Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

Take the money and run, Senator Nash; that is exactly right. 'And we will have no conditions whatsoever, because we do not believe in making people accountable'—let alone themselves—'for what the money is actually spent on.' So parents can spend the money on whatever they like.

I spoke with a young mother yesterday. She was a single mother and, like so many Australians, she is under a lot of pressure and is battling with the rising cost-of-living pressure. She will qualify for this cash-splash payment. She said to me, 'Do you know what I'm going to do with it, Michaelia? It may well pay my next grocery bill, or maybe I will put it towards my electricity bill—because that keeps rising.' But she admitted she would not be using the money for her child's education. Whilst many parents will do the right thing and will put it towards their child's education, there are so many—like the mother I spoke to yesterday—who are drowning under the rising cost-of-living pressure who will have no real choice but, when given some money by the Labor Party, spend it on something else—and who can actually blame them? You cannot blame them, when they look you in the face and are honest enough with you to say, 'I won't spend it on education, because I'm about to have my electricity turned off because I can't pay my electricity bill.'

On that point, we have learnt today that, in my home state of Western Australia, electricity prices are likely to rise by almost 15 per cent, solely as a result of the federal Labor government's carbon tax and the fact that it is going to have a bigger impact and a bigger effect on bills than was initially expected. It has been confirmed by the WA Treasurer that power prices in WA will need to increase by 9.5 per cent to cover the added cost of producing electricity, solely because of the federal government's carbon tax. If Labor were truly serious about reducing the burdens facing Australian families, the best thing they could do is what the former Premier of New South Wales has told them they should do—that is, former Labor Premier Kristina Keneally. She has at least been honest enough to say, 'I supported the carbon tax because I needed to try and win an election. I now realise that that was wrong', and she is on the record as saying, 'The smartest thing that the current Prime Minister could do is to scrap the carbon tax.'

This new policy that they are introducing today, and the one that we are debating—we have one hour left now; one hour to debate a budget measure—has abandoned any pretence of being about offsetting education costs. It is nothing more and nothing less than a sugar hit for families to create a diversion from increased bills and costs that will happen just because a family goes about undertaking the day-to-day activities that they would normally undertake. Because of those on the other side, this is now going to be a far more expensive exercise.

The coalition understands, without a doubt, that parents in Australia need help with their education costs. We are upfront about that. In fact, we are so upfront about that that the policy we took to the last election was to increase the education tax rebate. Our plan was to increase it so that families would receive $1,000 for each secondary school aged child and $500 for each primary school aged child. Let's contrast that with the cash splash that the Labor government are giving out. One thousand dollars and $500 is what they would have got under the coalition; what are they getting under Labor? Under Labor they will only get $820 for secondary school aged children and $410 for primary school aged children. The Australian public are actually going to be $270 worse off per year under the Labor government. The coalition's policy was more money, it was appropriately targeted and it was directed straight at those families that most needed the financial assistance. But, as Graham Richardson has said time and time again: 'Whatever it takes.' The Labor Party will do whatever it takes to remain on that side of the chamber. The SchoolKids Bonus is the perfect example of Graham Richardson's statement in action. The legislation we are currently debating is about nothing more and nothing less than throwing money at people to compensate for the fact that they are about to be hit by the world's biggest carbon tax. This is about nothing more and nothing less than compensating the Australian people for the fact that over the last four years, under successive Labor governments, the cost of living has risen and risen, and the Australian people know that under Labor there is only one way that the cost of living goes, and that is up.

The coalition will oppose this bad policy. It is bad policy because it is not making a targeted payment. It makes a general cash handout that can be used in any way totally unrelated to education expenses. It is bad policy because it is bringing forward expenditure from next year's financial accounts into this year's in order to give the Treasurer and Labor a so-called surplus. Australia under Labor is now a nation that is saddled with increasing debt. That is the Labor Party's great record: a nation that is saddled with increasing debt.

Bills like the one we are hurriedly debating today prove that Labor's budget is not a nation building budget. It is not a budget to be proud of. It is a nation wrecking budget, a horror budget, and they should at least be up-front with the Australian people about what this cash splash actually is.