Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Labor believes in a fairer Australia. We have a plan to build a brighter future for all Australians. We have a plan to bring the fair go back to the heart of our nation, a plan to properly fund health and education, a plan to boost wages and a plan for real tax cuts to help the families that need them most. We can afford to do these things because our plan doesn't give an $80 billion handout to big business and multinationals and it doesn't give the biggest tax cuts to the highest income earners. Our plan doesn't give the big four banks a $17 billion handout.

Last week, Malcolm Turnbull gave himself a tax cut of $7,000 a year and battlers a tax cut of 10 bucks a week. That shows just how wrong his priorities are and how wrong the priorities of the Liberals are. But we in Labor have our priorities right. A Shorten Labor government will deliver permanent tax relief for the Australians who need it most, ensuring tax relief goes back into the pockets of 10 million middle-income and working Australians. Australian families with flat wages growth and facing massive hikes in electricity, education and health bills need relief, but Malcolm Turnbull wants someone on $200,000 to pay the same tax rate as someone on $40,000. Under the coalition's tax plan, 10 million working Australians will get around $10 a week. You can't even get a cup of coffee every day for that amount. The government has its priorities wrong. It clearly has with its personal income tax skewed to upper income earners, and it clearly has with its $80 billion tax cut for big business.

Under Labor's bigger, fairer tax cuts, everybody earning up to $125,000 will receive a bigger tax cut compared to under the Liberal Party's plan. Many people will get almost double the tax cut that they will get under the Liberals, because we believe in directing the biggest tax cuts to those who need them most, the people at the low- and middle-income levels, to assist them to make ends meet. Under our plan more than four million people will be better off, compared to under the Liberals' plan, by nearly $400 a year.

We have a plan to properly fund hospitals, schools and the safety net. We will ensure every Australian gets the life-changing opportunity of a properly funded, quality education. The government has cut $17 billion from schools across the country, $28 million from Parramatta schools, yet it has a spare $17 billion to give in tax cuts to the big banks. A $17 billion cut to schools and $17 billion to the big banks—that's not exactly the right priority that our families need at this point in time. Labor will put back every dollar the Liberals have cut from schools. The government has cut $2.2 billion from universities, $98 million from Western Sydney University alone. It is denying the door to university to 200,000 extra students, and the Liberal freeze on university funding means 10,000 fewer places will be available next year. Labor will uncap university places and will ensure 200,000 more Australians will be able to get a university education.

We'll ensure proper funding for TAFE. This last budget saw another $270 million in cuts to TAFE. The government has cut 120,000 apprentices out of the system. Since September 2013 Parramatta has lost 1,123 trainees and apprentices. That's 46 per cent gone since 2013. We will invest $100 million in a rebuilding TAFE fund to renovate campuses and workshops, and will waive up-front fees for 100,000 TAFE course places.

Under the government's childcare package, 279,000 families around Australia will be worse off. The families who stand to be worse off are families in the lowest income cohort—that is, families who have a family income of less than $65,000. In Parramatta this means 2,600 families will be worse off.

The government has cut $750 million from our hospitals. It has locked in a further cut of $2.1 billion to hospitals across the whole nation. In Parramatta, funding to Westmead Hospital has been cut by $12 million. The average waiting time for elective surgery is the longest on record. But this nation can properly fund and fix our hospitals if we get our priorities right and if we don't give $80 billion in tax cuts to big business and skew the personal income tax cuts to the highest earners in the country. Labor will reverse the Prime Minister's cuts to hospitals and create a $2.8 billion better hospitals fund. Labor can afford to do more to help 10 million Australians because we're not giving $80 billion to big business and the big four banks. We have our priorities right. That's why we can fund our schools, TAFEs and universities, fix our hospitals and look after the health of the nation. That's the reason why Labor can create a better and fairer future for all Australians.

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