Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for McMahon proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The government’s commitment to deep cuts which hurt every Australian.

I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian people know that this is a government completely out of touch with the needs of working Australians and pensioners. They know how heartless this government is. They know how this government completely misunderstands the impact of their own decisions. They know this Treasurer completely misunderstands his own policies and the impact they have on the Australian people. They know that this Treasurer puts together policies which impact on them and then he does not understand the impact of his own actions. They know all this because the Treasurer has told them. They know all this because the Treasurer has laid bare his lack of understanding of the impact of his own decisions.

He told them that poor people do not drive cars. He told them that if poor people have cars they do not drive them very far. He told them that the GP tax does not apply to people with a chronic illness. He told them that the GP tax was only the cost of a couple of middies—what an insult to the Australian people. What an insult the Australian people this Treasurer and this Prime Minister and this entire government are. The Australian people know how heartless they are. They know how out of touch they are. They know how they do not understand the impact of their own policies. But the Australian people say to this government, 'At least be confident as you go about your program of cuts to us.'

What we get from this government are cuts and chaos all at the same time. The alibis change. The narrative changes. Everything changes accept the cuts. We get the changing stories over the course of one interview, or one day, or one week. We get the changing alibis and excuses for their actions, but at its heart the government strategy remains the same: make those who can least afford it pay the cost for their policies. The prejudice remains the same and the result remains the same. We have seen it the over the last day or so. Remember we have been told how dire everything is, because that pesky Senate will not rubber-stamp their broken promises. We are told regularly how bad things are, how we are heading towards cataclysm for our economy, and then we are told something different. We were told today by the Prime Minister: 'Well, we've made a lot more progress than people think. Actually, things are all right, because the Intergenerational report apparently tells us that with everything that has been passed we get back to balance in just five years.' It is okay; the Intergenerational report says it. 'No problem,' we are now told. 'Nothing to see here.' 'Move along,' says the Prime Minister. The fact that there are 40 years of deficits after that—'Oh well, don't worry about that. We wouldn't worry about that, because everything is fine now.'

No wonder the Australian people are confused by this government's economic narrative, because they are confused themselves. Former Treasurer Peter Costello, says, 'There are mixed messages here from the Prime Minister and the Treasurer.' If Peter Costello cannot work it out, no wonder the Australian people say this government is not up to it. This Treasurer in particular is simply not up to it. He is not up to the task before him, the task entrusted to him by the Australian people. He is incompetent as he goes about his chosen project of cutting from the Australian people and from Australian families.

We had the Prime Minister say today: 'Don't worry about it; we're back at balance within five years.' When the Treasurer was asked, 'When will we be back to balance? When will we back to surplus?' he said, 'I'm not putting a date on it. I couldn't possibly put a date on it!' Again, we have dysfunction between the Prime Minister and the Treasurer. The one thing though—to give the government credit—that is always consistent, is its attack on low- and middle-income earners. That is the one thing that never changes when it comes to this government. Everything else changes—the stories change, the alibis change, the excuses change and the blame game changes, but the answer is always the same: 'Those who can least afford it will pay,' says the Treasurer. That is what he says. That is his one consistent narrative. He says to the Australian people, to Australian working families and pensioners: 'You will pay.'

I want to spend a minute talking, in particular, about the pensioners of Australia. We had the Treasurer at the dispatch box yesterday telling us how much he respects taxpayers. 'I respect taxpayers,' he said. How about a bit of respect for Australia's pensioners, people who worked hard all their lives. How about not telling Australian pensioners that they are leaners. They are not leaners. The Treasurer's own report—written by the Treasurer himself—tells us something very interesting about Australia's Treasurers. Do you remember how many times we have been told by the Treasurer that the Australian age-pension system is unsustainable? He makes himself out to be the hero. 'I'm making the pension sustainable by cutting it,' he tells us. But what does this report tell us about the age pension? This highly-political document contains three scenarios.

One of those scenarios is previous policy. While this is a complete dodge by the government, I am proud to say that the previous policy, included in this report, is the Labor government's: fair indexation for the age pension; fair indexation for Australia's pensioners who worked hard all their lives. This report tells us how much that policy will cost, how much fair indexation of the age pension will cost over coming years. It tells us that it will cost 3.6 per cent of GDP by 2054-55. That is 3.6 per cent of Australia's GDP. I say Australia's pensioners are worth that. I say it is fair when the OECD average cost for pension systems is 7.8 per cent. I think Australia can afford 3.6 per cent. I think Australia's pensioners have worked hard all their lives. They have lifted all their lives and deserve that support.

We, when in office, commissioned a review. That review found that CPI, inflation, was a woefully inadequate indexation measure for the age pension. So we said: no. We will have three measures to improve the age pension. One will be average weekly earnings, one will be the CPI and one will be a basket of goods that pensioners primarily buy. That is fair.

We saw the Prime Minister in a shameful performance, in the House, earlier this week say: 'Under your system, under the Labor Party system, Australia's pensioners would be worse off.' That was blatantly untrue. It was clearly and undeniably untrue, because the pension goes up by the highest of those three measures under our policy. It is a policy we will defend in this House, and that house across the country, because it is a fair one.

Forty years ago a Prime Minister we recently mourned said to the Australian people, 'As Australia grows and prospers, Australia's pensioners should share in the prosperity.' He introduced a link to average weekly earnings for males. He said, 'As Australians earn more, pensioners should earn more.' He indicated new government policy to link the pension to weekly earnings of 25 per cent.

Before we hear from members opposite that this was unsustainable and unaffordable and typical Whitlam spending, let us remember that this policy was continued by his successors. They were Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. They all continued that policy. In fact, the previous Labor government said, 'We can do better than 25 per cent. We can lift that to 27 per cent, because Australia's pensioners deserve it.'

All this remained bipartisan policy for 40 years, until this Prime Minister and this Treasurer—without a skerrick of a mandate—said to Australia's pensioners: 'You do not deserve that. You do not deserve to share in Australia's prosperity. You do not deserve to share in Australia's wage growth. We will institute a policy that will see your pension fall to 16 per cent of average weekly earnings.' It is shameful that without a skerrick of honesty, without a word of a mandate and without one indication to the Australian people that this would be the case they implement the policy. They tell us what the policy is eight months after the election. How dare this Treasurer lecture others about when they should release policies when he released his policies eight months after the last federal election, when he stood there and delivered the federal budget.

There are facts. Australia has the second-lowest spending on age pension as a percentage of the economy in the OECD and has the second-highest level of poverty, for people over 65, in the developed world. We said in office that we can do better. That is why we increased the age pension and improved the indexation. It is also why we made it easier for Australians to save for their own retirement through superannuation, why we increased the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent and why we gave low-income earners a fair tax concession, which this government has abolished and is proud of abolishing.

On Monday night the Treasurer said, 'I'm always cautious when taking money off people.' No, he is not—not when they are low-income earners and not when they are people who have worked hard all their lives. He calls them leaners, but they are not. They have been hard workers and they deserve this parliament to defend them. He deserves this parliament to stand up for them. Only half this parliament does, and they all sit on this side of the chamber. We will defend pensioners in opposition and we will defend and improve them in government as well. (Time expired)

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will start with a quote: 'If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.' That quote did not come from George Costanza. That quote did not come from Jerry Seinfeld. That quote did not come from Bob—

A government member: Justin Beiber?

or Justin Beiber. That quote came from the Leader of the Opposition. It goes to the heart of this debate, which is that those opposite do not know where they are going. They have no economic narrative, no economic policies and no economic direction.

If we look at the action that we need to take now in government, it all goes back to repairing the debt-and-deficit legacy that was bequeathed to us by those opposite.

When Labor came to government at the end of 2007, they were given a pristine balance sheet. There was $50 billion in the bank and a surplus of $20 billion. We had paid back $96 billion of Labor debt. We had created two million jobs and we had seen real wages growth of above 20 per cent. But, after six years of the chaos and dysfunction of the Rudd, Gillard, Rudd governments, we inherited a balance sheet which was in a total mess. Debt was heading on a trajectory towards $667 billion. The interest bill for the Australian people—for every man, woman and child—was heading to $1 billion a month and growing over time to $3 billion a month. In fact, the total debt bill for every Australian man, woman and child was going to head towards $25,000.

The reason that Labor left this mess was that they are addicted to spending. They did not know how to say no. Even though income increased by 22 per cent when Wayne Swan was the Treasurer, we actually saw income increase but spending grow even faster. The OECD looked at 17 advanced economies and found that Australia's spending growth was the fastest amongst those 17 advanced economies. Independent advisers like the Parliamentary Budget Office, the Commission of Audit and the Governor of the Reserve Bank said that we were on the wrong trajectory, but Labor is addicted to spending.

It is really interesting to listen to the member for McMahon. The member for McMahon said in one of his interviews:

… I completely agree and accept that the next election will be a choice and it will be as much about the alternative vision that the Labor Party provides as the failings of the Government. The Australian people are over the magic pudding Santa Claus economics—

Well, do you know who believes in magic pudding economics? It is the professor of ouzo economics. He loves magic pudding economics and so does the Leader of the Opposition. The member for Hughes has very kindly pointed me in the direction of Norman Lindsay's The Magic Pudding. I opened it up at page 18 and found that it sums up Labor's economic policy:

'My word,' said Bill, … 'You have to be as smart as paint to keep this Puddin' in order'—

said Bill—

'That's where the Magic comes in,' explained Bill. 'The more you eats the more you gets.'

That is the essence of the Labor Party's economic policy: 'The more you eats the more you gets'—because the more you spend the more you think you save. It does not work. We got the carbon tax—a slug of $550 on every Australian household. We got the mining tax, which was expected to produce more than $50 billion and ended up producing just over $300 million. We had the boat disaster, which led to more than 50,000 people coming, an $11 billion bill to the Australian taxpayer and, dare I say it, the tragedy of more than 1,000 people dying at sea. That was the legacy of the Labor Party, including 21,000 cheques which went to dead people along the way.

We have been left to clear up this mess, whether it has been their broadband, where in just the six years Labor were in office they spent $7 billion and only reached three per cent of the targeted homes. We have had to fix up that mess. We have had to stop the boats and remove people from detention. We have had to abolish the carbon tax and we have had to abolish the mining tax. In fact, the Intergenerational report says that, when it comes to repairing Labor's debt and deficit legacy, we are actually making significant headway. We were on a trajectory over the next 40 years where debt and deficit was to reach 122 per cent of GDP or $5.6 trillion. As a result of our legislated measures—not our proposed measures; our legislated measures—we have reduced that to under half. We have passed around 80 per cent of our budget measures, but we still have a long way to go. We have around $30 billion worth of savings stuck in the Senate because those opposite are refusing to support them, including $5 billion worth of savings that they took to the last election.

As a result of our policies we are starting to see some green shoots across the Australian economy, with economic growth of 2.7 per cent in 2014. It was under two per cent under you in 2013. We have seen job advertisements at the highest level in 28 months. We are creating 600 new jobs a day. In fact, when we look at retail numbers, we see that they have been going up for eight consecutive months. Housing starts are very strong, In New South Wales we are seeing housing starts at the strongest they have been for some time. We are rolling out infrastructure projects in every state, except those where the Labor state government are ripping up contracts like the East West Link in Victoria and seeing 7,000 jobs disappear overnight—vitally, 7,000 jobs which the state of Victoria needs.

Today we had a very good policy announcement—to reverse the cash grab by those opposite of unclaimed moneys. They went against all logic and put their hands into people's savings account and said that moneys in inactive accounts would be identified as unclaimed moneys after three years of inactivity instead of after seven years. We have reversed that change made by the Labor Party—which was also a recommendation of David Murray's financial systems inquiry. We are also putting better privacy provisions in place and we are also excluding the children's accounts and accounts in foreign currencies from the unclaimed moneys regime.

We are also today celebrating our third repeal day. It has been so successful as a means of reducing Labor's red tape, In fact, Labor gave us 21,000 additional regulations and, as a result of the measures put in place by people on this side of the House, we have removed more than 50,000 pages from the statute books. We have removed more than 10,000 pieces of regulation and legislation and we have made it easier for small business, for big business, for individuals and, importantly, for the not-for-profit sector.

We are making a really important headway in fixing up Labor's mess. What we have to guide us is the Intergenerational report. The IGR told us that not only are we paying back Labor's debt and deficit at a record rate but we are also living longer and seeing our incomes rising. The key to Australia's successful future will be about boosting productivity and boosting participation. One of the things we need to do is get more seniors into the workforce. That is why we have really positive proposals, plans and policies, like the Restart program, which actually incentivises employers to take on senior Australians.

Also, we will be putting out our child care and families package, because we want to see more women get into the workforce. Right now, we are about six points behind where Canada is in terms of the percentage of eligible working age women who are in the workforce. We need to bring more women into the workforce, because that will produce a $25 billion productivity dividend for the Australian economy.

Opposition members interjecting—

To those on the other side who are heckling I want to finish on this point. Those who are heckling have long-term experience in the union movement, and if you want to know of one way to boost productivity and growth in Australian economy, it is about bringing back the Australian Building and Construction Commission. The Australian Building and Construction Commission was effectively the cop on the beat. If we are able to bring back the ABCC it will lead to a $6 billion annual productivity dividend for the Australian economy and it will see more jobs created.

The motion moved by the member for McMahon goes against all the evidence of the successful policies we have put in place: paying back Labor's debt; on the road back to surplus; and on the road to a stronger Australian economy.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Kooyong, you are in an alternative reality. In fact there were moments there I thought he was channelling his inner comical Ali when he was telling us how good the economy was going. The economy was going so great the Reserve Bank Governor decided to give you an early Christmas present. He decided to give you a little shave off interest rates to kick the economy along, because it was going so great! It is unbelievable, Member for Kooyong—Assistant Treasurer Member for Kooyong—that you could believe the economy is going that well.

When the RBA appeared before the House of Representatives Economics Committee we asked them about this. Oil prices have fallen, fuel prices are falling, and the Australian dollar is falling in value relative to the US dollar. You would think that would supercharge the economy and be a great thing. It was not enough. Those two things, which would normally kick the economy along, were not enough. What did the Reserve Bank look at? They looked at the forecast of where the economy was going and decided to change their position and say that no longer would there be stability in rates—they had to cut it. They had to cut it because the economy is going nowhere fast. One of the biggest reasons for this is that there is a failure to invest. Business will not invest. They keep telling the RBA, 'We will not invest until we see consumer sentiment change.' What was the biggest hammer to consumer sentiment in the last 12 months?

Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What was it?

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was their budget that killed consumer confidence in this country.

Ms Butler interjecting—

One of the worst budgets indeed, Member for Griffith. In fact, when you look at a household on roughly $60,000 to $65,000 a year losing $6,000, it is no wonder they will not spend. It is no wonder that confidence is down. When people are confronted with the prospect of a GP tax, with the prospect of $100,000 university degrees, when you see all the changes to supporting the young jobless, when you see, for example, all of the things that are being done to pensions, it is insane that you could have those opposite saying that the economy is going great. You can only say that here. They would never say this outside, because no-one would believe them. Everyone knows that the economy is in a funk and that the people opposite are doing nothing to repair it.

To be fair to them, we expected too much. When they said they would be an adult government it was not reality; it was an aspiration. That is what they were aiming to be.

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They will grow up one day.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is right—one day they will be an adult government. The first half of their term in government has been all about cuts. The only thing they have is cuts, tearing thinks down and wrecking things.

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Wreckers, not builders.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indeed. They make cuts to Medicare, sell of Medibank, tear down everything they see, and then when they have nothing left what do they turn to? They turn to the IGR. This is a great work of fiction. In fact, I have added this to my '100 pieces of fiction you must read in your 150 years'! This is great work. It is excellent stuff.

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

250.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, 250—I can imagine how big it will be then. This is fiction. This is a political document designed to advance propaganda rather than a serious attempt to look at what should be done. If it were a serious attempt to look at what we should do as people are aging, you would make sure that they have a sustainable retirement income. There's an idea. Look at everything they have done in the first half of their term. It has been: cut pensions; cut the superannuation guarantee contribution; cut the size of future national savings; get rid of the low-income superannuation contribution; and make sure that the wealthy are looked after as superannuants—those who are on $2 million of superannuation savings. And what was the other contribution? The other contributions in terms of improving retirement savings was given by the Treasurer, who floated the idea that we should drain superannuation to pay for housing, which was another bizarre proposal by a government that is basically at its heart full of contradiction. Its messages conflict with each other. There is no certainty about what they propose to do. The only thing you can bank on with this government is that they will cut, they will make life harder for people, they will break promises and they will continue to do that in this upcoming budget, which will just be a budget of cuts and chaos.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The good old National Party. Great to see the member for Richmond over there—a lover of the National Party. Good to see the member for Wakefield over there—and that he has lasted this long. But it is always a pleasure to see the member for McMahon sitting there right opposite me. In this matter of public importance the member for McMahon talked about Labor's record as opposed to our record. Of course, he was the immigration minister, and in the financial years July 2010 to June 2013 he was a bit like Helen of Troy, the face that launched a thousand ships. In his case it was not quite 1,000, but 602—38,096 illegal boat arrivals came on his watch.

But let's talk about a few other members of the Labor Party front bench. We have the member for Grayndler, who promised roads but could not and would not fund them. Luckily, theDeputy Prime Minister, the member for Wide Bay and the Nationals leader, is getting on with the job of doing what the member for Grayndler could not do. The member for Watson pinched water from my farmers and other irrigation farmers in other electorates too—kept buying it back. He made farmers account for every single drop of water, but then wanted to buy all this water back and did so for the environment which they knew they could never deliver. Then we had the member for Lilley—debt and deficit were his trademarks, absolutely.

I am so glad that the Assistant Treasurer and the Prime Minister today announced that we, the coalition, are going to deliver on our commitment to improve the way unclaimed money in banking accounts and life insurance policies is managed. The member for Maribyrnong, when he was the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation in 2012, in the previous government, reduced the period of time that inactive bank accounts were declared unclaimed from seven years to three years.

I have this report from the Hervey Bay Independent. On 31 May 2013, it wrote:

The family of a 95-year-old Hervey Bay pensioner who had $50,000 forfeited from a bank account because it hadn't been used for seven years is warning others to be aware of the laws.

Craignish resident Jan Powell said she was shocked last week when she went to check the status of an account her mother Doris Osborne opened in 2002 established to pay her own funeral costs, and found the balance had gone from $49,000 to—what do you think, member for Lyne or member for Page?

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Zero.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Zero.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is it, zero—from $49,000 to zero. And we heard from the Treasurer today talking about the unclaimed money—$550 million. The member for Oxley was yelling out, 'Where are you going to account for that?' But it was 156,000 bank accounts. It is theft. It is absolute theft.

You talk about the Labor Party and the live cattle ban. On the night of 7 June 2011, the $700 million a year live cattle trade was stopped—just like that—because of a Four Corners show on the Monday of the previous week. What an absolute disgrace. You look at the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Maribyrnong. He is shallow; he is see-through; he is superficial. The Australian public are on to that. They are absolutely on to that. He is quick to criticise but offers absolutely no alternative. His party is divided. The member for Sydney wants his job, and he only offers weak leadership.

This government are listening. We are getting on with the job. We have scrapped the carbon tax. We have scrapped the mining tax. We are building the roads of the 21st century—Warren Truss is doing a great job of that.

What have we got opposite? We have a Labor Party who do not ever actually tell us how they are ever going to fund anything. They come out all the time and they carp and whine and carry on about everything, but they never offer any financial alternative as to how they are going to pay for anything. We know what they are going to do. They are going to up taxes. They are going to reintroduce the carbon tax. They are going to do all of those things which hurt families and which hurt business. There is nobody on that side who has ever really run a fair dinkum business. We know that. We are the party of business people.

Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The National Party!

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition are building a strong and prosperous economy—yes; the National Party, member for Griffith. We, the coalition, hold the record of the largest infrastructure spend in Australian history. We know that the education minister is a fixer. He is a fixer. In fact, there are 89 other fixers, apart from the Minister for Education and Training, on this side because we are fixing the debt and deficit legacy left by that side opposite.

By investing in infrastructure, by building the roads and the water infrastructure of the 21st century, we are creating jobs, opportunity and reward. We are getting on with the job of restoring this country to the great country it can and will be after it was left almost in ruin by those opposite.

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always interesting to be following the member for Riverina, and that series of tall tales he put to us. It is like he is living in rainbow land along with the rest of the National Party. When they go home and people ask them questions about why they made these massive cuts and why they increased taxes, I wonder what they say to them? I wonder what they say when people ask them about their petrol tax and their cuts to pensions? It is always nice to hear that little piece of fantasy that they present to us. As I say, they are all living in rainbow land. In my area, in the North Coast of New South Wales, that is why they cannot be trusted. Everyone knows that. They just cannot be trusted because of their broken promises.

The fact is that this government's unfair budget and cruel cuts have been devastating not just for the nation but also for regional areas like mine, the electorate of Richmond. The deep concern now is that this year's budget will be just as deep and just as cruel and just as unfair because of this government's massive mismanagement. Everyone knows they are in utter chaos; they cannot manage anything at all. There are real concerns that there are going to be just as severe cuts in this year's budget. All we are seeing from this government today—whether it be here in MPIs or in question time, or throughout the day—is chaos, mismanagement, conflicting narratives and backflips on a whole range of issues. Today, the Prime Minister said that the government will get back to broad balance by 2019-20. This, quite frankly, means the commitment to the same cuts that were in last year's budget. All we get is a series of bad decisions from a bad government. It just keeps on going.

Locals in my area have every right to feel betrayed by this government, and in regional areas of course that betrayal is by the National Party. A Liberal-National government continue to relentlessly attack the standard of living of Australians by cutting pensions and cutting family payments, slashing services and increasing taxes—hurting, of course, the most vulnerable in our community.

Indeed, before the election, we had all these promises made that there would be no changes to pensions, health care, GP tax and no cuts to education. After the election all those promises were broken. It was an unprecedented attack on the living standards of millions of Australians. The fact is, since the Liberal-National Party's unfair budget last year, locals in my area have had to deal with so many cruel measures like those cuts to pensions and health and aged care cuts as well, yet all we keep seeing now is more of the chaos.

I will move to health cuts because this is something that has really impacted people in my area. Firstly, we recently had the Prime Minister claiming that the GP tax is now dead, buried and cremated. Locals in my area know that you cannot trust Liberals and especially the National Party when it comes to health care and hospitals. We also have, at the moment, the state government out there trying to blackmail people seeking some small amount of funding for their hospitals. They are saying, 'You will only get this if you agree to the sale of electricity assets.' Can I tell you, a lot of people are saying that this is the reason they are not trusting the National Party, because they are selling electricity assets, which will push up electricity prices.

But back to the GP tax. Regardless of what the Prime Minister or health minister have announced, we know that the GP tax will be back—make no mistake about it. It is not gone. It is not buried. The Prime Minister said he is committed to it. This is all about the Liberal-National Party destroying Medicare and destroying bulk-billing because this is their agenda. Part of this attack also includes the $50 billion to be slashed from the hospital funding agreements.

You will recall, Mr Deputy Speaker, that I asked the Prime Minister today in question time specifically about those $50 billion worth of cuts and how they will impact on my electorate. Do you know what he did? He refused to answer. Do you know why he refused to answer? It is because he is weak and running scared. The Prime Minister is weak and running scared and would not answer my question about how his $50 billion cut will impact on hospitals on the north coast of New South Wales.

One of the cruellest cuts is the one to the age pension. Again, we had the Prime Minister and his candidates running around all over the country—in my area it was National Party candidates—saying, 'There'll be no cuts to pensions. There'll be no changes there.' Of course, when they got into office, we saw huge changes with their cuts to pensions.

But it got worse over the weekend. We saw some changes. What they say now is that they only want to index the pension by the consumer price index. The fact is that, under Labor, the pension was indexed by whichever was the higher of wages, the consumer price index or the pensioner index that Labor introduced. This was to make sure that pensions kept up with the general standard of living of all Australians. This is just the government's latest mean trick.

There was such an array of cruel cuts and unfair methods brought in with the last budget. Many people have real concerns that this year's budget will be just as bad. People have no faith in this government. They think the government are cruel and unfair and that all they seem to introduce are a series of mean and unfair tricks. As I have said, all we see from this government is chaos, conflicting narratives and backflips on a range of issues. I am constantly told by people in my area that they do not trust the National Party. Whether it is at the federal level or the state level, they do not trust them one bit because we constantly get bad decisions from bad governments. The fact is that this is a government with a commitment to deep cuts which are hurting every Australian.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to speak on this matter of public importance on the subject of every Australian. On the debate we are having in parliament and the media today about cuts, I would like to make an analogy. Imagine there is a house where the gardens are neat and the lawns are mowed. It is neat and tidy inside. The furniture is all in good condition. All the bills are paid and up to date. Then a rogue tenant moves in and, over a period of six years, he has a series of wild parties. He invites all his mates around and he absolutely trashes the place. Finally, after six years, he is evicted. On the way out, he barricades the door and he sets fire to the place. Then this rogue tenant come arsonist walks across the road and sits on the other side in the gutter. As the fire brigade rolls up, he starts to heckle. As the fire brigade comes up and parks on the grass, he yells out, 'Don't park there! Look at the mess they're making on the grass.' The fire brigade have to knock down the door that has been barricaded. The rogue tenant sitting in the gutter on the other side yells out, 'Look at the damage they are doing to the door. Look at the mud that they are walking through on the carpet. Look at the water damage they are causing to the house.' That is an analogy of exactly what the Labor Party's governance did to this nation during their six years in government. For six years, the Labor Party trashed the governance of this country and trashed the budget, so every single cut should be hoisted back on the Labor Party.

Let me give you some facts and figures. During the period from the last coalition budget in 2007-08, a Costello-Howard budget, to the final Labor budget of 2013-14, there was no problem with income. Income actually increased during that period of six years by $68 billion. There was a 23 per cent increase in revenue flowing into the government because we had the mining boom and record commodity prices. We had record prices for our coal and our iron ore, so we had that 23 per cent increase. The problem was not on the revenue side; it was on the expenditure side. That is because the Labor government in that period of six years increased government spending by over 50 per cent. There was a 50 per cent increase in expenditure. We know where it went. It went into the billion dollar blow-out in border protection, the pink batts, the green loans, the $900 cheques to the dead and the set-top box program. I could go on and on. I would need several hours to list all the waste and reckless, politically motivated expenditure of Whitlam-esque proportions of the previous Labor government.

That resulted in turning what was money in our national accounts into a net debt of $245 billion. That comes at a cost. The cost is the interest that we now have to pay on that debt. This year it is a $13.5 billion cost to the budget. The fastest increasing expenditure that we as a government face is the interest on Labor's debt. It was previously zero; it is now $13.5 billion. That works out at $560 for every man, woman and child in this country. For the average household of four, that is $2,200. That is just the interest bill on Labor's debt. We have to work out where that money is going to come from.

We in this country have a choice. There are two things we can do. We can work together as a parliament to work out how we can bring our budget back into balance, because we are currently spending 10 per cent more than we collect in revenue. The members on the other side want to continue to borrow money and steal from future generations of Australians. That is their plan—to have the debt paid by our children and grandchildren. Shame on them. Shame on every single one of them for stealing from our children and grandchildren by running up debt through reckless and wasteful spending. They should admit the reason for the cuts is their reckless and wasteful spending, and we should work together to get this budget back into balance.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How interesting it is to listen to members opposite. I am reminded of an often-said saying that the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result. Time and time again we have seen the government commit to a course of action—to be more precise, it is usually little more than a thought bubble—only to expect that they will deliver some different result each time. But it is the same old mistakes. They are stuck on an ideological treadmill that they just cannot stop. There is one thing you can always be sure of: whatever proposal this government puts forward will be absolutely deeply embedded on a path to austerity. It is about cuts—it is about cuts on cuts—that hurt every man, woman and child in Australia. No sleight of hand and no amount of re-badging, re-branding and re-booting from this government is ever going to conceal their steadfast commitment to making life harder for every Australian.

This is a government of broken promises. It has torn up the social contract with the Australian public. Indeed, the list of broken promises is truly astonishing. Having completely trashed the social contract that previously existed with the Australian people, this government has now completely wedded itself to this very conservative ideological agenda of austerity. This is an agenda that sees cuts to education, cuts to health, cuts to family payments, cuts to science and the arts, cuts to the ABC and SBS, cuts to the environment, cuts to the Human Rights Commission, cuts to overseas aid, cuts to social services, cuts to legal services, cuts to Indigenous affairs, cuts to the pension, and the list goes on and on and on.

Let's face it: the government are hell-bent on forcing through these cuts in whichever way they can. They are making decisions that are more reflective of concern for their own jobs than for the jobs of Australian men and women out there. And completely mixed messages are being bandied around in this parliament about whether we are in a budget emergency or not, or whether they are now going to crank up net debt again by 15 per cent, which is a matter of fact since they took government. The Treasurer claims that he has delivered a surplus in his first year and every year—that is what he is claiming out there—but we now hear that the budget may never, in fact, get back to surplus. This Prime Minister claims that the budget is going to be broadly in balance within five years, I see. But who are we to believe here? I would probably prefer to listen to Peter Costello, who was on 7:30 recently. He said: 'I think there's a bit of a conflicting narrative there.' Peter Costello really hit the nail on the head. The Prime-Minister-in-waiting, the member for Wentworth, agrees that the message has not been all that clear or respectful either, and he knows a thing or two about messaging. But the problem is that the spin, the deception and the conflicting narrative is the centrepiece of this government, so there is nothing but an incoherent economic agenda for people to listen to.

According to the Prime Minister, the Intergenerational report was meant to reset the debate, but all we have seen since its release are new spending commitments and policy backflips. Is the industry assistance package to car makers finished, or is it happening again? Is it $900 million, is it $500 million or is it just $100 million? Are we building submarines in Australia, Japan or Europe or, indeed, somewhere else altogether? It depends on where the Prime Minister needs to shore up his votes for his own job, I would suggest. And, on so-called health policy, we have this government's attacks on Medicare. Are we dealing with version 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 of their GP tax—who knows? (Time expired)

John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is interesting to look at what the member for McMahon's matter of public importance actually says. The government of which he was a minister, in various portfolios including Treasury and immigration, brought about the reason for our government's commitment to responsible economic management, which we have no choice about. We have to do it, because it had not been done around here for the previous six years.

The shadow Treasurer could be referred to as the tax-free threshold expert. The tax-free threshold, which he was unable to recall recently in a very public way, is not one that he had to reach back into time for. It was not a Howard government threshold; it was one put up by his own government—perhaps not when he was Treasurer, but not that long before it. For a budding Treasurer wanting to be reincarnated as that again, it was not a very big thing to remember. We have to question the memory of the opposition in general, because without doubt the reason we have to make cuts is not to hurt people; these cuts are not going to do anything except lower the cost of living for families. I think the memory loss that the member for McMahon and his colleagues have is that they left us with the situation we are in. They left a high cost of living and a huge debt, which has to be serviced. I remember how shocked the small business sector was at the 2010 election when we went around explaining that the Rudd-Gillard government was borrowing around $110 million a day just to service their borrowing and their spending. It was quite amazing.

I will take the member for Riverina up on one thing—he may be right, but I actually thought the member for Watson would have nearly challenged the member for McMahon as somebody who sent boats off into the sunset, because he was also the minister for immigration. I think it is prophetic that the minister for immigration who solved this issue when it first arose in around 2001 or 2002 is in the House with us today—the member for Berowra. He was the most successful immigration minister of all time. When this became a huge issue he solved it. Even with that lesson not very long before them, the member for McMahon and the member for Watson vied with one another to see who could cross Australia the most. I will not go into what was the cost of that, in more ways than one.

I thought it was very apt when the member for Watson became minister for immigration, because he was a refugee of the first order. Here is a member of the far Right in New South Wales. He is a protege, you could say, of Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi. He is a member of that same group, let us be honest about it. I think they must have known what was coming and said, 'Tony, you go down to federal parliament. Get out of New South Wales.' He was in the upper house in New South Wales in those days. They said, 'Tony, you go down and show the feds have a New South Wales Right runs things.' He did come down here. When you are trained by Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid there are a lot of things you know that the rest of us do not, and do not want to either, probably. I thought he was the right person to be the minister for immigration. Perhaps the member for Riverina is right when he says that the member for McMahon probably did spend more and did see more boats come in, but it was a close run thing. They were neck and neck. That was a mere $10 billion or $11 billion over budget.

Those guys know how to spend. It is a very easy, quite pleasant, thing to do. But in the history of Australia, nobody ever spent as much money, as quickly and with so little return as the Rudd-Gillard government. It is not easy to spend that much that quickly. (Time expired)

Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Many previous speakers in the debate on this MPI on the government's commitment to deep cuts have detailed the national picture: a 6.3 per cent unemployment rate, meaning that 770,000 Australians are without employment; a youth unemployment rate of 14.4 per cent; and the collapse of business confidence. The unemployment figure I cited is the worst since 2002, when the current Prime Minister was concentrated on employment as the minister responsible.

I will talk today on a more regional basis. Some of these issues affect some areas of Sydney more than others. When he made he made his infamous statement that poor people do not drive cars, it might have been a credible position for the member for North Sydney, privileged with taxpayer subsidised public transport and living very close to the Sydney CBD. But for people in south-west Sydney, distant from employment and with a great dependence on cars to get to work every day, it is a very different scenario. The budget cuts by the government are having a far greater impact on my region. In Claymore the previous federal government was working with the state government of New South Wales to bring social mix into housing so we did not have reservations of government sponsored housing. We have a situation where the $50 million cut over four years in the hospital agreement means that at Campbelltown 400 patients use the after hours GP service. Its potential closure will lead to mass stress on the hospital. Physicians who have resigned are not replaced. We have a significant number of doctors acting in their position. In the growth areas of Sydney, every day of the week I and my two colleagues over there, the member for Macarthur and the member for Hughes, see new housing developments going on. It is quite clear that funding is not keeping pace with the expanding population. It is all right to talk about Liverpool Hospital being the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere—

Mr Matheson interjecting—

The member for Macarthur interjects. The only competition in the Campbelltown state seat at the New South Wales election is who is more pro the Labor candidate. I think he is more pro the Labor candidate for Campbelltown than I am! There have been cuts to preventive health programs. That will affect conditions such as diabetes. Surveys show that in the Macarthur region and south-west Sydney people suffer from that more seriously. A $60 million mental health unit promised by the previous government has been scrapped. The members for Macarthur and Hughes know that it is far more vital to have that unit in our region than elsewhere. Organisations such as Beautiful Minds, Macarthur Disability Services and Autism Australia lead their fields in this country, because there is a need.

Only one trade training centre has been established in the electorate; 12 have been scrapped. This is an area where, historically, the number of people going to TAFE colleges—

Russell Matheson (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Two.

Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Two, is it? So it is two, and 12 have been scrapped. You are on the ball there: 12 have been scrapped. TAFE education has been more crucial in this region than in other parts of Sydney. The state government changes increasing the cost of courses and reducing the hours of instruction have been accompanied by a massive cut by the federal government of $1.5 billion in vocational education and training throughout the country. That is having a very real impact in suburbs such as Holsworthy, Liverpool, Macquarie Fields and Ingleburn. I hope people recognise that for the upcoming state election.

The government wants to deregulate university fees. This is another area where location is crucial. The University of Western Sydney, because it has some social conscience, because of the nature of its creation, has agreed to hold fees. It will never be able to compete with the other universities in Sydney when attracting students. The status of that university will decrease very substantially because of the changes the government is trying to make.

Whether it is a cut to legal aid, the Medicare Locals or the trade training centres or whether it is pensioners being hit by a new way of assessing increases to their pension, the government say, 'Well, you know, it's not mean to accomplish a decrease in their pension.' Of course it is! That is their whole budgetary proposal. So when they say that they will go into a surplus, we know that what is being put in the so-called backburner for a while—deregulation of the universities; a commensurate, massive increase in student debt and the amount of money they will have to pay to go to university; and the cuts in health. The Minister for Health is still talking about the need for a cost signal so that poor people will not go to the doctor's too often. We know that the Prime Minister has refused, basically, to say how he is going to accomplish his surplus, throwing back to the opposition that somehow we have to write a budget for him. (Time expired)

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can you believe the hide of those opposite? The Australian public inherited a $667 billion debt from the six years they were in government—the six longest years I can remember of any government. A debt of $667 billion, and they are here today to criticise the government—a government that is trying to fix the problems they created. Mr Deputy Speaker, you know as well as I do that those opposite know how to spend the country's money—they know how to spend on the country's credit cards; they know how to create dodgy programs that not only waste money but have much deeper consequences.

What do they do when it comes to making the tough decisions? What do they do when it comes to getting things in order? Well, we know: they say, 'No.' They say: 'No, no, no.' It is no wonder that the member for Maribyrnong is no longer called the Leader of the Opposition; he is now known on this side as Dr No. He always has a cunning plan but is never willing to make the tough decisions—he does have evil plans, but I digress.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And clever tricks.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And clever tricks, yes, Minister. We have an Intergenerational report that says that we have serious financial trouble and it says that we need to take some serious steps to avoid the massive destabilising in times to come. We on this side are prepared to do all the hard yards to make some tough decisions in the best interests of our country. I know all too well the electoral effect of hard decisions, but they have to be made today in order to avoid the catastrophic effects in years to come.

Those opposite would not lift one little finger to help reform higher education, would they? My good friend and the good friend of the member for Dobell, the minister, Mr 'Fix-it' Pyne, is trying to make the sector sustainable, but what does he get from those opposite? He gets Dr No— and 'No, no, no, no'. This is from the same party that doctored the higher education budget figures before the election in 1996. Sometimes I wonder whether the truth is in permanent short supply when those opposite approach the dispatch box. But I do not wonder about the fact that I am so thankful that the nightmare six years of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era have come to an end. The worst of the lot of them—

Ms Butler interjecting—

You are not in your seat and so you should not even be speaking—

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was a cutting point.

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

The member for Chifley will be silent.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am quite entitled to remind the Speaker and point out that the member is not in her seat. She does it all the time—she is a serial offender. The worst of it is Dr No can only say 'No' to anything sensible. No, no, no. He has difficulty in saying 'Yes'. We know that he has no answers for this year that was supposed to be the year of ideas and the year of opportunity, that Labor promised to give us. What have they given us? Only no, no, no. You can still hear it in the interjections—'No, no, no'. It is amazing that all I can hear is 'No, no, no'. That is the sound ringing in my ears. I look forward to seeing the minister, Mr 'Fix-it' Pyne, get back to looking at the higher education area because he is going to fix this problem. He is Mr Fix it, and Mr 'Fix-it' Pyne is actually going to fix it.

Opposition members interjecting—

You guys gave him the name, and we gladly take it. He finds a problem and he fixes. He is going to be known in this case as Minister 'Fix-it' Pyne. Thank you, guys. We think that is a great title, because we know that he is actually going to deliver. He is not like those on the other side who can only say, 'No, no, no'. We know that Minister Pyne will fix the system because it is broken and it absolutely needs to be fixed.