Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is right: to have a quality contribution and to hear your quality contribution from over there.

It is very important that we bring this motion on for debate, because what we have opposite is a government whose priorities are all wrong. This government's budget strategy is a shambles. This arrogant and out-of-touch government is trying to tell the Senate, and trying to convince the Australian people, that its cruel and unfair budget is some bitter economic pill that everybody needs to swallow; that there are no options but to cut pensions, cut income support for job seekers and families, cut the schoolkids bonus, cut health care and education to the tune of $80 billion, cut ABC and SBS, cut tax concessions for small business and raise taxes for low-income superannuants; and that there is no option but to charge a $7 GP tax every time you visit your doctor. Well, that might be on the cards; it might be off the cards. We could not get a clear answer in question time about that today, so we are not sure where that is going. But I doubt that it has been buried forever. We all know that the $7 GP tax was one which all the evidence has shown would lead to more illness and chronic disease and cost the health system more in the long run. And the Treasurer tries to justify this government's unfair petrol tax, which will see motorists pay another $19 billion more for petrol over the next decade. And what was his claim? That poor people do not drive cars! Wow. The truth is that the poorest 20 per cent of households in Australia spend three times the proportion of their income on petrol that the wealthiest 20 per cent spend.

I agree with Senator Sinodinos that the money needs to come from somewhere. What I do not agree with is that it should be Australia's poorest and most vulnerable who should shoulder the load. While the government is telling ordinary Australians they need to tighten their belts, this same government is giving a tax break to billionaire miners, to big polluters and to people with million-dollar superannuation balances. And, as if this government's priorities were not sick and twisted enough, it wants to spend a massive $20 billion on a paid parental leave scheme that gives $50,000 to millionaires.

So of course the Senate has a responsibility to propose and discuss options to cut government spending, because this government's inflexible head-in-the-sand take-it-or-leave-it approach shows that it is blind to the clear options in front of it—options such as giving tax concessions to small business instead of tax breaks to billionaire miners; options such as restoring the low-income superannuation contribution for 3.6 million Australian workers instead of cutting it to fund a tax break for Australia's wealthiest superannuants; options such as investing in health promotion, prevention and early intervention instead of cutting hospitals and taxing access to primary health care; and options such as investing in services instead of providing profligate wage subsidies to millionaire mums.

There is no better reason for the government to revisit its budget strategy than the damage it has done to the Australian economy. Morgan Stanley has issued a damning assessment of the Abbott government, warning:

The alarmist Budget narrative has damaged animal spirits and the consumer's willingness to dip into high savings, thus missing the opportunity for animal spirits to springboard from the strong housing cycle.

Morgan Stanley has estimated that economic growth will fall below two per cent and that unemployment will reach almost seven per cent next year. Morgan Stanley's report shows that not only is the Abbott government's budget cruel and unfair; it is also damaging to Australia's economy.

The government has launched an attack on household budgets at a time when consumer confidence needs to be strong. This is demonstrated by the Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer sentiment, which has dropped 13 per cent since the 2013 federal election. In fact, in just 15 months, the Australian economy has fallen from eighth place to 14th place in the world based on per capita gross domestic product. We have a government that promised to create one million new jobs in five years and two million jobs in 10 years.