Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Prime Minister Abbott promised solemnly before the election that there would be no changes to the pension. Now he wants to keep people working longer before they get the pension, pay them less when they finally get there and rip away government support for essential services. Australia's pensioners have a right to feel betrayed by this government and its broken promises, but they are not the only ones. These shabby amendments would also slash $7.5 billion from the budgets of Australian families through changes to the family payments system. Firstly, the Abbott government is seeking to freeze the family tax benefit payment rates including the income-free area for people on the maximum family benefit A rate. This would see more than 370,000 families lose around $750 a year in 2016-17, which will compound over time making it harder and harder to keep up with the cost of living. Again, we are seeing another policy from this government that will hit the poorest hardest.

The ACTU pointed out the unfairness of these cuts to family benefits when it said:

Many low- and middle-income working families rely on Family Tax Benefit to ensure they have a decent material standard of living. The expansion of family payments was a proud achievement of the Accord under the Hawke and Keating Governments. The provision of adequate family payments significantly reduced child poverty in Australia. Reducing these payments in real terms, as this Budget measure proposes to do, will cut the incomes of millions of working Australians. Child poverty is highly likely to rise.

In addition to these undeniable cuts, those opposite also want to cut family tax benefit B from families when their youngest child turns six. This is likely to impact 700,000 families and it will, again, unquestionably hit single-income families the hardest. In fact, it will slug single parents with an effective marginal tax rate of around 80c in the dollar for each dollar that they earn above $48,000.

The Australian Council of Social Services found that a single parent with one child aged between six and 12 would lose $37 a week from this measure alone. But it does not stop there. The Abbott government also plans to cut and then stop indexation of the family tax benefit end of year supplements. Together, these family payment changes are unfair measures that will disproportionately affect the poorest Australians, and they come at a time when the Palmer party has cosied up with the government to axe the schoolkids bonus in December 2016.

The bills before us today contain some of the most disgraceful elements of one of the most unfair budgets in history. If passed in full, this budget of broken promises would have seen around 1.2 million families $3,000 a year worse off on average by 2017-18. At the same time, the top 20 per cent of households would be a little better off. These figures do not come from Labor. They actually come from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, or NATSEM, which garnered a glowing recommendation from our Prime Minister as being:

… the most reputable and authoritative modelling organisation in Australia.

Of course, this is part of the information that Mr Hockey removed from the budget papers, despite the fact that it has been a standard inclusion back to 2005. Modelling has shown a single-income family on $65,000 with two school-aged children will be around $6,000 a year worse off from 2016 as a result of the proposed changes. Clearly, a loss of 10 per cent of income would have a significant impact on their ability to manage everyday living costs, and is entirely unacceptable. It is clear that Mr Hockey knew how unfair his budget was, and he was trying to hide it from the Australian people.

If the cuts to pensioners and families within these bills are harsh and unnecessary, then the attack on job seekers is absolutely reprehensible. It is no overstatement to say that these are some of the most draconian welfare measures we have ever seen in this country. The most serious concern for me is the Abbott government's plan to force young job seekers to wait six months before they are eligible for any income support. This is not just cruel; it is inhumane. We are a country that prides itself on our strong safety net and our support for others when they are down on their luck. This bill tears the guiding principle of a fair go to shreds in favour of enforced destitution that is a sure-fire recipe for mass desperation. And, of course, it will do absolutely nothing to create more jobs for young Australians.

Department of Social Services figures obtained by ACOSS show that each year more than 100,000 people would be hit by the proposed six-month waiting period. In my home state of Tasmania, it is estimated that 12,500 young jobseekers will be affected over the next four years.

Unsurprisingly, this measure has been widely condemned by anyone who has an understanding of Australia's labour market and of our welfare system. The National Welfare Rights Network described it perfectly as:

… a fundamental attack on the basic right to social security and the principle of adequate income support based on need.

St Vincent De Paul chief, John Falzon, warned that it will plunge jobseekers into poverty and force them to choose between charity and crime. Some jobseekers may be able to turn to family or friends but many thousands of jobseekers do not have this kind of support. For them, illegal means might be the only option they have. And, of course, any increase in crime will undoubtedly flow through into the judicial system.

Similarly, our health and social services systems will wear a heavy burden if there is a spike in depression, suicide, homelessness and other social problems that often accompany financial desperation. We should never forget that if the hit on the budget will be bad from this ill-considered policy, the toll on families and local communities will be immeasurable.

Yet again we have seen the government dragging out falsehoods to justify their bad bills. The Minister for Social Services, Kevin Andrews, was caught out last week peddling false information. The minister has recently been trying to justify this cruel measure by saying that New Zealand already forces its jobseekers to wait a month before they receive income support. The Parliamentary Library disagrees, saying that no such waiting period exists. Yet again we see the government fabricating evidence to support their heartless policy.