Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

That got their heads up!

And of course we will reverse the trend of privatisation in our vocational education sector. We will put TAFE back at the centre of vocational education, where it should be. We will help rebuild our TAFE campuses in the outer suburbs and the regions and we will back Australian Apprenticeships on infrastructure projects. We have a one in 10 rule for when we get elected: one apprentice for every 10 people employed on Commonwealth infrastructure projects. We will never support the government putting up the price of going to university while they cut funding to university and while they lower the trigger point at which Australians have to repay their HECS debts.

Of course, the more that Australians learn about this budget, the less they like it. The unfairness is showing through more and more every day. Of course, this is especially in the way that this government is steadfastly supporting increasing the income taxes of every Australian above $21,000. They want to increase those income taxes; but at the same time they are supporting a tax cut for millionaires on 1 July this year. There is nothing fair about that. This government, in its cynical fashion, is pretending that there is only one way to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Well, we have got some advice for the government. We have come up with a smarter, fairer way: the ANU modelling shows that. We have done our own homework. We believe in a system which funds the social services of this nation without increasing income taxes on the battling, working middle-class families of this country.

This government loves to say, 'Well, we've increased the Medicare levy before, so let's just bang it through.' But a lot has changed in the last four years. Back in 2013, wages growth was over three per cent. Under these rotten twisters sitting opposite, wages growth has flatlined at 1.9 per cent. I bet when you top up the wages of senior executives, wages growth for low-paid workers is even lower. We have got underemployment; casualisation is at an all-time high. This is a government that can deliver you a part-time job, but they are just not so good at delivering full-time jobs. Living standards are stagnating, and Australians know it. Apprenticeship numbers have collapsed. It is harder than ever for young Australians to enter the housing market and this government's only plan to help battling people is to increase their income taxes.

They used to scream about a budget emergency. The deficit has gone up 10 times since then. The gross debt is projected to hit three-quarters of a trillion dollars. Now, they have moved off the budget emergency and they have got a new dose of hysteria: the NDIS emergency. These people know that they do not have to give a corporate tax cut of $65 billion. They could afford negative gearing. They do not have to give a tax cut to the top two per cent, but their default position is to tax the working people of this country more and hope that no-one notices their largess to the top end of town. The Liberals can badge it whatever they like: a tax is a tax is a tax. They are increasing taxes on a lot of Australians who do not deserve it. The Liberals do it because they are too lazy to do the hard work and tackle vested interests in this country.

We have got a fairer and more progressive plan. It has already been costed. It produces more in the medium term to the bottom line, and it does not slug working people under $87,000. We just heard that gobbledygook from the Prime Minister in question time. What he did not say—when he was talking about marginal effective tax rates—is that, under their plan and ours, if you earn $87,000 and one dollar then you will pay the same. What he did not have the honesty to say is that if you earn less than $87,000, you were a damn sight better off if Labor was in government.

We heard the plea of the millionaires: 'What about poor us?' The Prime Minister gave it yesterday. He said, on somehow keeping in place a budget repair levy to deal with a deficit which has got worse, that this is a tax on success. Let me just remind the government of a couple of things about our definition of success. If you are a building worker helping build the buildings Australia needs: you might not earn $180,000, but you are a success in my book. If you are a childcare worker earning $60,000 a year, if you are lucky: you are a success in my book. If you are a teacher teaching our kids, if you are a policeman keeping us safe or if you are one of eight million Australians who earn less and $87,000: you are still a success in Labor's book. We do not define the size of your pay cheque and equate that to somehow being better person or not.

The Prime Minister speaks about the tax on success for those who earn half a million and a million. Well, I think that their tax on the success of everyday Australians is something that we are going to call out, and we will call it out every day to the next election. We are so beyond the debate of this government when they say that somehow they have got a fairer plan. It is not fair to raise the income taxes of eight million Australians when you have other perfectly acceptable means of funding the functions of government. We suggest to the government: if you want to have a battle on fairness, bring it on, because you are more lost than Burke and Wills. You do not have a view about it. You are out of touch about Australians. And, secretly, you all know that your Prime Minister is the most out of touch Prime Minister in a very long time. (Time expired)

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