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

Over the past few weeks we have seen those opposite return to tried-and-true scaremongering tactics in an attempt to distract from their own internal chaos and to try to justify their vicious attacks on low- and middle-income Australians. It is a fairly simplistic plan which basically consists of pointing and shouting, 'Look! Look over there! Labor!' and screeching, 'Budget emergency!'

Of course, it is not a new strategy. In fact, those opposite have irresponsibly been trying to misrepresent Australia's financial situation for years, especially in the period directly before the 2013 election. While the rest of the world was lauding Australia for getting through the GFC with solid growth, low inflation, low unemployment and a AAA credit rating from all three ratings agencies, those opposite were busy talking our economy down. While the International Monetary Fund recognised that it was the Howard government, not a Labor government, that was the wasteful government, those opposite were continuing their economic fearmongering for tawdry political reasons. While it was clear that, under Labor, Australia had a relatively low debt of 12.7 per cent of GDP compared to an OECD average of 74.7 per cent of GDP, those opposite blundered on—either completely ignorant of, or completely misrepresenting, the facts.

After all the hysterical screeching about the debt and deficit before the election, it is not surprising the Australian people actually expected those opposite to do something about it when in government. But the financial statements prove that this is not what is happening. Joe Hockey's mini-budget clearly showed that the Australian economy has suffered since the Abbott government's damaging and unfair May budget. Unemployment is up, the deficit has spiked and confidence has fallen in a hole. The deficit ballooned by 70 per cent to $40.4 billion and net debt increased by 15 per cent to $244.8 billion. This is a government that promised to improve the budget bottom line—but instead tens of billions of dollars have been added to debt and deficit, all while hurting Australian families, pensioners, students and job seekers.

Do not get me wrong—Labor has supported billions of dollars of budget savings and we will continue to support savings that are fair and sensible. In fact, when we were in government we made $180 billion in savings which contributed to long-term budget sustainability without the attacks on low- and middle-income earners. But we will never support $100,000 degrees or the trashing of Medicare which will only serve to make us less healthy, less educated and less able to grow the economy in the future. The truth is that, while those opposite screech that we need to tighten our belts, it turns out that the 'we' they are referring to is only the poor, the sick, the young and those who rely on government services. Almost unscathed by those so-called belt-tightening measures are high-income earners, the wealthy and the powerful. This is a government that uses debt merely as a self-serving political strategy which is constantly parroted by the member for Braddon, Mr Brett Whiteley.

They talk about reducing debt but, as we all know, their words and their actions are worlds apart. These actions tell the story of their absolute rank hypocrisy. They talked about reducing debt while putting in a request for a $200 billion hike to the nation's debt limit. They said they could not afford to maintain university funding while they gave the Reserve Bank a reportedly unsolicited $8.8 billion gift. They cut $80 billion from health and education while dumping Labor's plans to ensure multinational companies pay their fair share of tax. They plan to cut pensions and leave young job seekers with no source of income for six months at a time, while repealing billions of dollars of tax revenue.

Clearly this is not a government that cares about reducing debt. They are merely using it as a political smokescreen to ram through their longstanding plans to turn Australia into a two-tiered society of haves and nave-nots. The savage budget tells the story, with massive hits to low- and middle-income Australians while the well-off will barely feel the impacts. Treasury analysis found that lower-income households would lose an average of $842 a year while high-income families with barely feel a $71 hit to their bottom line.

Clearly, this is a government that has no plan to address Australia's economic situation beyond hysteria and blatant attacks on those who can least afford to be hit. The Abbott government has been in government for 16 months now, and their trite slogans and shallow platitudes are starting to wear a little thin. Quite frankly, the people of Australia are waiting for those adults that we were promised would turn up.