whether the Turnbull government intends to finish this project, how they intend to complete the line and what the time frame for the project is. Or are they just going to stop at Acacia Ridge, 35 kilometres from the water? It was unfair to leave the people of Moreton worried about their homes and the amenity of the suburb they live in just so the Prime Minister could make a glib announcement on budget night.

This 2017 budget is unfair because it cuts $2.2 billion out of Medicare. It is unfair that Australians will continue to pay more for their health care under the Turnbull government. Despite announcing that they were lifting the GP freeze, it has now been revealed that the freeze will not actually be lifted until 2020. The Turnbull government fundamentally does not care about Medicare. They fundamentally do not hold it dear and cannot be trusted to protect Medicare. There are 113 Medicare items that will stay frozen for another three years. These items were accessed 23 million times last financial year. Important health services like consultations for mental health plans and chronic disease assessments will stay frozen. These services are essential to keep Australians healthy and safe. We need to encourage Australians to access these services, not discourage them. It is very short-sighted.

As if continuing the freeze on Medicare were not enough, the Turnbull government has actually established a secret task force to cut our public hospitals. The reports so far reveal that the plan involves a significant cut to public hospital funding and abolishing the private health insurance rebate. The Liberal government cannot be trusted with our health care. Senate estimates have revealed that senior health bureaucrats have been actively working on options to attack our universal healthcare system for years. The task force proposal was discussed as recently as two weeks ago. We should have learned by now that the Liberal Party will attack Medicare every chance it gets. It is unfair that the universal health care that we all cherish is under attack by this government.

I am particularly incensed that the 2017 budget sees the Turnbull government walking away from giving every child in every school the best opportunity for a great education. It is unfair for the Turnbull government to walk away from needs based funding for schools. They do not understand equity in education funding.

The 2017 budget is unfair because the Turnbull government are giving big business a $65 billion tax giveaway at the same time as they are cutting $22.3 billion from education funding, cutting $2.2 billion out of Medicare, taking money off pensioners and making families pay more for child care. This is all while millionaires will receive $16,000 extra in their wallets from 1 July. The $65 billion big business tax giveaway that I referred to will cost the budget $15 billion a year in 10 years time and forever. This unfair tax giveaway is a long-term structural drag on the budget. It is unfair and irresponsible to have ordinary Australians, pensioners and families paying for a tax giveaway for big business at this point in time. This is not the time, while the budget deficit is mushrooming, to be making this extravagant commitment to big business.

The Turnbull government do not understand fair. They are committed to an educational policy that will not boost productivity. They are committed to a $65 billion tax giveaway that they hope will trickle down. Their own Treasury suggests it will at best give a small, less than one per cent, boost to the economy. The Turnbull government might say the word 'fair', but fundamentally they do not understand fair. Perhaps once upon a time this Prime Minister did, but that man is gone and only a husk remains.

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