Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no cheer in the Prime Minister's Christmas cracker for Australians this year: business confidence, down; unemployment, up; youth unemployment at record highs and full-time unemployment levels in the doldrums. The only index that is looking positive is the index of lies, which is why today we launched this catalogue of infamy: Abbott's book of lies and broken promises.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member knows that props are not allowed.

Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It lists the broken promises in health: over $57 billion worth of cuts flying in the face the promise that there would be no cuts to health. It lists the promises that have been broken to pensioners: over $80 a week. And it really beggars belief that today, of all days, the government chooses to introduce the bill which will break that promise to pensioners that there will be no cuts to their pensions. With over $30 billion worth of cuts to schools, over $5 billion of cuts to universities, cuts to the ABC and jacking up fuel prices for people planning their Christmas holidays, it is incumbent upon the Prime Minister and the ministers to put some cheer back into Christmas, come into question time today and say they are sorry, and reverse the horrible broken promises to ensure that Australians can go into Christmas with a bit of optimism, knowing they have a government that is worthy of this great country.

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is hard to know where to begin when reflecting on the Abbott government's year of broken promises. Across so many policy areas, we have seen the government cut funding where before the election it said it would not: from the GP co-payment, cuts to the ABC, the fuel excise, cuts to school funding, cuts to hospitals, cuts to higher education, cuts to pensions and cuts to science—the list goes on.

This year I have held community forums, pensioners' forums and university forums. I have held mobile offices and been doorknocking. I have visited businesses, both large and small. I have visited schools, and I have visited universities. The message is clear: Australians do not want this stinker of a budget.

I have spoken to pensioners who will struggle to make ends meet because their pensions have been cut. I have spoken to parents who are worried witless that their children's dreams of attending university are now unaffordable. I have spoken to people with chronic illness, who simply do not know how they will afford the increased costs of GP visits, prescriptions and pathology tests. I have spoken to families who feel cheated by a government that promised to ease cost-of-living pressures but has instead done the opposite. And I have spoken to hundreds of Canberrans who are living in fear of losing their jobs because of the government's cuts to the public services.

The government parades its claims about a year of achievement, and I encourage those opposite to get out into the community, out into the real world, and see how its year of broken promises is affecting every Australian for the worst.