Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Disability and Carers (House)) Share this | Hansard source

This is the fifth Abbott-Turnbull budget. In every single budget from this conservative government there have been cuts to the age pension, cuts to Newstart, cuts to hospitals and schools, an increase in the pension age to 70 and now in this budget the latest proposal: a flattening of the income tax system that will see inequality get worse in this country. It's very clear that with this budget the Prime Minister wants people to forget its five-year catalogue of cuts, cuts that define this government and have defined this government since the horror budget of 2014.

The Prime Minister would of course like to go to the next election having whitewashed the terrible cuts of the last five years. I say to him and to all of the Liberal and National party members that over the last month or so I've done a number of very large pension forums, particularly in Perth—I did five very well attended pension forums there—and more recently in Tasmania and down in Frankston, in Victoria. Pensioners have not forgotten what this government wants to do to them. They understand the implications of the government's desire to increase the age-pension age to 70. I should say to anybody who's listening that this isn't some policy change that's off on the never-never. People who turn 60 from this July will have to work longer because of Mr Turnbull's plan to increase the pension age to 70. It's not something that's just going to affect people who are in their 40s or their 50s; it's actually going to start affecting people who turn 60 very, very soon.

Australians also haven't forgotten what this government wants to do to the energy supplement. For the information of those opposite, who I'm sure would like to forget that this is what they have already voted for twice and that the government has it in this budget again, they want to axe the energy supplement. This is worth $14 a fortnight for single pensioners and $8.80 a fortnight for people on Newstart. Very vulnerable people who find themselves out of work and need to rely on Newstart will face a cut to Newstart as a result of this government's budget. This is a cut in this budget. Of course, it has been a cut in previous budgets. The government has so far been unable to get this through the parliament, but it is in this budget. This government is determined to see a cut to the pension, with the abolition of the energy supplement, and a cut to Newstart. Labor will continue to strongly oppose this very significant cut.

We hear the government boast every day about the number of jobs that have been created. But what they don't tell us, what isn't said every day but Australians understand, is that there are about one million people in our country who are underemployed. That is on top of the people who are unemployed. According to the Australian Council of Social Service, 730,000 children are living in poverty. And another fact that never crosses the lips of those opposite is that nearly half the number of people on Newstart, nearly half the number of people on unemployment benefits, are unemployed for more than a year. Long-term unemployment in this country is getting worse and this government is doing absolutely nothing about it.

Inequality in this country is at a 75-year high. This isn't the 'jobs and growth' story that you hear from the Prime Minister every day, but these are the facts. It is a fact of life for millions of Australians who are really doing it very tough under this government. It is not what our country should be like. It certainly is time that we gave these people and families a much better shot at a decent life. One of the important ways in which Labor wants to address this fundamental inequity in our country is to make sure those people who are struggling can get the skills that they need to get the jobs that they want. We want to improve their capacity to get a TAFE qualification. Labor, in government, would scrap up-front fees for around 100,000 TAFE students and also spend $100 million upgrading our TAFEs around the country.

It is also why Labor is determined to seriously invest in our schools. This government made huge cuts to school funding back in the 2014 budget. Labor has promised to put into our schools over the next 10 years the $17 billion that is needed and, in particular, make sure that those areas in our country that are very disadvantaged are able to deliver great educational opportunities for our children. That includes areas like Doveton, in Victoria, which is not far from the member for Bruce's electorate. It has a fantastic primary and secondary school delivering 'Our Place', a model of education and support for families that is really turning those families around. But it costs money. You actually need to spend the extra money to make sure that those schools can deliver to those families, children and young people. Labor, of course, is determined to improve access to universities, with 200,000 extra places at our universities, and provide additional funding for hospitals to completely reverse the coalition's cuts. All of these initiatives that Labor would put in place are about investing in our people and also making sure that we protect people when they fall on hard times. By contrast, what we see in this budget is a plan by the Liberals that favours the well off and will worsen inequality.

I want to talk about tax, because that is the starkest demonstration in this budget of how this government will, in fact, increase inequality in our country. How we raise the money that we need for our schools and hospitals and to have a decent safety net determines whether or not we have a fair society. There's been some excellent analysis done at ANU, NATSEM and the Grattan Institute, and all have pointed out that this government's tax cuts are deliberately designed to deliver the biggest gains to those people who need them least in our community. These are the facts: about 60 per cent of the benefit of the government's tax changes would go to the wealthiest 20 per cent in this country. Just today, in Senate estimates, the secretary of Treasury said that a worker on $80,000 a year would receive a tax cut worth $540 a year by the end of the government's seven-year plan, whereas someone earning $200,000 a year would get a tax cut of $7,225 dollars a year. If you want a demonstration of how this government's going to increase inequality, that is it in a nutshell.

By contrast, Labor will deliver much fairer tax cuts for 10 million working Australians and for those people who really need it most. Of course, we can afford to deliver these fairer and larger tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners because we are prepared to make some very, very significant and progressive changes to the tax system, with reforms to negative gearing, capital gains tax, discounts, family trusts, and dividend imputation. Of course, all are opposed by the conservatives because they want to keep the benefits of those tax-avoidance mechanisms going to the top end of town.

Of course, it's not just about tax. We understand that, in addition to tax cuts, we need to make sure that we protect people's penalty rates. Those opposite, of course, have sat by while people's penalty rates have been lost. One of the most significant changes in this budget is this government's decision to flatten our tax system, meaning that somebody earning $40,000 a year and somebody earning $200,000 a year will be in the same tax bracket. Now, how on earth could that be fair? As we have said time and time again, we certainly do not want to see an $80 billion handout to big business, especially when $17 billion of it is going to the big banks.

I want to finish by talking about something that's very dear to my heart, and that is, of course, the National Disability Insurance Scheme. I'm very glad to see that the government has finally come to acknowledge that the National Disability Insurance Scheme is, and always has been, fully funded, even though this lot opposite have spent years undermining the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The government has tried to say that people have to put up with cuts to family tax benefits, cuts to the energy supplement, cuts to Newstart, cuts to pensions and cuts to paid parental leave—all of these cuts were used as excuses; they were apparently needed to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Of course, last year, the Treasurer said with great fanfare that we needed a tax rise on the lowest-income people in the country to fund the NDIS. All of this was false. People with disability were used as a political football. It was a complete and utter disgrace on the part of both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer. Playing politics with people with disability, holding people with disability to ransom in this way, must never happen again. It is now time for all of us to focus on making sure that the NDIS actually fulfils the promise that I would hope we all have see in it, which is to improve the lives of people with disability.

We are all getting hundreds and hundreds of calls from people who feel let down and frustrated with the rollout of the NDIS. People want this government and this minister to step up and actually fix the problems with the NDIS. They don't want them blaming people with disability; they actually want the problems fixed. Let's get it back on track. Fix the ICT system. Don't treat it like a big bureaucracy which is driving people to enormous frustration. We all want a people-centred organisation. It has to actually be about helping people with disability and their families to lead the lives that they want for themselves—a life of independence, if possible, so people are able to work, have fun, live in the community and have a decent home. That's the promise of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It's a promise that Labor is absolutely determined to see delivered, and this government should do likewise.

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