Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is the last sitting day of parliament before the budget—the fourth budget of this Abbott-Turnbull government. The people of Australia have every reason to be worried. The people in my electorate of Paterson have every right to be worried because this government has its priorities all wrong. Today, and all this week, it has been squabbling and horse trading in the Senate trying to pass $50 billion worth of tax cuts to big business. At the same time, it is leaving 1½ million Australian families and millions of children worse off by freezing the family tax benefits payment rates. That means payments to low-income families will not keep pace with the cost of living, which we know is going up all the time. The government has swaddled these cuts with child care, trying to pretend that these cuts are about helping families with the cost of child care, but no-one is buying that story.

These cuts will come into effect on 1 July, the same day the Turnbull government intends to abolish the deficit levy to high-income earners. Abolishing the deficit levy will mean a tax cut for a millionaire of $16,400 a year. That equates to $315 per week. If the government had kept the deficit levy, it would have found $4.4 billion in savings from one-third as many families with a far greater propensity to afford them than our poorest families. So, on one hand, this government wants to give $315 a week to a millionaire and take $440 a year from a family on $60,000 a year with two primary school aged children and take $540 a year from a single-parent family on $50,000 a week with two high school children. Talk about having your priorities absolutely wrong.

It has cut pensions. It refuses to stand up for our lowest-paid workers. It wants to cut money from community legal centres which help the most vulnerable in our society to access justice, all the while handing out money to millionaires and promising tax cuts to big business and overseas shareholders; all the while watching our economy grow below trend, watching unemployment increase and watching underemployment reach record highs. This government thinks the answer to record low wages growth is to cut them further. This government thinks robbing poor Peter to pay rich Paul is the answer. I do not believe that the Australian people are going to wear it any longer.

I read an interesting piece on The Conversation this week about inequality. It was written by Professor of Psychology Nick Haslam from the University of Melbourne and is aptly called 'Distress, status wars and immoral behaviour: the psychological impacts of inequality'. In the piece, Professor Haslam writes:

It is well known that economic inequality is rising … that rising inequality is associated with a range of economic and social ills.

In addition to the better known effects of inequality, such as worse health and more violent crime, inequality also has profound psychological effects. These include lower life satisfaction and higher rates of depression, but, most importantly, an increased mistrust of other people: the sense that the system is unfair and that others are advancing themselves by questionable means. That mistrust leads to a breakdown in cohesion and a sense that these divides, into the haves and the have-nots, are deep and inevitable. Mistrust undermines social cohesion. It really undermines social connection and civility. A society where people do not trust one another is at risk of ill-health and violent crime. Economic inequality has very real psychological and social consequences.

But the government is not taking any of that into consideration. I really believe it does not care. And what could illustrate that better than the Turnbull government's submission to the Fair Work Commission on the minimum wage? The government has asked the commission to take a cautious approach to raising the minimum wage, and said that it was an efficient way to address relative living standards and the needs of the low-paid. We are talking about nearly 200,000 people who are paid $17.70 an hour. Raising the wages of the lowest paid—how could that not be efficient? It is the most efficient way. I call on this government to do more to settle this inequality.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to speak without closing the debate.

Leave is granted.

Yesterday we saw the latest instalment in the appalling conduct of the new secretary of the ACTU, Sally McManus. Yesterday, Ms McManus said she had supported efforts by Marrickville Council some years ago to implement the controversial Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions policy against Israel, in her then capacity as secretary of the New South Wales ASU. She also stated that she personally had supported a boycott only of companies operating out of the settlements. Ms McManus has been a most enthusiastic supporter of the BDS campaign. As well as writing a letter of support to the Greens mayor of Marrickville, a 'Sally McManus,' as an individual resident of the Marrickville municipality, signed an open letter to Marrickville Council, strongly supporting all organisations and individuals who had endorsed the worldwide movement for the boycott, divestment and sanctions of products and services linked with Israel. The open letter's stated purpose was to support Marrickville Council's endorsement of the global campaign of Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions. The second clause of the resolution passed by Marrickville Council stated:

Marrickville Council boycott all goods made in Israel and any sporting, academic institutions, government or institutional cultural exchanges.

Sally McManus's support for the BDS campaign was galvanised by an APHEDA, or Union Aid Abroad, study tour to the Middle East. On her return, she became an activist for the BDS cause, saying that the trip drove home to her 'the daily sufferings of the Palestinian people as workers, women, refugees, children, families and communities under occupation'. She said it had:

a very big impact on my views and ever since then I've had a fairly high level of interest.

She also said:

It gave me the confidence to participate in debates and discussions from a perspective that is at least a bit informed and has a point of reference.

And participate she did. Shortly after her return, her ASU branch passed a resolution supporting 'consumer boycotts of products made in the illegal settlements, as well as consumer boycotts of companies who assist in or profit from the occupation of Palestinian territories'. Ms McManus even argued publicly for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, headlining a Politics in the Pub forum entitled, 'Holding Israel accountable: the BDS campaign'.

Yesterday Sally McManus reaffirmed her support for the BDS campaign, at least with regard to companies operating out of the settlements. Various leaders have expressed profound concern at Ms McManus's support for the BDS campaign. The executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, Colin Rubenstein, said:

We can only hope that with the passage of time, Ms McManus has become better informed as to the way this proposal damages prospects of peace, furthers racism and hurts Palestinian and other workers.

Dr Dvir Abramovich, chair of the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission, has said: 'It is highly disappointing that a leader of a major union such as the ACTU supports the one-sided and hypocritical BDS campaign that traffics in discrimination and in a fervently vicious anti-Israel message that seeks to isolate and demonise the Jewish state.' Despite saying that the BDS campaign would not be a priority for her as secretary of the ACTU, Sally McManus's support for BDS is making her a poster girl for BDS campaigners at home and abroad—such as Justice for Palestine Brisbane, Sydney Staff for BDS at the University of Sydney, and BDS Amsterdam. More disturbingly, Ms McManus's support for BDS has been supported and endorsed by Greens figures like Bruce Knobloch and Hall Greenland, who have been linked to the Left Renewal push inside the New South Wales Greens. Left Renewal explicitly calls on the Greens to 'openly and wholly support the BDS campaign'—which it maintains is actually Greens policy in he New South Wales.

Sadly, yesterday Sally McManus pointedly failed to repudiate the vile BDS campaign and in fact reiterated her personal support for it.

This is a very important issue. The Leader of the Opposition should denounce Ms McManus's support for BDS, as he has already done in relation to her support for breaking the law, and the Greens leader, Senator Richard di Natale, should reiterate that the Greens do not support the BDS campaign, which is being pushed by many Greens members in New South Wales and across the country.