Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a strange and bizarrely mismatched government Prime Minister Turnbull has knocked together. He has the Minister for the Environment and Energy, Josh Frydenberg, who is quite literally living and breathing coal. We have the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Peter Dutton, who wants to stop immigration at any and all cost. And just last week the Minister for Human Services, Alan Tudge, made very clear his sheer and utter disdain for people on income support.

Mr Deputy Speaker, by now I am sure you have read the news and the reports where Minister Tudge recognised Caboolture as the suburb with the highest volume of welfare noncompliance in Australia. As the member for Longman, in which this really fantastic suburb of Caboolture falls, I take great offence at this. Many of the family and friends of people who live in Caboolture, just over the highway in Deception Bay, I am sure take great offence at that as well, as they were mentioned.

If his intention were only petty name-calling, I would not take such issue on this, because the people of Longman are pretty strong. We can take that. We have been called names before. But it is the honourable member's dishonourable intentions that make this such a shameful statement. For starters, what benefit comes to the public from this announcement? Absolutely none. And what were the solutions to this issue put forward by this government? Where were the jobs that the people in our area have been pleading with this government to create since long before the 2016 election? Remember the 'jobs and growth' promise that this government gave people in Caboolture? Instead, the government is cutting $637 million from TAFE and apprenticeships, the very services that would help local jobseekers find work.

You have to ask the question: who actually benefits from an announcement like this? You already know the answer: only this government. It is only this government, which constantly demonises vulnerable people who need support, while at the same time it throws billions of dollars of support at big business. I am sure you can see the double standard there.

I do not deny that there are some people who may be doing the wrong thing. I do not deny that at all. But the overwhelming majority are adhering to or, in many cases, exceeding the requirements of the support that they receive. The whole point of this announcement was to demonise 100 per cent of support recipients, despite 95 per cent of them actually doing the right thing.

The whole point of this announcement was to try and shift the public's anger. You see, this government believes that, if the public are angry at those who are receiving some income support, they might not notice this Prime Minister throwing money at huge corporations. They might not notice that the Prime Minister is turning his back on a royal commission into banks, and they may not notice that the Prime Minister is cutting workers' take-home pay after 1 July. Well, the public do notice. The public do notice, and they will not forget. (Time expired)

See this speech in context