Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has been a characteristic of the Abbott government's first budget that members on the government side seem to do whatever they can to avoid talking about it, to avoid drawing attention to it, and I can understand why. In my community—and in the communities of my colleagues—there is a level of outrage about this budget, even some six weeks later, that we rarely see.

I have been out talking to people, and I have surveyed my community on this matter. This is a figure that may actually gladden the hearts of the government: 75 per cent of people said they would be worse off or much worse off. I know the government wants to share the pain, so that is probably a figure that they would see as quite good. But, interestingly, if you then ask people whether they think the decisions of this government are fair, the overwhelming majority say no. In fact, only 17 per cent of the people who filled in my survey said they thought the budget was fair—and 83 per cent said the budget was not fair. I received comments such as this government is creating a two-class system—for example, from Michael. Eighty per cent thought the budget would make Parramatta worse off or much worse off—80 per cent thought that not just they themselves, but also the community, would be much worse off. You see that in comments from people like Peter, who said, 'This budget is destroying confidence in the community and thus will affect growth and jobs,' and from Alida, who says, 'This budget hurts people in every facet of our society. No sector is enhanced or assisted in any way. It is a very short-sighted and mean-spirited budget.'

This was characteristic of the many comments I have received about this budget through emails or in person when I have been out doing mobile offices. I have been doing mobile offices for 10 years now, and most of the people on my side know that I do up to 80 to 100 a year. I have never before seen as many people coming up to me and wanting to talk to me about politics as I have seen since this budget. Usually they want to come up and talk about their families or local issues; but now it is the budget, it is almost pure politics. It is a very interesting situation. Thirty per cent of people who have filled in my survey say the biggest concern is the $80 billion cut from education and health, a cut that is clearly in the budget papers but the government denies is actually there because they have not read it. Thirty per cent of people in my electorate think that is the most serious thing. Nearly 18 per cent thought the GP tax and more expensive medicines was the most worrying aspect of the budget, and nearly 16 per cent thought the broken election promises were the worst aspect of this budget. But, universally, 83 per cent of people said the budget is not fair—and that is something this government should consider seriously.