Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I am glad that the government has finally turned up so that we can get this debate underway. Of course, if I were the government, I probably would be ducking and weaving from this debate, because we are debating the unfair budget that was delivered a couple of weeks ago. What this budget did is deliver a tax cut for millionaires and multinational companies, and it will make every ordinary Australian working person pay more. That is exactly what it did. It will make people who go to visit their doctor pay more. For those who go to Catholic schools, particularly in disadvantaged areas, we have been told that their parents are going to pay more. That is what this government has delivered in the budget. No matter how many times Malcolm Turnbull says that this is a fair budget—he can say it is much as he likes—it does not make it true. That is something that our Prime Minister really struggles with. He thinks that if he says it time and time again suddenly it will be true. That is not the case.

For my electorate, this budget delivers very little. In fact, it delivers a $22 billion cut to our schools. That is $22 billion cut from some of the most needy schools. Last night in the House I went through some of those cuts. There is $15 million being cut from public schools in my electorate in 2018 and 2019, schools such as Christies Beach High School, Christies Beach Primary School and Christie Downs Primary School. These schools service and provide schooling to some of the most vulnerable children—children with a disability and Indigenous children—and they are receiving massive cuts. So the Prime Minister can come into question time as often as he likes and say that it is a needs based funding model, but when you are cutting from Aldinga Primary School, cutting from Sheidow Park Primary School and cutting from Hackham West Primary School that is not needs based funding, and people in my electorate are very concerned. Catholic and independent schools in my electorate are also supporting a lot of vulnerable children, and it is disappointing that again we are seeing cuts to our schools.

When I think about the future of this country and the future of the younger people in my electorate, I want them to have a better life than the generations before them. Part of that better life, no matter where you live, involves an excellent schooling. That is what sets the building blocks for navigating the future in what is going to be a complex employment market with new jobs that have not even been invented yet. The base we need for that is a decent, high-quality education system. Other countries around the world are not cutting funding from their schools; they are investing. But unfortunately this government, in this budget, has seen fit to cut from our schools.

Equally, countries around the world are investing in their universities and ensuring that university education is accessible based on merit, not on someone's ability to pay. We all remember the 2014 budget, when the government tried to bring in an American style model that would hike up fees for universities. They are still trying to hike up fees for universities. In this budget the government have indicated that they want to see higher fees for students, while at the same time cutting $3.8 billion from our universities. They have also flagged that they want to see students paying back HECS faster. Taking the threshold for repaying HECS from $55,000 to $42,000 might sound good, but $42,000 is not a princely sum. That is a modest income. At the same time these students are graduating from university and getting their first job, they are trying to start a family. They might be trying to start a small business or buy a house. What the government are saying to them is: you have got to pay back faster. That is not a fair system. It is not one that supports students to get a high-quality education or supports them into jobs. Let's face it, that is what a university education is about: giving people the opportunity to be their best so that they can turn that opportunity into a high-paying job. This government, unfortunately, is dashing that dream for many students. Many students will think twice about going to university as a result of these cuts.

Indeed, it is not just young Australians who will be affected. It is those who may have had one career and found themselves looking for a new career direction. I have met so many of those who are termed mature age students, who may not have got the best results in year 12 or had the money to go to university and who have decided they want to change direction in life. Unfortunately, this government is saying: 'We are going to jack up your fees. We are not going to support you to take a new direction.' That is the wrong approach when we are in a global race—not a race within our country but a global race—for educational skills.

This budget cuts another $600 million from TAFE and apprenticeships. That is a significant problem when we know that getting a certificate III, a certificate IV or a diploma can increase your chances of getting a job. Instead of the government investing in this really important area, we are now going to have 130,000 fewer apprentices and trainees. That is appalling, and it is something that many parents in my electorate talk to me about. They want to see apprenticeship opportunities for their child. In fact, a lot of young people come and talk to me about how they would love to get an apprenticeship. But we have seen this government wax and wane and not support the apprenticeship and skills sector.

These are the types of investments we should actually be celebrating. Investments in education, in our universities and in skills are investments in our people. In the future our people are going to be critical to our success in this global race. Being highly skilled and highly trained is what will ensure that our country remains competitive—not how much iron ore we can dig out of the ground and not how many minerals we can export. It will be our people who will add value and ensure that our country remains globally competitive and that we continue to have a high quality of living standards. This government has shown no regard for this. It has been using every excuse to cut these in this budget.

I want to move on from education because, of course, there have been many other unfair measures in this budget. For our pensioners we have seen the government reinforce its commitment to raise the pension age to 70, the highest in the developed world. When I am in my electorate speaking with those who are coming up to pension age, they are extremely scared of this. They are particularly scared if they have had a labour-intensive job and they have physical ailments as a result. Nurses, builders and other people who have had a very physical job in their life have told me directly that their bodies are not going to hold out until they are 70. They will be broken and they will have no income as a result. Raising the pension age to 70 shows the government is so out of touch with the real lives of those who have worked hard all their lives and deserve a decent retirement.

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