Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The budget has been delivered. They've had five years to get it right, and again we see that they have got it wrong—again and again and again. We've seen $80 billion going to big business and corporations. Actually, we don't even know whether it's $80 billion, because yesterday during question time we asked the Prime Minister a number of times how much money this was actually going to cost, how much money was going to go to the big end of town, and the Prime Minister simply shrugged his shoulders and said he had no idea. He was asked that question, and the Treasurer was asked, and not once were we given a definitive answer. He's asking us to vote for a tax cut that he doesn't even know the cost of. Well, I've got to tell you: the Australian community are not mugs. They are not going to be fooled or tricked into taking $10 a week—which, for those of you who don't know or who don't live in the real world, for a single person is not really going to cover the apple bill, the bread bill or the weekly milk bill in a family home.

I asked my community yesterday what they would like the government to do with their $10—because there's this thing called the general public, who have a better idea of what this government could be doing to support families a little bit better. Effie Thiveos said, 'Keep my $10 and fund the NDIS accordingly, and help people like me who are raising a special needs child.' Mr Deputy Speaker Andrews, I know that you and I have done great work on the NDIS, and we have a huge issue around the NDIS. Scottey Hickson said, 'You can keep my $10 and give workers back their penalty rates.' Anybody who was earning penalty rates has had $77 ripped away, and now they're getting $10 back. He said: 'Give schools and hospitals back the money that they were promised. And even though I earn too much to get your stupid $10, what do you think a family is actually going to spend it on? My tolls cost me 17 times more than the $10 tax break that they are being offered.'

Mandy said that you should do something to assist in the aged-care space and pay workers more than $22 an hour. Allison Major suggested that housing affordability could be something that her $10 might be better spent on. Tim Haynes said that he actually couldn't say what he thought the government should do with his $10, because he might be banned from Facebook if he told Scott Morrison what he though of this $10. Oliver Pocock said that he'd spend it on active and engaging policy with young Australians—who I note are sitting in the gallery here today. Another good suggestion was to fund public service, and I note that the member who spoke before me was talking about the cuts to Centrelink and the privatisation of public services.

So there are a couple of great suggestions from the good people of Lindsay, the community that I'm incredibly proud to represent. I have just one suggestion—maybe I could have back the $98 million that this government has ripped out of my university, the $5 million that it's taken out of my hospital and the $21 million it has taken from my public schools.

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