Chris Ketter (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to speak on this matter of public importance regarding the Prime Minister's pre-election promise on 6 September last year, one day before the election, that there would be:

No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS.

I listened to the contribution from Senator McKenzie earlier in the debate, and I sensed the exasperation in her contribution about this issue being continuously raised by Labor. All I can say to Senator McKenzie and her colleagues is that they had better get used to this because this is accountability. This government needs to be held accountable for the litany of broken promises and its twisted priorities.

With the Prime Minister's comments yesterday regarding the GST, surely we are now seeing the full set of broken promises completed. This government will soon be running out of promises to break, having systematically smashed every commitment it gave to the electorate. Proper reform means bringing the community with you, challenging vested interests and making a case for changing the status quo; proper reform means not doing a dump and run with this budget of broken promises; and proper reform means not just bumping up the nearest regressive tax that you can get your hands on.

We have heard today from both Senator Ruston and Senator McKenzie that what the Labor Party is saying in this regard is somewhat factually lacking—that is how I would categorise what they said—but let us look at what this government is saying about taxation. That we have a government now looking earnestly at a regressive tax which affects the poor is a great concern to us. One of the great mythologies that exists out there is that Labor is always responsible for a higher level of taxation than the coalition. When we look at the ABC Fact Check, we find that, under the Labor period of government from 2007 to 2013, the average proportion of taxation as a proportion of GDP was 21.4 per cent, whereas in the previous Howard government there was a tax take of 23.5 per cent as a proportion of GDP. So, when we are talking about mythology, let us get our facts right and let us look at who is really responsible for higher taxes in this country.

To return to the broken promises, I quote again: 'There will be no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions, no changes to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS.' All of these promises were made in one sentence that Mr Abbott uttered in an interview on SBS on the eve of the 2013 election. It was during a live interview when the then opposition leader was at one of the sports stadiums.

We know that his promises have been completely smashed. On education, what has essentially happened is that they have scrapped the fifth and sixth year of funding that was previously part of the bipartisan Gonski reforms. In the area of health, $50 billion has been cut from public hospitals, and in the area of pensions, the pension age has been raised to 70, with indexation slashed and concessions cut. In respect of the GST, comments were made yesterday about wanting to broaden and raise the tax. On the issue of no cuts to the ABC, we have seen that there will be $35 million in cuts over four years. And in respect of SBS, the carrier that broadcast the opposition leader's promises, there will be $8 million in cuts over four years. These cuts will hit Queensland hard. In Australia's most decentralised state, those regions of Queensland outside the capital will be hit especially hard.

Recently we have also seen government senators justifying cuts to rural and regional health care on the basis that what they said before the election were merely National Party commitments and not coalition commitments. I asked Senator Nash, in her capacity of representing the Minister for Health, on 3 September about the fact that the Nationals election platform talked about increased financial support for doctors in regional and remote areas but that what actually came out in the budget was that the rebate for most GP and out-of-hospital pathology and diagnostic imaging services were to be reduced by $5. Senator Nash's response to that question was that if those opposite paid a little more attention they would realise that it is National Party policy and that they would go on to form coalition policy for the election campaign, and that immediately addresses the issue. That was the response from the National Party, the party that is supposed to be standing up for regional Australia and regional Queensland. They are nowhere to be found.

On top of these broken promises we have plans for $100,000 degrees as a further kick in the guts for regional Queenslanders. The Queensland Times, a newspaper based in Ipswich, reported:

Universities in regional Queensland and New South Wales fear the Abbott Government's education reforms could hit hard, with the poor discouraged by new charges and the bright poached by whatever school has the most money.

Local councils have also been asked to get by on less grant money from the federal government. And don't even get me started on what Queenslanders think about this out-of-touch Treasurer's view that poor people do not drive cars. Despite the Senate comprehensively rejecting a new fuel tax, they have snuck it in the back door: an increased tax for Queenslanders every time they fill up at the bowser, thanks to this government.

Australia remains gobsmacked at the conduct and deceitfulness of this government and their astonishing record to date. (Time expired)