Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to point out the risk that the opposition leader and the Liberals and Nationals pose to my electorate on the New South Wales North Coast and, indeed, right throughout the nation. The fact is, if they are elected, people will be worse off. Australians know that; people in my region know that and tell me that every day. Households will be approximately $7,200 worse off. That's the impact of their policies.

We know this. How do we know it, people might ask? We know it because they've opposed every single cost-of-living measure we have put forward—every single one of them. People are doing it tough, and that's why we have those cost-of-living measures in place, but they're completely opposed to them.

But we do know what they want to do. They want to spend $10 billion worth of taxpayers' money for bosses to have long lunches. They're fine with that but not with helping out Australians who are struggling. We do know there will be massive amounts of cuts. In fact, there will be $350 billion in cuts. Where will they be? They just won't tell us. Will there be cuts to Medicare? Will there be cuts to age pensions? Will there be cuts to bulk-billing? Will there be cuts across the board? People don't know, and they're quite terrified about the risk that they pose.

Let's have a look in more detail at some of those cost-of-living measures that the Liberals and Nationals oppose. There are the tax cuts for every taxpayer. In my area, 71,000 people have benefitted from them. The average tax cut is around $1,500. They opposed it. There's the $300 energy bill relief. They opposed it, and people needed to have that. There are cheaper medicines and cheaper child care. The Liberals and Nationals opposed them. What about fee-free TAFE, which has been a game changer for 5,000 people in my region? They opposed it. They also opposed really important pay rises for aged-care workers and childcare workers. We know they've opposed all of those, and that's why we know people will be worse off under the Liberals and Nationals. That is, in fact, a fact.

Let's have a look at the opposition leader's record when he was the health minister. It's a pretty shambolic record. He went ahead and froze Medicare rebates. Of course, he really wanted to have that GP tax in place as well. He cut $50 billion from public hospitals. And, in fact, the opposition leader said that there were too many free Medicare services. That's what the Liberals and Nationals think of Medicare. After a decade of cuts and neglect, we've worked really hard to repair Medicare.

We know that all these cuts will be there, but we won't hear about any of them until after the election. They won't tell us, but we know there's $350 billion in cuts. There's a really clear choice at the next election, and that's a choice between building Australia's future with the Albanese Labor government or taking Australia backwards with the Liberals and Nationals. The fact is, it's only a vote for Labor that can stop the opposition leader from becoming Prime Minister and stop the Liberals and Nationals from getting into power. They will take us backwards, and people will be worse off.