Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise with some energy to contribute to the debate on the matter that Senator Claire Moore has put before the Senate this afternoon, and that is a concern that must be absolutely reverberating right across this country, but nowhere more particularly than in the great state that I represent here in the Senate—the great state of New South Wales—and as voters put their minds to the election coming up this weekend to understand the difference between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party on these critical issues that touch every single person's life. And it has been very, very clear, from the moment they got in. Since the election, we have heard nothing but negativity from the government on the issue of any expenditure towards core services such as health and education. They constantly talk about these sectors as the great costs to the nation. They fail to understand the power of education and health as investments in our people—investments in our young people, investments in retraining, investments in keeping people well and healthy so that they can participate and live full, active and fulfilling lives that contribute to the common good of society.

But we have seen an environment of austerity from the moment they arrived in this place—this Liberal government and Liberal governments all around the country that have been punished at the polls because of their miserly vision of this country, because of their determination to cut and cut hard, right to the heart of people's lives in their access to education and health. Parents and teachers are rightly concerned about school funding after the government walked away from Labor's Gonski funding reforms. Everybody understood that we needed to move to a sector-blind, needs-aware funding model—everybody, that is, except this miserly government. When they got in they cut years 5 and 6. They completely misrepresented to the community beforehand that they were on a unity ticket with Labor. But the minute they had the opportunity, when they felt that people were looking the other way, it was gone—just like the cuts we see in the health sector.

People are fearful of the cuts that this government has made and the chaos of policymaking with regard to Medicare. The prospect of being taxed to go to your GP is a concept that no Australian who voted for the Liberal Party was made aware of before they voted. No indication was given to the entire Australian population that this government was going to come in and tax you to go to your own doctor. And the shemozzle that has followed that! They made that announcement, without consultation, on the day they delivered the budget. That is the first time that health professionals across this country and the people who voted this sad and sorry government in found out that they were going to be taxed to go to the GP. That is a disgrace.

And, of course, that is why we should be extremely fearful about what the Abbott government is set to do in the next budget. They are all outside the chamber now having a big talk as if they are consulting. But the reality is that this government always thinks it knows better than the experts. This is a government that ignores the facts. It is not making evidence based policy and it is determined to inflict pain on those who can least afford it. They target the most vulnerable, and when they are on their knees is when they kick them the hardest.

There is a big difference between Labor values and Liberal values expressed in the two critical policy areas of health and education. In government, Labor has always fought for universal access to health care—people know it as Medicare, and it underpins access for every Australian. People who are old enough will remember that, before Medicare, people were made bankrupt because they had to have an operation. Those are the old days that this government is set to return us to. On education, there was no sound from this government before they were elected that they were intent on setting up $100,000 degrees, cutting 20 per cent of the higher education budget and holding the Senate to account—over a barrel and with a shotgun to its head—by saying they would not fund NCRIS, our most prestigious investigation body in terms of science.

We are deeply concerned by the ongoing commitment of this coalition government to cut funding from health and education. What we have seen since they came to power in terms of their real action in this area is cuts to valuable program such as Youth Connections. We wonder what is going to be targeted in the next budget. From 2010 to 2013, Youth Connections across the country cost $286 million. That is a lot of money for every household but in terms of the budget of a nation it is a small investment in very vulnerable young people. At a cost of just $76.8 million in its final year, 2014, this program delivered for extremely vulnerable young Australians who had fallen out of school the little support that they needed to connect back into education or back into life. But this government, driven by an ideology that sees investment as a cost not an investment, cut that program. Right across this country now, as the Youth Connections program has disappeared, connections to education, jobs, training and a future for young people are absolutely falling apart.

In terms of health, what we have seen with this disastrous set of policies that changed from May to December. again in January and again in March is the shameful way in which this Liberal-National coalition government is determined to hurt Medicare and everyone that it protects this country. They will cut it to the bone. While they might be making noises that they have pulled their GP tax—and some may be fooled—let's be clear that the minister confirmed that this government is absolutely committed to putting a price signal on Medicare. This is what they said: 'It is definitely good policy to put the right price and value signals in health to make sure that people value the service they get from doctors.' Well, they cannot value the service they get from doctors if they cannot get to the doctor—and that is what this lot have got cooked up in the next budget. We will be watching closely to defend health and education at every turn.