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

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

The Prime Minister's failure to deliver on his promises to the Australian people.

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—

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Another question time and again no answers—another day like every day under the Abbott government. New Liberal lies—new Liberal lows. Every day we see the quality of the parliament and the debasement of the government of Australia continue downwards. There will be six weeks away from this place when we will all have the opportunity to be amongst the Australian people. But we know what the Liberals will be up to. We know that those opposite will continue their trademark politics of fear and smear. We know that the bar is never too low for those who sit opposite. Look at their form in Victoria. Never in my wildest imagination did I imagine that the Liberal Party of Australia or any of its divisions would stoop so low, crawl so low, as to be raising money on the back of national security fear. Frankly, the Prime Minister gave an unsatisfactory answer. He said that of course one would go down to ASIO for briefings—probably true; of course that may be true—but he could never explain why he needed a TV camera in tow. When the opposition legitimately questioned him on these matters, he said it was an attack on ASIO. This man is addicted to wrapping the flag of patriotism around him and then saying no-one has the right to ever question the judgements of this government on that basis.

We know that every dirty trick will be played by this government, by this Prime Minister, in the next 12 months. They will keep going on the low road of character assassination. They will stick with the same bullying, the same base politics of division and suspicion. The last day of this sitting fortnight has been typical of every day under this government. This government and Mr Abbott will say anything to get your vote. They will say anything; they will do anything; they will promise everything. But his words mean nothing. His promises mean nothing. Let me tell the government and Mr Abbott about this. If he wants to lecture us about lying, if he wants to keep on talking about keeping promises, if he wants to make the next election about trust, he should have a go—give it a try. Bring it on.

Today Mr Abbott postured in question time, in the style which only he thinks befits a Prime Minister of this country, with his faux indignation and finger wagging, about an interview I did with Neil Mitchell two years ago. As I have said more than a couple of times, I made a mistake and I regret it. I did, though, what Tony Abbott is incapable doing. I have apologised. Tony Abbott has never apologised for the lies he told the Australian people. He has never apologised for the fraud he perpetrated on millions of hardworking people who trusted him with their vote. He never apologised for saying, on the eve of the election, right down the barrel of a camera—probably capable of tricking even polygraph—'no cuts to health, no cuts to education, no cuts or changes to the pension, no cuts to the ABC or SBS'. That is five broken promises in 10 seconds—one lie every two seconds.

The problem is that Mr Abbott's lies have real consequences for all Australians. His lies are hurting people every day— $30 billion cut from schools and $50 billion cut from hospitals. Once and for all, will the government finally acknowledge the authorship of their own budget papers which demonstrate the change in their spending profiles and the cuts behind them? This Prime Minister thinks that Australians are as silly as some of the people who backed him in his parliamentary party. The truth is in black and white, green and blue. He has hurt 300,000 pensioners in this last sitting week—people on modest incomes. He talks about some people who get $30 a fortnight being better off. But he presses the 'delete' button at that point. He never mentions 330,000 pensioners who are having their pensions cut. He said before the election, 'no cuts to pensions'. But 330,000 people are going to have their pensions cut. He says that because it does not happen until a certain date it is not really a broken promise. This man has too many excuses and not enough truth in his election promises. He has frozen the superannuation of 8.4 million Australians. He said that there are no adverse consequences that they would administer on superannuation, but he has frozen superannuation for 3.5 million low-paid Australians. He has taken away their tax support for the superannuation contributions they make. But it goes further than that.

The Prime Minister for Indigenous matters has cut half a billion dollars from Aboriginal services. The Prime Minister for women has cut $270 million from community services, including counselling for the victims of family violence. And we know this is just the beginning. This is a most miraculous government. They get their public servants, paid by taxpayers, working for months to talk to other senior officers all around the country. They prepare a federation green paper, and then they say, 'It's just a sensible discussion'. Prime Minister, there is nothing sensible about an option which says you will take every dollar out of public hospital funding. Prime Minister, there is nothing sensible about cutting the 15-hour minimum per week guarantee to four-year-olds. There is nothing sensible about means testing public schools and the parents who use public schools.

The Prime Minister has form on this. Before the last election he said there would be no cuts to health. In fact, he continued to say it all around the streets of Brisbane, before the Griffith by-election, when he said of his GP tax on the sick and the vulnerable: 'nothing has been proposed and nothing has been considered.' Nothing has been considered, nothing has been proposed and nothing is planned. Mr Abbott's pattern is the same: all things to all people before an election; afterwards, 'Please don't bother me. I'm about to break my promises.' I know what the next six weeks will be like with the government members. They will get out there and they will whip up fear. They will whip up smear. They will make it such that Australians feel more worried about their future than they even should be. Indeed, this is a government who is obsessed with the opposition. They do not want to stand up for Australia and fight for a vision of the future. The Prime Minister is never any happier than when he is attacking us. But he is never more unhappy than when he actually has to run the government in the interests of the Australian people. They are fixated on the past. They are spending $80 million of taxpayer money trying to denigrate the reputation of the union movement. They are trying to turn baseless allegations into a headline.

On this subject, let me say to the most appalling Acting Minister for Employment that this Commonwealth has ever had the misfortune to have serve in that position. He has said more than once in recent weeks of my time in the AWU representing working people, 'He was there for the good times in Beaconsfield'. He has implied that somehow Beaconsfield was a good time. Well, Christopher Pyne, I was at Beaconsfield. A man died and two men were trapped for 14 days not knowing whether they would be rescued. For the first five days their families did not know if they were alive and, for the next nine days, ordinary men dug through hard rock to rescue them. It was a remarkable effort by hundreds of people. Their families went to hell and back. And Christopher Pyne is so out of touch that he says they were the 'good times'? How dare you, Christopher Pyne. You are not fit to tie the shoelaces of those people in that rescue.

I say to the Prime Minister and to the government: we will never apologise for standing up and giving service to working people. Every day you talk about Labor, every day you talk about me, every day you look back to yesterday, is another day that confirms you have nothing to say about the future. You have nothing to say about Australians, their concerns, their priorities and, indeed, the future of this country. Labor is better than that. It lasted a day. We saw the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection getting back into the gutter with his interjections and mindless contributions. Yesterday we were his best friends because they needed Labor to do the right thing for the nation. But these people have short memories, as I predicted yesterday. But we are different. We will support budget measures that we think are in the best interests of the nation. We will not be mindlessly negative, as this Prime Minister made his trademark of opposition. We are interested in the Australia of the future and setting up Australia for the future. That means making sure that there are jobs and skills for the workforce of the future and our young people of today. We want great schools and yes, we want great coding in our schools. We want proper funding for our hospitals—not these rubbishy federation green papers which you propose, with your madcap options. And we want universal Medicare. Australians are sick of you trying to wreck the Medicare system. We want accessible and affordable universities, not $100,000 degrees. We will fight youth unemployment and we will back TAFE all the way—training and apprenticeships. We believe in a fair pension and we believe in strong superannuation.

In the next six weeks we will outline our positive agenda. You can play your cheap political games all you like. You can take the low road, you can do your very worst. But we will see you off. We will not only endure; we will most certainly prevail.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his contribution. I wanted to touch on eight notable matters that have occurred in the last two weeks. They have been a very busy last two weeks. I have only got time for eight, but bear with me and you will get them all in due course.

The first of them is that last Wednesday the Senate saw passage of the budget tax messages which will provide $3.3 billion worth of improvement to Australia's budgetary position. Second, two days ago there was $3.5 billion worth of budgetary repair measures moved through the social services amending legislation. Third, yesterday there was the passage of an instrument that restores the biannual petrol indexation. That improves the budget bottom line over five years to the tune of $3.36 billion. Fourth, last Monday the small business package was passed. Two million small businesses will benefit from $5.5 billion worth of expenditure to supercharge their organisations, their growth and their employment.

Fifth, last Tuesday we secured the Senate's support for pension reforms. 170,000 pensioners with modest means will be better off; members opposite was voted against that. Six, on Wednesday we signed the FTA with China. We now have, due to the heroic efforts of the Minister for Trade and Investment, three major FTAs landed with our three major trading partners. That will add billions of dollars to the Australian economy and create thousands and thousands of jobs. Seventh, the thoroughly critical legislation that allows for the removal of citizenship from dual nationals who betray the Australian nation has been introduced and debated in this place. Eighth, on Thursday the white paper on northern development was tabled. It has an incredible range of recommendations for the development and growth of Northern Australia.

Those eight things alone mark out a really rather exceptional fortnight for this government. The reality is the reason why members opposite are so desperate to talk about press conferences is because without question, in my independent and fair-minded observation, this has been the strongest two weeks for this government since we were elected, which just happened to coincide—as sometimes in politics these things too—with without question the weakest two weeks that you have suffered as an opposition. Any independent, fair-minded observer would have to realise that that is the case. The topic of this MPI was talking about a failure to deliver on promises. I will give you a fair go: I will not merely compare the whole time that we have been in government with your previous government, I will back our last two weeks against your previous six years.

I will start with a very scholarly contribution that was made on The Killing Season program. I will not go into the contributions of members opposite. They speak for themselves. There was one very scholarly contribution to that show. That was by a former member of the UK Labour Party from 1992 to 2010, Mr Alan Milburn. This is not a Tory. This is a former member of the Labour Party, a comrade of yours from the United Kingdom. He said:

The hard question that the Australian Labor Party has to ask itself is this: How is it possible that you win an election in November 2007 on the scale that you do, with the goodwill that you have, with the permission that you’re gifted by the public, and you manage to lose all that goodwill, to trash the permission, and to find yourself out of office within just six years?

He went on to say:

I’ve never seen anything quite like it in any country, anywhere, anytime, in any part of the world. No one can escape blame for that, in my view.

Ouch. That is a scathing condemnation. That is a comrade of yours from the UK Labour Party saying this: you were the worst government over six years that he had ever seen in any country, at anytime, anywhere in the world. Unless you were the best at something!

Why is it that that fair-minded, independent observer would make those comments? Why is it? What was it that the Labor Party achieved in six years in office? In two weeks, we have achieved fiscal consolidation through this parliament to the tune of $14 billion. What did you achieve in six years? Over six budgets, the Labor government increased government spending in Australia by a staggering $137 billion. That is a 50 per cent increase in the size of government spending. It was a staggering $137 billion. Right now, the fastest growing bill that we are experiencing as a government is the interest bill on the debt that you left. It is an interest bill that was zero when you took office and which you ramped up to $13.5 billion a year. As said by the PBO, if you just continue the trajectory of payments and revenues prior to the budget—that is, if you continued the Labor trajectory—you would have the highest rate of debt growth in the OECD.

How is it that you go from zero to $13.5 billion worth of interest in a year on borrowings? It takes some imagination, it takes some effort and it takes some unbelievable waste. You can send $900 checks to deceased Australians. That will help get you there. You can lose complete control of your border protection, which not only costs lives but also costs $6.6 billion in taxpayer money above and beyond that which was routinely budgeted for. You can have an NBN which blows out by a staggering $29 billion. You can spend $69 million advertising the carbon tax. You can even be forced into a situation where you assassinate Prime Minister and have to pay out his staff, who also find themselves without jobs, to the tune of $1.3 million. We and the Australian people are supposed to believe that we can trust you and we can believe you that you will bring this country back to surplus?

In the big year of ideas, Labor has had two ideas so far. They are both taxes. One of them is with respect to multinationals, which is already adequately covered in this budget, and the other is with respect to superannuation—yes, it is an idea. It is an idea about tax and it is a terrible idea. There have been two ideas in the year of ideas. I have got a prediction for you. We have not yet reached peak oil. I do not think we are anywhere near it. In the hipster movement, I doubt that we have yet reached peak beard. But what I can tell you is: halfway through this year, we have reached peak idea for the Labor Party. We have hit peak idea, six months through the year. You are halfway there, and two ideas in a year? What a staggeringly good effort! There are some absolute gems from the Leader of the Opposition. When he was pressed about the year of ideas, in an interview, we got this amazing level of detail:

Today, I say very clearly, Labor will support reform which is fair. Labor will fight reform which is unfair.

That is very, very helpful, isn't it! Let me give you this description. The light bulb is an idea. The saying 'Let there be light' is just a motherhood statement. They are two very different things. When pressed again, in an interview, to describe what the ideas are, one idea was described as:

… to have a growing economy, which is fundamental to our future, we've got to make sure that we don't leave people behind.

That is not an idea. That is a motherhood statement. Quote:

… rather than cut pension increases, we should encourage Australians to save for themselves for the future. These are big ideas.

And yet we are encouraging Australians to save for themselves for the future by taxing the hell out of their superannuation? Not only is it not an idea; it is a motherhood statement that is inconsistent with one of the only ideas for the year. When we look at all of this, we are meant to believe that members opposite are going to, with a plan, get us back to surplus. One of the very sensible contributions that members opposite have made was that of the shadow Treasurer in outlining Labor's fiscal policy approach to the National Press Club last year. He said this:

Let me be clear. There are medium and long term challenges in our budget. They are real.

Okay. Thank you. He said:

We will go to the next election with an alternative vision for the nation …

He said:

Labor does not necessarily object to the quantum of fiscal consolidation in this budget.

He was talking about our first budget. In other words, they consider that you have to make similar savings to those which we proposed. But the thing is: their savings are a secret. Even in the year of ideas, we are not there yet. (Time expired)

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister argued, during the republic debate, that you cannot trust politicians. In 2010 he told Kerry O'Brien on The 7.30 Report that Australians should not take anything he says as 'gospel truth' unless it is 'carefully prepared, scripted remarks'. Thanks for the warning. Australians have certainly learned that they cannot trust this Prime Minister and they cannot believe what he says, whether scripted or unscripted. He has broken so many promises—so many times he has done the exact opposite of what he said he would do before the election—he has lowered the bar to such a degree, that it is no longer remarkable and there are no longer any consequences. 'No surprises, no excuses,' he said. Well, it is not a surprise when he lies. He does not even bother trying to make excuses anymore. He said, 'No cuts to education.' Schools have been cut by $30 billion. He said, 'No cuts to health.' Hospitals were cut by $50 billion in the first budget alone. He said, 'No change to pensions,' and they went after full-rate pensioners and then after part-rate pensioners.

But saying that the Prime Minister has broken promises is too kind. I think he deliberately lied before the election because he knew he could not do what he said he would do—no cuts, no new taxes and bring the budget back to surplus faster. Those three things simply do not go together. He knew that he could not keep the promises that he made. The cynicism of the government is beyond belief. They will say anything, they will do anything, for political gain. While Labor was this week working with the government, in a bipartisan fashion, on national security, what was the Prime Minister doing? He was dragging the cameras through ASIO headquarters, for political gain. And what else was he doing? For political gain, for a Liberal Party fundraiser, sending out messages on the back of the national security legislation that Labor is working with the government on. It is unbelievable—using ASIO as a backdrop for a photo opportunity and using national security as a cash generator for the Liberal Party of Australia.

The Prime Minister is demanding bipartisanship from Labor on national security at the same time as we find leaked question time briefs showing that the national security proposals that the government is making were nothing about national security but all about politics. But we are used to it from this Prime Minister—the Minister for Women who thinks Australian women are 'housewives doing the ironing', the Minister for Women who thinks that a woman going on maternity leave is the same as a bloke going on holidays, the Minister for Women who says, 'I think it would be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or even approach equal representation in a large number of areas simply because their aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons,' the Minister for Women who says that a woman's right to say no to sex should be 'moderated' and the Minister for Women who saw nothing wrong with posing with signs calling Australia's Prime Minister a witch and a bitch. This is the so-called Prime Minister for Aboriginal affairs who said that Australia was 'unsettled' before 1788. This is the man who now says marriage equality is an 'important issue', after previously saying it was the 'fashion of the moment' and also saying that he was 'a bit threatened' by homosexuality. He is the man who will not let government MPs have a free vote on marriage equality, who remains the single obstacle to the achievement of marriage equality in this nation.

But it is not just the cynicism, the sexism, the insults to Australia's values, the insults to the intelligence of Australians, the broken promises. All of these things make the Prime Minister unfit to lead this nation. But it is even worse. It is the damage that he is doing every day through the decisions that are being made. It is the half-billion dollars cut from Indigenous programs by this so-called Prime Minister for Aboriginal affairs. It is the cuts to maternity leave by this so-called Minister for Women. It is the funding chaos for legal centres, which help women escaping domestic violence. It is wage growth stalling, debt doubling, taxes up, unemployment up. It is cuts to schools and hospitals that even Liberal-run states say are 'unsustainable'. It is higher prices at the chemist and the GP. It is the $100,000 university degrees. Australians deserves better than being lied to by this Prime Minister. They deserve better than his cynicism, and they certainly deserve better than the trashing of this country we have seen from this man.

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I find it extraordinary that the Leader of the Opposition would bring this MPI to this parliament on the very day that he has had to front up to the Australian people and say that he lied to Neil Mitchell, that he lied to Ben Fordham and, through them, that he lied to the Australian people about the political assassination of Julia Gillard, something that we always knew he was up to his neck with. Today he has come clean. Today, two years after the date, he has fessed up that he was the key part of the bringing down of Julia Gillard as Prime Minister just as he was a few years earlier he key part of the bringing down of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister. On this very day when he self-confessed he lied to the Australian people on one of the most brutal things that has occurred in Australian political history, he brings to this parliament a motion condemning us for our supposed broken promises?

I find it absolutely extraordinary, Mr Deputy Streaker—

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy Streaker!

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker! And then we had the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Tanya Plibersek, very proudly being the second speaker, strutting her stuff because she knows the Leader of the Opposition is under intense pressure for his leadership. Yes, Kevin Rudd, the man that he politically assassinated, made it so much harder to get rid of Labor leaders, but it will not be hard enough. That is my prediction. Yes, it now requires 60 per cent of the caucus rather than 50 per cent of the caucus to get rid of their leader; but, believe you me, if they can get rid of a first-term prime minister and they can get rid of a second-term prime minister, they can easily get rid of an opposition leader even if it requires 60 per cent of the caucus.

My colleague the other parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister very neatly outlined exactly what we have achieved just in two weeks alone—incredible accomplishments. But the nature of this MPI is that it calls for us to describe the promises that we have delivered to the Australian people. I would like to take us back to what we committed to the Australian people before the last election. There were five key commitments that we said until we were blue in the face, and in some respects people were sick to death of us saying these five commitments. I am sure the members of the gallery will recognise them.

First of all, we said that we would build a stronger economy so that everyone could get ahead. We now have some of the fastest growth in the OECD. We have jobs growth which is four times higher. We have retail sales up. We have almost record levels of residential housing approval. We have confidence up. We have consumer and corporate confidence up.

The second thing we said we would do—everyone remembers this one—is scrap the carbon tax so that everybody would be $550 better off, and indeed we have done exactly that.

We then said that we would get the budget back under control by ending Labor's waste, and indeed that is also exactly what we are doing. Eighteen months down the track, we have halved the debt trajectory given to us by the Labor Party. We have scrapped Labor's waste—no more $900 cheques to dead people from the Australian government, and there never will be $900 cheques to dead people from the Australian government again. We have put ourselves back onto a path to surplus, reducing the deficit by half a per cent of GDP each and every year.

Number 4 was our commitment to stopping the boats, and indeed we have stopped them. One of the absolute great moral tragedies of the former government was to unravel the system that was working that the Howard government painfully put in place to stop the people smugglers' trade, and they unravelled it. Over 1,100 people died as a consequence, and they should never forget that. The Australian people will never forget that. And yet today they will still not commit to our policies which have stopped the boats again. They will not be fit to govern until they do commit to turning back the boats as we have done.

Finally, we said we would build the roads of the 21st century, and indeed we are absolutely doing that. We have a very proud record halfway through this term. I am very proud to be a part of this government.

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

If we ever needed a demonstration of what this government is all about, we have seen it in the last two speakers. To give credit to the last speaker, he did spend a minute talking about some of the promises made in the last election, but there was nothing about the promises on health, education, families or young people. There was nothing because they broke them. This is a government given a chance to talk about the promises it made to the Australian people that wants to talk about us.

Just as after the last budget—the day after the last budget—they came into this place talking about us, they could not even keep their focus on their own so-called 'achievements', and I do not blame them for not wanting to go there for a day. Day 1 they tried to take the focus off their own performance, and you cannot blame them. Let's look at it.

A recent promise was to act on domestic violence. There is a lot of talk about domestic violence, an incredibly important issue. The number of women who have died in domestic violence since the beginning of this year is unacceptable. It is important to talk about this, but they slashed funding to women's shelters and legal services. They walk about what they are going to do, but the reality is to cut the funding to women's shelters and legal services.

We have the 'rolled gold paid parental leave' as a policy of Tony Abbott for years now, and for years he said he was going to deliver this for parents. What they finally delivered is something that cuts paid parental leave to thousands of women. It actually cuts it. They promised to build this great system; the reality is the opposite. They have cut the level of existing funding that women will receive under paid parental leave.

They have done a wonderful advertising campaign on the ice epidemic. It tells you how bad it is—and it is; it is terrible, and we should take action on it—but in parallel to that they have cut funding for the treatment centres. They talk about it, but they have cut funding to the treatment centres.

I can see some of the backbenchers looking up in surprise. I can tell some of the backbenchers that the people who come to this place to talk about some of the changes you have made across education and training tell us that you do not know what your government has done. And we can tell from the interjections that you have made that you are not paying attention to what your government is doing. You are slacking off on the backbench, accepting the spin without looking at the detail. Please pay attention. This government is doing fundamental damage to our education system, to our health system and to our training system. Eventually, you are all going to be held to account. If, by some chance, there is an early election, quite a number of you will be sitting in the House today for the last time because you have not paid attention and held your own leadership to account.

So let's look at some of the promises that were made. Let's not just do the cherry picking that the last speaker did, let's actually look at them. No cuts to education. Remember that? No cuts to education—not even a cigarette paper between Labor policy and Liberal policy because they knew it was hurting them and they knew it was going to cost them votes, so they lied in order to win the election. Your leadership lied.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

Come to terms with it, backbench! You will all be held to account for it. Let's look at the reality: $30 billion cut from the school budget.

Now, your leader gets up here every day and says, 'No, no, no—look at the budget papers! You don't have to look very far.' Look at the budget papers! It has a negative in front of it—just look at page 7 on the budget overview. It has a negative—that means 'cut'. Do not believe the lies that this man who sits here tells you. He lied to the public before the election and he is lying to you now. And he is lying to the Australian people and this parliament about lying!

Mind you, perhaps it is not deliberate—I suspect he is not very good with numbers and he does not know that a minus sign means 'cut'. Perhaps that is the answer. That could be the answer; I would believe it. But, backbenchers, please pay attention: you will be held to account. They have abandoned the Gonski model and every school in Australia will now be, on average, $3.2 million worse off, including schools in your electorates. Check the budget papers, if you do not believe me. But do not believe this man, who will say anything—anything!—to keep his position and to win an election.

Look at the promises of no cuts to health. The GP tax came along really quickly in the first budget. Mind you, he said there would be no cuts to health prior to the election and then he said there would be no cuts to health prior to the Griffith by-election and no cuts to health prior to the Senate election in WA. So he held that line—three times he lied! Fool me once, three times he lied. And then as soon as those elections were out of the way out came the GP tax. Out it came, hitting people in the primary healthcare area, which is one of the most important ways that we actually keep our overall health expenditure down.

This man, this government and all of the backbenchers, by default, will say anything to keep power. It is outrageous.

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

I think I will commence this discussion by going through the centre of that earlier argument about what a cut is.

To me, a cut means that what you get one year is reduced the next year. It is not what is hypothesised out in blue sky or on a whiteboard, or what is on the back of a beer coaster. The so-called cuts in health and education are the first thing to take issue with. A cut means that next year is less than this year. That is what everyone works on in life.

In transfers to the states for the public hospital system, the federal government is giving $3.8 billion more, or 25 per cent more, over the next four years. That is more. That is a plus sign—plus $3.8 billion more to the states for the hospital system, or 25 per cent over the next four years.

In education, as the Minister for Education has reiterated many times, the so-called 'cuts' are actually eight per cent more, eight per cent more, six per cent more and four per cent more. They are all pluses. When you go to the school of 'ouzo economics' and you graduate, you are given a recipe book and that talks about hypothetical promises that are never in the budget papers in years 5 and 6. That is the first lecture you go to. Not only do you learn how not to manage a budget you also learn all these obfuscations.

In the health space we have also delivered certainty. We have the Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement and we have the PBS funding legislation through, and that delivers certainty. The health system depends on the PBS and it depends on the pharmacy system, and those budgetary measures have been managed. It was difficult but they were managed well.

The other thing you learn when you go to the school of ouzo economics is about debt and deficit. You create a myth about how well you have managed the budget by putting ridiculous projections in, like a $17 billion deficit. Then you get control of the Treasury and you find out that really the $17 billion deficit is a $47 billion deficit. That is one of the things that we campaigned on, to bring the debt and deficit under control. We have reduced the daily overspend from $133 million a day to well under $100 million a day. And that is going to continue.

We also said that we were going to stop the boats. That might seem to be a bit of an embarrassment for the members of the opposition, but we did. We put in place policies and enacted them, and we have stopped the wicked trade that led to at least 1,100 deaths at sea.

The other thing that we have done is the roads of the 21st century. Every time I drive into town from my home I go past roadworks on the Pacific Highway that account for about a billion dollars, just in the electorate of Lyne. We have also delivered on three new bridges in the Taree local council area and we are starting to repair the Gloucester Road. Bucketts Way, another major roadway in the Lyne electorate, is being delivered $8 million and another $8 million next year.

Many people in the Lyne electorate are small businessmen and women, and we have delivered a small business boost with a 1½ per cent reduction in their tax rate. That is ongoing. The accelerated depreciation of equipment up to $20,000 is delivering dividends and improving the bottom line for lots of small businesses—that is the exact opposite. We are giving small businesses the power to choose to spend their money wisely and to get an accelerated depreciation rather than the opposition's method of sending $900 cheques in the mail to people who are dead or overseas. My goodness! We have done so many things to help small business. A lot of the small businesses are agricultural enterprises. All the changes in depreciation— (Time expired)

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for the opportunity to follow the member for Lyne on this matter of public importance. You would know, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, having been here a long, long time, that at this time of the parliamentary session, when you get to the end of a session just before the winter recess and when the government has been around for almost two years, you get a lot of election speculation. Around this time, you would recall, there is a lot of speculation about an election. Some of us who have been reading the news wires this afternoon would know that the Prime Minister's office has asked for members of the government to come around and get their photos taken with him to use in election material. I do not think there will be a lot of takers. I do not think that people will be lining up to include the Prime Minister in their material. The Prime Minister will be in my material, the Prime Minister will be in our material, but I cannot imagine that the Prime Minister will be in too many brochures, pamphlets and letterbox photos for those opposite.

Mr Taylor interjecting—

I do not think the member for Hume is going to have Tony Abbott plastered all over his election material. Well, he is not in the Prime Minister's office getting his photo taken, so we know that he is not real keen on that.

We do not know when the election will be. Mr Deputy Speaker, not even a person of your immense experience and knowledge knows exactly when the election will be, but we do know one thing: the promises that the Prime Minister makes in the coming election campaign will not be worth the breath he expends on them and will not be worth the paper they are written on. We know that because he has form when it comes to saying one thing to the Australian people before the election and another thing afterwards.

In Australia we like nicknames. It is no coincidence that the Prime Minister has the nickname of phoney Tony. No, it is no accident that his nickname is phoney Tony. People in the Australian community, right around Australia, know that this is a guy who will say anything. He will lie to anyone to get elected in this country. We know that because he has done it already. There are few people in the Australian community he has not done over in the last 21 months, whether it be the manufacturing workers in the electorate of the member for Makin or the pensioners in the electorate of the member for Hotham—all kinds of people from our community on pensions or on fixed incomes—or people who are relying on the low-income superannuation contribution in the electorates of the members for Greenway, Parramatta, Lalor or Fraser. There are very few people this Prime Minister has not done over. His behaviour when it comes to making promises and not keeping them borders on the pathological. That is best evidenced every time the Prime Minister gets up in question time and denies that this sentence is in his own budget papers, revealing $80 billion of cuts to schools and hospitals—not in the Labor Party document but it is in the budget papers of the government. We know that this 2015 budget—with all the awful things that were done back in the 2014 budget—is just the last budget with a dodgy coat of paint.

It does not stop there when it comes to broken promises about cuts to schools and hospitals. We have broken promises on the GP tax, pensions, the pension age, the car industry, submarines, wages, jobs, debt and deficit and Indigenous affairs—right across the portfolios. There would not be a minister on that side of the House who has not presided over a substantial broken promise in the last 21 months of this term. When it comes to the economics of this country and confidence, they said there would be an adrenaline surge, but confidence is down. They said there would be new jobs created, but unemployment is higher now than at any point during the global financial crisis. They want to pat themselves on the back for an unemployment rate of 6.0. That is higher than at any point in the sharpest synchronised downturn in the global economy since the Great Depression.

No Prime Minister has done more to diminish this place, to diminish the trade of politics, in my view, than the current Prime Minister. I could read out pages and pages of quotes where before he was elected he talked hand on heart about the importance of keeping promises. Promise after promise after promise has been broken. They promised overall to be part of the solution to the challenges faced by this country, and every day of the last 21 months they have shown that they are part of the problem instead. This Prime Minister is incapable of the type of leadership that is befitting of the highest elected office in the land. He is desperate to be the opposition leader again. It reeks from him when he is at the dispatch box during question time that he is desperate to be the wrecker, the person who pulls things down, the person who sets fire to things, the person who creates division and disunity in an Australian community that needs to be united if we are to be successful in the 21st century. He is desperate to be the opposition leader. He is hankering for his old job as opposition leader of this country. What we say from this side of the House is that if he wants to call an election we are happy to accommodate that wish.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to rise and speak on this MPI. It started off with the opposition leader making an apology for the lie that he told Neil Mitchell. He has not made an apology to Ben Fordham that he was not involved in 'assassinating' Prime Minister Julia Gillard. It is terrific to hear this apology, and it is very embarrassing for the opposition leader, but Labor has many more apologies to make: an apology to Australians for spending like there is no tomorrow. Even on Sky this morning the member for Rankin, when the member for Reid talked about the cupboard not just being bare but disappearing altogether, the member for Rankin started laughing, because he knows that that is the case. They not only made the cupboard bare but also they absolutely destroyed and wrecked out nation's finances.

So, while Labor is at it, they should be making an apology to Australians for bringing down not one Prime Minister but two, an apology for saying that there would be 'no carbon tax under the government we lead'—a carbon tax that destroyed jobs, racked up electricity bills and inflicted a $1.1 billion penalty on manufacturing, which for my electorate, for Geelong and for Corangamite, was an absolute disgrace. The damage it did to small business was unbelievable: 519,000 people lost their jobs in small business under six years. They should be making an apology for delivering a mining tax that raised virtually no revenue, an apology for delivering virtually no NBN and blowing out the NBN by $29 billion and an apology for not delivering three free trade agreements. And just to remind Australians of how important these are, a Chinese FTA will deliver 178,000 jobs over the next 20 years. It is a fantastic achievement, and we are very proud of it.

An apology is needed to Australians for not fixing mobile phone black spots—an appalling decision by Labor to neglect and abandon country communities. I am so proud today that we have announced such an extensive mobile phone black spot program, including 10 mobile phone base stations in my electorate of Corangamite. I can tell you that we have fixed 115 blackspots in Corangamite—they know which side of politics stands up for them, and it is certainly not the Labor Party. That was a disgraceful decision to leave those people high and dry with no communications—small businesses, small farmers. Not one cent was spent on mobile phone black spots. It was a very grave error of judgement and they should be ashamed of that decision.

Labor should be apologising to pensioners for not backing a pension increase of $30 a fortnight to the most vulnerable 170,000 pensioners in our community—the most vulnerable. The Greens were even ashamed by Labor's stand and that is why they backed our economically responsible decision in relation to pensions.

An apology is needed to seniors for Labor threatening their superannuation, creating anxiety and uncertainty. An apology is needed to Australians for leaving our economy in rack and ruin. An apology is needed to young Australians for doing virtually nothing to combat youth unemployment. An apology is needed to Australians for losing control of our borders. We all know the hideous consequences that flowed from that absolute neglect.

I would like to raise one particular issue. The member for Sydney owes the Prime Minister a personal apology. Talk about lying—the member for Sydney made an allegation about the Prime Minister she knows to be false. She said the Prime Minister knew about a fundraising activity from the Victorian division of the Liberal Party. The Prime Minister in question time made it quite clear he knew nothing about that. That is an example of the Labor Party asserting whatever it likes—it does not matter what the facts are.

The member for Sydney should get to that box and make a personal apology to the Prime Minister for the most appalling mistruth before this parliament, knowing that that was absolutely untrue. She stood there while she was in the process of trying to assassinate the Leader of the Opposition—we all know what is going on. Will she confess to what she is doing or will she tell Australians that she stands by the Leader of the Opposition? Many people on the other side no longer stand by the Leader of the Opposition. You wrecked our economy and we are fixing the economy and we are securing Australia's borders. (Time expired)

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always interesting to follow Madam Fifi and her friends, who live in this world of fiction, a world of fiction that starts directly—

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy Speaker Whiteley, I rise on a point of order. I would ask the member to withdraw that very derogatory term, which reflects on a member, is also sexist and is also not calling the member by her correct title. I find it very offensive what you just said and I would ask you—

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite. Member for McEwen, the member feels that she has been offended by your comments. Would you please withdraw to assist the House?

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw to assist the House, but the member should read the standing orders and learn what offensive words are.

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. Would you please move on, member for McEwen.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am happy to move on because there is so much to talk about. We have heard all the fiction from the other side about how wonderful they have been and how great they have been. Let's go back and start talking about what they actually said. Every single one of those people on the other side lied to the Australian people when they said, 'We will deliver a budget surplus in our first year and every year after.' That never happened. You hear the lie that gets parroted from them over there, reading their little note saying, 'They're saying that we are going to tax your superannuation.'

Let's be very clear: that lot on the other side went out and took the $500 that the government paid to people earning less than $37,000 a year—people on the minimum wage. They took the money out of their superannuation. What they did do was then put the tax concessions back on to people whose superannuation has $2 million, $3 billion, $4 million and $5 million in it. You can understand that this is the best government that Gina Rinehart was able to buy, because they took away income-producing things which actually were benefitting the Australian economy.

They come in here and say, 'Look at all the things we've done.' But they do not talk about the budget papers where it says, 'An $80 billion cut to health and education.' They say, 'It's not a cut.' But you would watch them squeal like stuck pigs when they were expecting their thousand dollars a week wages if you only paid them $800 and said, 'Look, that's not a cut; it's a bonus.' That is the mentality there because they have a leader, Tony Abbott, who by his own words confesses you cannot believe what he says and you cannot believe what he has written down. That is what the leader said.

We had the member for Lyons in here—I tell you, Acting Deputy Speaker, you missed a comedy show—who says, 'We're gonna do a tax cut to small business and it will be ongoing.' The budget paper says, 'The 1.5 per cent tax rate is only for two years', not ongoing, for two years—slightly different to what they say in here. They do it because they think that no-one cares.

We have a good laugh when the member for Corangamite—temporary, as she may be—and the clowns over there say, 'You never put money into mobile phone towers.' We didn't and do you know why? We built these things called NBN wireless towers, which actually have capacity to put telecommunications on. Since those opposite got into government, there has not been one new NBN connection. Each and every day, they come in here, fluff their heads up and pretend it is great, but they are led by a man who cannot tell the truth. He lies in this place all the time.

Today, we heard his faux outrage, because Bill Shorten was man enough to admit that he had made a mistake. Let's be clear, none of the people on the other side have ever come in here and apologised for Christopher Pyne admitting that he lied about the James Ashby affair. Let's be very clear, one of the most significant things that has happened in this parliament that they have been complicit in is the theft of the diary of the Australian Speaker. Not once has any of them said that that wrong. They have been happy with it.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We were not elected.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, you were not elected but you can tell us all about what happened in the last one. We hear about the deaths at sea and they come in here and say 'look how bad it was'. None of these people were here when in the back corner Morrison and Abbott sat over there with Sarah Hanson-Young and did a deal, which caused the death of 600 people on the water.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise on a point of order.

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not need any assistance from the member for Corangamite. The member for McEwen will refer to members of this House by their correct titles.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Cook and the member for Warringah were very complicit in doing a deal with the Greens—another broken promise. Tony Abbott said before the election 'I will not do a dirty deal with the Greens'. He is covered in it. He would have flies all over him because he is covered so much. (Time expired)

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Before I give the call to the member for Moore, I do remind members of the House there are only 51 minutes left until school is out. I give the call to the member for Moore.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Since the last election, the Abbott government has delivered on a number of key election promises to the Australian people in a number of areas including budget repair, abolition of the carbon tax, abolition of the mining tax, restoring border security, cutting red tape and delivering a range of social services to support families, youth and seniors in our community.

The government has begun the budget repair process by correcting the trajectory of debt and deficit left by Labor. As the Treasurer stated on budget night, this government inherited $123 billion in cumulative deficits. However, as a result of responsible budget measures, the projected cumulative deficit is expected to be reduced to $82 billion over the next four years. On a daily basis, the Treasury currently borrows $96 million just to pay the bills, down from the $133 million a day that this government inherited. This government has a plan to reduce the deficit and debt.

The government has abolished the carbon tax introduced by the previous Labor government, which made Australian industry less competitive against emerging nations in our region and burdened consumers with higher electricity prices. The abolition of the carbon tax has resulted in reductions in electricity prices across Australia. Treasury estimates that the abolition of the carbon tax will reduce CPI by around 0.7 percentage points for the year to the June quarter of 2015.

The abolition of the mining tax has benefited the mining industry, which employs thousands of workers and is a significant part of the economy in my home state of Western Australia. The mining industry is experiencing hard times and if the mining tax have been left in place, it would have resulted in further job losses.

The Abbott government has restored order to Australia's planned immigration system by stopping the stream of illegal maritime arrivals seeking to enter our borders through people smuggling networks. Under the previous government, there was an $11-billion blow-out. Stopping the boats is saving the Australian taxpayers $50 million a month and ensuring that the borders are secure.

The government continues to deliver on its deregulation agenda by cutting red tape. Under the former Labor government, Commonwealth regulation was costing Australians approximately $65 billion a year, equivalent to 4.2 per cent of GDP. As a result of the Abbott government's deregulation program, the regulatory cost burden is reduced by $2.45 billion. To date, the government has implemented $1.57 billion of the $2.45 billion in projected savings.

The government is delivering on its commitment to increase employment participation and provide the skilled workforce needed to build the economy including $212 million earmarked for the youth Transition to Work program to assist job seekers transition into the workplace. Six thousand places have been provided in the National Work Experience program and $106 million to provide intensive support trials for job seekers of all ages from disadvantaged backgrounds. Furthermore, $1.2 billion has been included in the national wage subsidy pool to counteract long-term unemployment.

The government is delivering for families through a family support package of $4.4 billion through the current budget. It is estimated that up to 165,000 Australian parents have a willingness to return to work but find the cost of child care prohibitive. By providing families with childcare assistance, parents will be assisted to return to the workforce bringing skills, expertise and productivity back to the economy.

The government has provided a $44-billion package in the budget for the age pension, which accounts for 10 per cent of all government spending. The age pension will continue to increase twice a year, using the highest available indexation rate. Seniors who currently have a pensioner concession card will continue to be eligible for a concession card that provides the same benefits, such as subsidised utilities, transport, bulk billing, and cheaper PBS prescription medicines. For self-funded retirees, there will be no new taxes on superannuation under the Abbott government. (Time expired)

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The discussion has now concluded.