Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy President. I am very pleased to be able to speak on this matter of public importance. And what could be more important now than the chaos, the division, the dysfunction and the mistrust that is at the heart of the coalition government? I have to say, Mr Deputy President, when you talk about the coalition government and you talk about heart, you really cannot focus too well—because there is no heart in this government. They are heartless. They are a heartless, divided, dysfunctional and chaotic government. When we talk about the Abbott government and heart, we are talking metaphorically, because this government has no heart.

Two-thirds of the backbench—at least—are so concerned about the heartless policies, the incompetent policies, and the economic incompetence of this government that they actually want to change their leader—two-thirds of the backbench of this government who was going to be a grown-up government! Well, grown-up government they are! They are so grown-up that they are at each other's throats continually, and the bubbling mass of discontent is bubbling away still. This is a government and this is a leader, Mr Tony Abbott, who is on his last legs. And why is this government in such disarray after such a short time? Why is this government in such chaos? Because their economic policies are wrong, their economic policies are bad, and their budget was totally unfair. That is what underpins the problems this government has.

The other issue is that this government came to power based on lies—based on commitments given to the Australian public that were never going to be kept—and the lies continue. We have the Prime Minister ringing up Senator Edwards and telling Senator Edwards that the submarines would be openly competitive—that there would be open competition for the submarines to be built in South Australia. He gets Senator Edwards to vote for the Prime Minister, and as soon as the vote is in, what do the Prime Minister and his cronies do? They turn around and leave Senator Edwards up a dry gully—with no commitment for the submarines to have an open tender; absolutely none. And we had Senator Edwards embarrassed, going out there telling the press that he has had a great victory, and that South Australian senators have had a great victory, with this commitment from the Prime Minister. Mr Acting Deputy President, the commitment from the Prime Minister was the same as the commitment he gave to the Australian people—not worth anything. That is the kind of commitment you get from this Prime Minister.

The dysfunction will continue. The square-ups will continue. Mr Turnbull's minions—Malcolm's minions—will continue to try and make sure that he becomes the Prime Minister. We have seen it, and we see it now: all that stuff that is going on behind the scenes to try and get Mr Turnbull to be the next prime minister of this country. But the question here is if you change the prime minister, do you change policy? And what we found out last week from Senator Cormann is that not one frontbencher in this parliament—not one frontbencher!—complained either to Senator Cormann or the Treasurer or the Prime Minister about the unfairness of the budget. So we had them all there supporting it—all the ministerial team supporting an unfair budget; a budget that will mean pensioners will be $80 a week worse off down the track, where the young unemployed will be $50 a week worse off—the unemployed can hardly survive now, but they will be a further $50 a week worse off under this dysfunctional and chaotic government. The unemployed will have to wait six months before they can even get access to any support—the poorest and the weakest people in this community cannot get access to government support—public support—because of the ideology of this government, and because of their dysfunction, and because their whole budget is dysfunctional.

A single-income family on $65,000 a year will be $6,500 worse off, and yet politicians and the well-off will not even know that they have had to make a so-called contribution to the so-called budget repair. They will not even know about it—will not feel it. Pensioners, young couples trying to survive and some of the poorest people in this country are the ones who are going to get hammered—people in New South Wales, in my area, in the western suburbs, in Penrith, in Blacktown, in Mount Druitt and in St Clair. These are battling families—doing it tough, many of them—and they will be the victims of this dysfunctional and chaotic government.

Under this budget, 1.2 million families will be $3,000 a year worse off. Those opposite are cutting the pensioner education supplement, cutting the seniors supplement, ripping $36 billion out from education, bringing in a GP tax, freezing indexation and making a further $5 cut, which they are putting in place because they could not get their $7 co-payment through the parliament. The doctors from Tamworth who appeared at the hearing last week of the Senate Select Committee on Health said that they will have to abandon bulk-billing and that, to keep their practices viable, they will have to charge concession card holders $65 and charge $100 for those who do not have a concession card. We heard in this place former Senator Joyce—now on the front bench of the coalition—talking, and trying to scare people, about a $100 leg of lamb under the carbon tax. What we have now is doctors in Tamworth, in Senator Joyce's own backyard, saying, 'If you're going to come and see a doctor, you'd better have $100'—$100 to see the doctor! That is because we have a dysfunctional government, a chaotic government, an erratic government and a government that is too busy fighting amongst itself.

I have said it before in here: we know that the Liberals hate the Nationals, we know that the Nationals hate the Liberals and we know that the Liberals hate each other. It has all been played out before us over the last few weeks. We have a Prime Minister who is not up to the game. We have a Prime Minister who is hopeless. We have a frontbench who are economically irresponsible. We have a frontbench who just do not know what it is to have fairness and equity. I could not believe it when Senator Cormann said that no-one in the coalition had raised the issue of unfairness in the budget—no-one! Everybody knows that this is the most unfair budget that has ever been delivered in this parliament. The big end of town and the high-income earners get off almost scot free, and yet, if you are a family battling away on an income of $65,000, 6½ grand is what it is going to cost you. It is not fairness when you take away support for health, when you take away support for education, when you take away welfare support, and when you take away from the weakest and poorest in this country. That is the reason that this government is on the nose. That is the reason this is a chaotic, dysfunctional government. The policies are rotten to the core.