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

What Canberra has seen from this budget is what we have seen from Liberal government budgets for the last 20 years. Prime Minister Turnbull's budget for Canberra is one that would make his predecessors proud. He has learnt from former Prime Minister John Howard's cuts from 1996. He has used the disastrous 1996 budget not as a warning but as a template. We face cut upon cut upon cut—cuts to Medicare, cuts to universities, cuts to pathology, cuts to family payments—and those cuts are felt around the country.

But some of the deepest cuts have been reserved for Canberra. Some of the Turnbull government's most significant cuts are targeting my constituents. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer are out in the media telling everyone who will listen that their budget is a plan for growth and jobs. It is a bitter irony for Canberra because, when it comes to the Liberal government's plans for Canberra, it is a plan to cut jobs, it is a plan to stall growth, it is the economic plan you roll out when you have no economic plan.

This Liberal government has packed their budget with gifts for themselves and their mates, and they have asked Canberra to pick up the tab. Once again Canberra is being forced to find billions of dollars worth of savings. Compare this government's record in Canberra to that of Labor. Labor invested in trade training centres right throughout the ACT. Labor invested in hospitals. Labor invested in every school in Canberra. Labor invested in major road projects like the Majura Parkway. Then compare that to the Prime Minister and his Liberal government—the Liberal government that has just cut $1.9 billion from the Public Service. They are not investing in Canberra; they are cutting. They are not cutting fat; they are not cutting bone; they are hitting vital organs. But do not tell them that.

The Liberals are out there saying that this is a good budget for Canberra. How they can say that, god only knows. What makes them say that? It is not the nearly $2 billion worth of cuts. It is not the thousands of jobs being cut. It is not the lack of prioritisation of the NBN rollout—where, just 25 kilometres from Parliament House, we have got some of the worst speeds in the country. It is not the cuts to our national institutions. No, they think this is a good budget for Canberra because they had the good manners to include $300,000 in terms of a consolation prize. There is $1.9 billion in savings and cuts to the Public Service, and what do we get in return? We get $300,000. That is the only good news for Canberra in this budget from this government, and they think that that is enough. It is an offensive underscore to this government's persistent hostility to Canberra. It seems that, no matter who leads this government, old habits die hard.