Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No 3) 2017-18 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2017-18. Unlike some others, Labor is always committed to supporting supply, and for that reason I support these two bills. But please do not mistake my support of these appropriation bills in any way to be an endorsement of the government's fiscal policy. Do not mistake this support as an endorsement of the financial pain inflicted on families, workers, students and pensioners by this government—because it is not.

Every day the impact of this government's cruel cuts on everyday Australians is being felt in households across the country. They have cut to the bone of some of the institutions and services that make this country one of the best in the world—universities, schools, the public healthcare system. We have witnessed an attack on higher education by this government, where $2.2 billion in uni cuts has meant that 10,000 university places this year will go unfunded. We have witnessed this government introduce an unfair funding regime that cuts $17 billion from schools, hitting public schools the hardest. 'Not a dollar difference,' they cried at the 2013 election. It turns out that it's a $17 billion difference. And we've witnessed this government wallop vocational education and TAFE, with a whopping $3 billion ripped from their funding.

Unfortunately it does not stop there. We have watched this government stand by as private health insurance premiums have skyrocketed by 27 per cent since the Liberals were elected in 2013. We've watched as this government, through its four-year freeze on Medicare, has ripped $2.2 billion in addition to the money already sucked from Australians who are in need of health care. These cuts are hurting people. These cuts are a heavy burden for families to carry, because people still need to go to the doctor, to school, to TAFE and to university. This government has the gall to say that these cuts are necessary while at the same time throwing a lazy $65 billion bonus to the big end of town. What a nerve! It's irresponsible, and it's an outrage.

On 2 July last year nearly 10,000 people in my electorate of Brand, through no fault of their own and with no renegotiation of their conditions, had their pay slashed when their penalty rates were cut. They didn't work fewer hours. They didn't change the work they were doing or the days on which they were doing it. These retail, pharmacy and hospitality workers—nearly one in seven workers in the cities of Kwinana and Rockingham—were just collateral damage for this government. Instead of sticking up for low-paid workers, instead of protecting workers' pay and conditions, this mean government failed to do the right thing for working Australians and to join with Labor to protect the penalty rates of 700,000 workers across this country.

But that is what we get when we have before us a government that does not understand that losing $77 per week from a pay packet hurts families, that it hurts the community. We have before us a government that made the decision to ignore the burden these penalty rate cuts would place on those who could least afford it and instead chose to bestow a $65 billion tax cut bonus on those who do not need it. This government does not protect workers. Its Jobs and Growth slogans are just hollow words for the thousands of people across Brand and the rest of the country who are doing it tough.

A couple of weeks ago, some disturbing figures came across my desk—the January illion bankruptcy analysis from an illion data and analytics media release, summarising their findings of Australian household financial health across the country. More than 32,000 Australians went bankrupt in 2017. That's a 6.1 per cent aggregate increase across recent years, and it follows on from a 4.7 per cent rise in 2016. These figures paint a devastating picture of how people are faring under this government. They show us how desperate people are. They show us that people are struggling to get by. Don't take my word for it. The author of the bankruptcy analysis—illion CEO, Simon Bligh—has said:

Consumer debt levels are rising steadily in Australia as a result of record mortgages and a surge in everyday essentials such as utilities, petrol and healthcare. These factors, combined with weak wage growth, are putting pressure on the wallets of Australians.

I'm not an economist, I admit, but it would not take an economist to work out that cutting wages and increasing the costs of health care and education at a time of high underemployment will put people under financial pressure. And it is very worrying that the age at which the extreme end of financial distress is affecting people is falling. The average age of those declaring bankruptcy is falling fast, from nearly 48 years of age in 2013 to just over 40 years of age at the end of 2017. How proud the Prime Minister and this government must be to know that their legacy for the country involves presiding over an ever-lowering of the age at which people file for bankruptcy. Jobs and growth? I don't think so.

The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook confirms that the top end of town—the millionaires and the banks—will enjoy generous tax breaks. It also confirms that those who can least afford it will carry the burden of the government's budget's failure and attacks on essential services. That is something that I and many members here see daily. The suburb of Baldivis in my electorate of Brand is in the very unenviable position of having the highest concentration of personal insolvencies in 2017. The figure of 103 personal insolvencies is 10 per cent higher than the next-highest suburb. I ask the government to think about the impact this has on communities. We are talking about 103 families living under a cloud of debt and fear and despair. This is a dark reality lived out across the country, one that drives vulnerable people and desperate families into sickening arrangements with unscrupulous payday lenders. We know that 650,000 financially stressed households in this country have a payday loan. These loans are mostly last-resort situations for people who have exhausted all financial options. But when the loans and leases mean that hard-up families are having to pay interest rates of more than 800 per cent, and where they end up paying more than $3,000 for a household appliance, like a washing machine, that originally cost $350, there is an obvious problem that needs fixing.

Why has the government been sitting on a report on the payday loans industry instead of taking a stand against these ruthless lenders? What is it about this government that it not only prescribes its own cuts to services and budgets but also stands by idly as struggling households are bled dry by unscrupulous payday lenders? Fortunately, Labor will take action. I welcome the imminent introduction of a private member's bill by the member for Perth that will seek to enact the very legislation the government prepared last year to address the insidious practice of loan sharks that prey on vulnerable Australians.

The small amount credit contract and consumer lease reforms are admirable. In October 2017, the government released an exposure draft on this legislation to enact the recommendations of the SACC review and promised that a bill would enter parliament by the end of last year. But times change quickly with this government. Since the reshuffle of 17 December these reforms now fall to the member for Deakin to implement, and they are going nowhere. The minister for revenue has been rolled by the parliamentary friends of payday lenders, and that is a crying shame for Australian consumers. Make no mistake: this bill is identical to the government's exposure draft in every way, word for word. The SACC bill is government policy and, by all reports, the words of this bill have been approved and gone through all cabinet processes. So why do they not bring on the bill themselves? Why do they not support it? There are no excuses. This bill is their bill. It's very obvious to all Australians: this government looks after the top end of town and has little care for vulnerable consumers in this country. I would like to thank my friends and colleagues the members for Oxley and Perth for their tremendous efforts in the community and in this place in advancing the reforms that will put a stop to predatory payday lending and protect Australians, because the government sure wasn't going to do anything.

I would like to reflect for a moment on unemployment. Unemployment in my electorate of Brand rose from 6.7 per cent in June 2013 to 9.8 per cent in June 2017. This is an unacceptable rise of more than three per cent in four years. In the south of the electorate, the suburb of Port Kennedy has experienced a rise in unemployment from 7.6 per cent in the September quarter of 2016 to 8.2 per cent a year later in September 2017. In the west of my electorate, the suburb of Rockingham has experienced a rise in unemployment from 12.6 in the September quarter 2016 to 13.6 per cent in the September quarter of last year. And, in the north of Brand, the suburb of Parmelia near Kwinana has shocking figures: from 17.6 per cent unemployment in the 2016 September quarter to a whopping 18.9 per cent a year later.

We're still waiting on that 'jobs and growth' promise the Prime Minister likes to talk about. We are waiting for that to eventuate in Brand, and with the growing unemployment figures comes growing mortgage stress. With the 1.1 million underemployed Australians comes mortgage stress, and with the increased cost of living and stagnant wages comes mortgage stress. One in four households with a mortgage does not have enough money to pay their mortgage repayments and living expenses. Still, those opposite are not satisfied. No, they are not—not when they have more cuts to inflict.

They are still pursuing the energy supplement or, rather, ditching the supplement, which would leave pensioners $366 a year worse off. Why stop there? Why not make people work to the age of 70 before being eligible for an age pension? I honestly despair at what callous measures this government might think up next. These cuts, we are all told, are necessary and are being done in the name of budget repair but, I ask, what is actually being achieved by these cuts, apart from pain?

It has been said, and is worth saying again: the midyear budget update figures are not good. The deficit this year is eight times higher than the government said it would be in 2014 at $23.6 billion—and that's up from $2.8 billion. Gross debt is on the way up already, smashing the half a trillion dollar mark, and record net debt will hit new highs in the coming three years.

Australia is in need of a different fiscal policy; the current one is not working. Australia is in need of a new government; the current one has proved that it is not up for the task. We have policies that will improve the budget and will do so fairly and responsibly. Instead of squeezing people until they hurt, there are tens of billions of dollars in fair budget repair measures. Do not ask those who are doing it toughest, those who are the most vulnerable in our communities, to bear the brunt of unfair, harsh measures.

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