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

I rise today to talk about this government's second budget and how it has, once again, failed my home state of Queensland. Last year we learned that this was a government of broken promises and twisted priorities. Last year we also found out how unfair a coalition government could be if it really put its mind to it. The fact is that the Abbott government's 2015 budget locks in the unfairness of last year's budget. It is not only an unfair budget; it is a weak budget when it comes to the critical points and the tests of job creation and increasing economic opportunities. Under this budget unemployment remains stuck, with the government forecasting it at over six per cent until 2018-19, which means that they have essentially given up on creating more jobs and doing the hard work to bring unemployment down faster.

As I say, this budget retains much of the unfairness of last year's budget. The Abbott government has not reversed its massive cuts to our hospitals. They have not reversed the cuts to education. The government's higher education proposals are still very much on the table—$80 billion of cuts to schools and hospitals are still on the table and the same $100,000 degrees are still there. We are still left with big cuts to family payments. This second budget is no better than the first. The Abbott government's second budget does not address the cuts to health and education from the first budget. This budget is all about saving the Prime Minister's job. It is about the Prime Minister's and the Treasurer's political survival. There is no long-term vision for Australia in this budget. It is not about the future of Australia; it is short-sighted and this government seems to make things up as it goes along.

It is hard to keep track of the government's litany of broken promises, and they are all to the detriment of my home state of Queensland. On examination of the budget we see that Queensland is facing an $18 billion funding shortfall in health and education over the next 10 years. It is obvious that this government's shocking and clumsy approach to Commonwealth-state relations remains intact. The Commonwealth budget papers reveal that Queensland will be $924 million worse off in hospitals funding over the next three years compared to the specific purpose payments in last year's federal budget. We will also be $466 million worse off in schools funding over the next three years compared with the specific purpose payments of last year's budget.

It is refreshing to point out that the long-held hysteria about debt has suddenly and miraculously disappeared, with debt now suddenly not an issue. Last year the red lights were flashing and we had a budget emergency; this year the glass is half full. It is a miraculous turnaround. Our nation's budget deficit has doubled on Mr Hockey's watch and Mr Hockey says that is okay now. The government has doubled the deficit since last year and we are now under this government seeing the highest tax and spending levels.

I return to a point I made earlier about financial assistance grants to local authorities, which is an important issue in Queensland. This funding arrangement is vital to ensure that local government is supported by the Commonwealth so it can carry out important work for communities. I have already mentioned today that in the electorate of Kennedy the total figure for cuts to local authorities under the financial assistance grants is estimated at $27,698,012 million to the 2017-18 financial year. Longreach Regional Council alone loses $3.3 million. Every single local government will be worse off as a result of the Abbott government's indexation freeze. The government admitted during Senate estimates that they had not done an analysis of the impact of the cuts to local governments and what effect they will have on communities or service provision. They have also admitted to having undertaken no consultation with local councils or communities before making this decision. The flow-on from this decision will hamper the ability of these councils to provide good local roads, decent libraries, well-maintained parks, regular garbage pickups and high quality essential services including child care. Labor has always been a strong supporter of local government and its role in the community and only Labor understands the critical role that local governments play in the economic growth of local communities.

To reiterate, spending is up, unemployment is high, debt and taxes are up and yet the Abbott government's second budget does not redress the cuts to health and education from the government's first budget. This is the same Prime Minister that said that under a coalition government debt would be down, taxes would be down and spending would be down. This government claims that the budget is about fairness and encouraging people to have a go. This government is cutting $80 billion worth of funding to schools and hospitals, and I do not categorise that as a fair budget.

I want to turn to the issue of the Paid Parental Leave scheme and make the observation that the cuts announced in last night's budget will hurt new families in my area. The Treasurer has changed the terms of paid parental leave benefits meaning that mothers can no longer claim paid parental leave from the state if their employer also provides a benefit. Labor will oppose this measure. The Paid Parental Leave scheme that is now in place was designed by Labor to support working fathers and mothers. The scheme was designed to make sure that the basic scheme is built on with top ups from employers. Mr Abbott said years ago that paid parental leave would be introduced over his dead body. At the time, Mr Abbott wanted to introduce his gold-plated paid parental leave scheme that would have seen mothers get $75,000 to have a baby. Now Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey want to cut paid parental leave to around 80,000 mothers. How can the Australian people believe anything that Tony Abbott ever says again when it comes to family policy? Whilst I am talking about paid parental leave, one must also express great concern at the demonisation in this debate of mothers who access both the government scheme and their employer's scheme. It is suggested that they are somehow rorting the system, but nothing could be further from the truth and I think it is reprehensible that the government has portrayed Australian mothers in that light.

On the issue of health, the GP tax remains in the background of this unfair budget. Millions of patients are set to be hit with a GP tax even bigger than the original proposal, with the 2015 budget confirming that the Abbott government is committed to a four-year freeze on Medicare rebates. The fundamental unfairness of last year's budget disaster continues. The rebate freeze is just the latest version of the unfair GP tax, which has seen the government attempt to slug patients with a $7 fee, a $5 fee, a $20 fee and now an $8.43 fee through the back door.

On the issue of multinational tax avoidance, the Prime Minister has spent months promising to reap billions from tax integrity measures. Joe Hockey's own budget papers reveal this to be a fraud. Mr Hockey's best effort at tackling multinational tax avoidance is worth a total of $30 million over four years, less than one-sixtieth of Labor's multinationals package. I think everybody can agree that all companies should pay their fair share of tax. Labor has announced a fully costed, carefully calibrated package of measures that would keep $7.2 billion worth of tax in Australia over the next decade. Those changes relate to arrangements as to how multinational companies claim tax deductions, greater compliance work by the ATO, cracking down on multinational companies using hybrid structures to reduce tax, and improved transparency and data matching. Only Labor has a plan to tackle multinational tax avoidance and ensure big multinationals pay their fair share.

This Abbott government budget does lock in the unfairness of last year's budget.