Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My electorate in south-west Sydney is one of the hardest hit by this budget. We are going to be hit hard by the government's decision to $7 GP tax, because 98 per cent of the people who live in my electorate are bulk-billed—just after the member for Chifley's electorate—and they will all now have to pay. The 16,000 pensioners in my electorate will be affected by the cut in the increase to the pension. My community will also be affected by the increase in the cost of university degrees. It will hit my community hard. It will discourage people from even going to university. And now we have learned that the government has decided to abolish the non-contributory parent visa. This, too, will hit my community very hard. My electorate is one of the poorest in the country and one of the most multicultural. People from all around the world, from all four corners of the earth, come to Blaxland to live. It is what makes my community and my electorate so great. It is also what makes these visas so important. The non-contributory parent visa brings families together, that reconnects parents and children. I know from personal experience, from my extended family, how important these visas are. We have a lot of important debates in this place, but there is nothing that is more important than family, and this will hurt my community. I urge the government to please reconsider.