Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to contribute to the matter of public importance on the Prime Minister's pre-election promise that there would be no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to the pension, no change the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS. As we know, Mr Abbott went to the election promising all these things and telling the Australian people that he would not change the pension, there would be no change the GST, there would be no cuts to education and there would be no cuts to health. He told them these things because he wanted to get elected. He wanted the Australian people to trust him.

It did not take long for the trust that the Australian people put in Mr Abbott to be shown to unfortunately be misplaced. What we have seen from this government is a systematic targeting of those that can least afford to be targeted and those with the least amount of money. What we have seen is a substantial cut to pensions. In my home state of Tasmania, where we have around about 98,000 pensioners, they will be worse off and they know they will. The letter that Mr Abbott spent over $1 million on was to tell people that his election commitment was not based on a lie, but they know the truth and they know that they will be worse off. They have seen the work and they have seen some of the modelling produced by ACOSS. They know that they will be worse off. They know the Prime Minister has broken this commitment to them, and they will not forget it.

Mr Abbott, it appears, will unfortunately say anything to get into government. He has a list of lies and broken promises—and the list of lies unfortunately gets longer by the day. The massive cuts that he wants to inflict on Australians target pensioners, families, students, the poor and the sick. They give little hope for the future and take away so much from Australians.

Labor will continue to fight against these cuts and continue to speak up for those whose voices are not heard by this government. The effects of Mr Abbott's twisted priorities are worrying. They are frightening Australians, particularly, as I have mentioned, in my home state of Tasmania. The cuts to education will be extremely harsh for Tasmania. A good education can lift people out of poverty and give them hope and optimism for the future. We need to lift our students' performance. If Tasmanian students are to achieve in line with national standards Mr Abbott needs to keep his promises.

His first budget failed to fund the vital fifth and sixth years of the Gonski reforms and instead ripped $80 billion from our schools and hospitals. Tasmanian schools will lose $682 million—the biggest ever cut to our schools. But where are the Tasmanian Liberal senators, and where are the federal Liberal members in the House of Representatives when it comes to these cuts? They remain silent.

Every Tasmanian school will suffer. Their funding will be cut although parents, teachers and students were promised improvements by Mr Abbott and Mr Pyne. These are savage cuts. They will leave the average school $3.2 million worse off and rob every student of $1,000 in individual support per year. The quality of education for Tasmanians will suffer. Parents, teachers and students have been betrayed.

How can we expect Tasmanian students to improve their results when Mr Abbott is cutting funding for the resources and staff they need to help them? These cuts are the equivalent of sacking one in seven teachers, and they are already having a great impact in our classrooms.

Now I come to the cuts to health. We know that Tasmania has a higher burden of chronic disease. Mr Abbott's $1.1 billion in cuts to public hospitals in Tasmania will seriously affect health outcomes for Tasmania. I am running out of time, but Tasmanians know that Mr Abbott came to this election— (Time expired)