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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why is it that under this Prime Minister, a former banker, the priorities are always the same? The biggest winners from his $80 billion handout are the big banks. The bosses who steal from their workers get let off without penalty and are rewarded with a tax deduction, but everyone else in Australia is left to pay for the cuts to the pensions, the hospitals, the schools and the TAFEs.

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

What we've just heard is the summation of the Labor Party's litany of falsehoods and the way they insult the intelligence of the Australian people. Cuts to schools and hospitals. Well, what about this: support for government schools rises from $7.7 billion to $9.7 billion from 2018-19 to 2021-22. The Leader of the Opposition said we're cutting schools funding—false. We're increasing it. Support for non-government schools rises from $11.8 billion to $13.8 billion over the same period. That's up. That's increasing funding for schools.

Ms Ryan interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lalor is warned.

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

What about hospitals? Funding for hospitals increases every single year. The budget fully funds a new five-year public hospital agreement with the states and territories that will deliver more than $30 billion in additional funding between 2021 and 2024-25. Commonwealth funding for public hospital services is on track to more than double from $13.3 billion in 2012-13, the last year of the Labor government, to $28.7 billion in 2024-25.

The Labor Party thinks they can make a lie the truth by repeating it again and again, and they can't. Their claims that we have cut spending on schools and on health are false. They are demonstrably false. The numbers I have just read out prove those claims are false. But it won't stop them, because they have no respect for the truth and they have no respect for the intelligence of the Australian people. They hold the Australian people in contempt by disrespecting them with one lie after the other.

There is record funding and we are guaranteeing essential services, bringing the budget back into balance a year earlier and ensuring that hardworking Australian families can keep more of the money they earn. That's what our budget delivers. Labor could not deliver that in government. They are the biggest threat to the jobs, the health funding, the schools funding and the drugs listing that the Australian people face. The Labor government would be a train wreck for the economy and put all of that economic achievement at risk.