Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's alright, Mr Deputy Speaker Vasta, I appreciate the protection but I don't require it. The chicken hawk can continue squawking. The pink-and-grey galah down there can keep going and squawk all he likes.

Connectivity is vital in a regional electorate that's prone to bushfire. It can mean the difference between life and death. But this budget ends mobile black spot funding at the end of the next financial year. As those opposite always like to remind us, mobile black spot funding was one of their initiatives. It was a good one; they should have kept it. It ends next year, a decision condemned not only by members on this side of the House but, I would certainly hope, by regional members on the opposite side. It was a short-sighted, stupid decision. When you consider that there is $80 billion to give to corporations and banks but not even a few million to address critical communications gaps in our regions, you really do have to wonder about the priorities of this government when it comes to regional Australia.

This budget is an affront to Australians everywhere. It's only Labor that will provide a budget that is responsible and gives Australians a fair go. Labor has a plan to deliver lower taxes for 10 million Australians. Under its plan, every Australian earning up to $125,000 a year will pay less tax. In my electorate of Lyons, 90 per cent of workers earn less than $90,000 a year. Labor's plan has real benefits for every single one of those people, and every single one of them will be better off under Labor's plan than under the coalition's plan. Only Labor's plan also results in better-funded schools and universities and a better-resourced TAFE, providing people, including our young people, with the knowledge, skills and training they need to reach their goals and enter the careers and industries they want to.

Only Labor reverses this government's billion-dollar cuts to health and hospitals, creating better systems across the country that are able to accommodate demand and minimise waiting lists. It's no secret that the Tasmanian health system, under the Liberal government in Tasmania, is one of the worst in the country, with appalling outcomes, ambulance ramping and long waiting times for surgery. You name it, it's behind on every measure. It is poorly resourced an unable to meet the needs of the community. Tasmania's health system needs national support. It's not going to come from this government, but it will come from Labor. Labor has made that commitment. For too long, Tasmania has been neglected by this Liberal government. Tasmania has been ignored for the past five years. It's clear that this government thinks it can buy back support with a $10-a-week tax cut and vague promises of infrastructure that will be given at some undetermined time in the future. But Tasmania will not forgive or forget this government's arrogance, nor will Tasmanians tolerate this government's pandering to the Prime Minister's big business and big bank mates. Tasmanians will not respond well to the government's habit of abandoning rural and regional communities when they need assistance most.

We had a speech in the Federation Chamber earlier today on the member for Grey's motion on suicide prevention trials—which has bipartisan support, I must say. The glaring fact out of that speech and that motion was that rural and regional communities suffer with that issue. It's rural and regional communities that need support. It is rural and regional communities that are left behind under this government's budget. We need to do better, and only Labor will do better.

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