Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This responsible budget is about building a better and fairer future for Australia. In this budget there are more tax cuts for every taxpayer. That's 14 million of them around the country. There's more energy bill relief for every household and for small business. There's more bulk-billing, which will help Australians to see a GP for free. We have more cuts for the 23,000 people in my electorate who have HECS debts and we have historic funding for schools like Bremer State High School and Ipswich State High School in the electorate of Blair. We have more help to get Australians in a home of their own. That will help in suburbs like Spring Mountain and Ripley Valley in the city of Ipswich in my electorate.

But then, of course, we have those opposite. They are really keen on this MPI, because there are so few of them! I count three of them over there. That's how important this MPI is. What we know today from the Liberals and National Party about how they believe the economy should work is simply diametrically opposed to their patron and spiritual leader, Robert Menzies. These two parties, the Liberals and Nationals, are blocking help for small business. Today 1.5 million small businesses, by the way, could have got the help that they need, because they are actually taxpayers. They are sole traders. They could have got tax cuts today, two tranches of them, but the opposition opposed it today. When they were in government, they never saw a budget where they didn't deliver a deficit and increased debt. The biggest-taxing governments in the history of the Commonwealth of Australia were Liberal and National party governments—Howard's and, of course, Morrison's. This is what they do. They claimed that were going to deliver a surplus in their first year and every year thereafter.

What have we done? We've delivered two surpluses. We've delivered historic funding for Medicare. We have lifted the wages of Australia's lowest-paid workers. The lowers-paid workers in this country will get $143 more a week as a result of the work that we have done in supporting minimum wage rises and investing in aged care and child care by supporting those industries and getting wages up. Those opposite never saw a wage rise they didn't want to oppose. The never once supported a minimum wage rise. But that's what the Liberal and National parties do—they do not support workers or tax cuts. They opposed energy bill relief. Who can forget what they did in 2022, in opposing that. Today they say, 'We won't stand in the way,' but they don't actually support it. They don't actually support energy bill relief for families in the country.

What we're doing is making sure that we're building, not cutting. Those opposite would cut the NEMA workers who helped us in South-East Queensland in the cyclones and floods—the public servants there on the frontline helping people get $1,000 and $400 for their kids, in the Australian government disaster recovery payment. They're the frontline workers from Services Australia that are helping people in South-East Queensland in the aftermath of Cyclone Alfred and the veterans assessors in the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Those opposite let the veterans entitlements claims fly out to 43,000—they were out of date. They could not actually look at the claims for months and months. We had to put on 500 extra public servants to deal with the claims. During question time today the Minister for Veterans' Affairs articulated what we've done in this space.

The Liberal and National parties would cut those public savants. They all don't live, by the way, here in Canberra. We like the member for Fenner, but they don't all live here in Canberra. They live in Toowoomba, Ipswich, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns. They're the people—in regional Queensland and around the country—serving the public. But there are 40,000 on the chopping block if those opposite get the chance. I say to the public servants around the country who have been helping us in the aftermath of cyclones, bushfires and floods that we've got your back and we will support you. The Liberal and National parties will cut your jobs. As they look to their spiritual guiders in America, they will cut your jobs.

What will we do? We'll Invest in education. We'll cut your HECS debt. We will provide support for child care. We will reduce the childcare costs for families. We will cut taxes. We will bring down inflation, as we have been doing, and we'll make wages rise, improve productivity and improve economic growth in the country. We'll build a fairer society and a more responsible society. We'll back small business. Those opposite cannot even see a small business that they would support today. There are 1.5 million small businesses today that did not get the tax cut they deserved.

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