Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That’s right, Senator Cameron. So $300 million, appropriated from this chamber, and not a clue how to fund it. It is inappropriate that a private senator’s bill should do this. It is inappropriate that the Senate chamber should do this. There is a government in place that has a program. It is a responsible program and they are dealing with an incredibly tight budget, incredibly difficult circumstances. We are the ones, the government are the ones, who have to make the budget balance. We are the ones who are bringing the budget back to surplus three years earlier than originally planned. We have an economic plan to do that, and it does not include this whim of a bill, a private senator’s bill, simply being introduced in this place, hoping to get the support of the chamber, which will appropriate $300 million—with no plan of where the savings should come from; simply leaving the government holding that baby. That is what they want to do. And this chamber should reject it on that basis alone.

The reason this bill is here is unnecessary too. We have gone through a comprehensive reform program on this issue of income support for tertiary education. We have negotiated that with the opposition. Last year a bill came before this place which the opposition agreed with. And, as I quoted earlier, Senator Mason agreed that this was the best deal achievable under the circumstances—and he acknowledged that it was the result of negotiations. That is what they did. Now, after the election, they come back and say, ‘Oh, but we want another $300 million; we don’t care where you find it—it doesn’t really matter if it affects the bottom line, doesn’t matter if it throws the government’s program out; we simply want it because we think it’s a good idea and it would be nice to have.’ It is that sort of irresponsibility that we do not need in these economic times. It is that sort of economic irresponsibility that is another reason why you will find yourselves in opposition for a long, long time. You cannot come into this place and say, ‘We want to introduce and pass through this chamber a bill that is going to add $300 million to the bottom line, but we have no idea where we are going to get the money from.’ There have been no negotiations about that, but it just does not matter. And there will be more and more of those bills, mark my words. We will see more bills like this that seek to appropriate money from this chamber, through the mechanism of private senators’ bills, that are simply designed to sabotage the government’s fiscal and economic program. That is what they are doing. Everyone listening should watch: after this bill I bet you we see more bills doing exactly the same thing.