Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Hansard source

Here we have interjecting again because they do not want to hear the truth. They do not want to hear the facts and they do not want to hear the fact that at the core of this budget is the unfairness that was in their last budget. That last budget was totally repudiated by the Australian community. In Tasmania, I know what the previous budget was going to do to pensioners had those pensioners fearful. You had pensioners fearful of what the government was doing. I am sure other senators in this chamber know that.

Here we have at the core of this budget, again, the unfairness that was rampant in the last one. They are dressing it up, but it is still there. There are still cuts to health and education. They remain. The previous speaker said there were increases. We know that they had already cut $80 billion to health and education. There is a new $2 billion cut in this budget to health. There are still cuts to family payments. There are still $100,000 degrees on the table. This budget is a rehash of the unfair measures that we saw in the last budget. Mr Abbott has not changed. We know that this is more a budget about saving his skin, saving his job, than a budget for the Australian people. It is a budget that has failed the future test, and it is a budget that has failed the fairness test.

In his contribution Senator Williams talked in part about paid parental leave—80,000 mothers worse off. He never mentioned the number. He talked about the fact that he believes—in fact, his contribution really beggars belief—that women were taking positions in the public sector to be able to access an extra paid parental scheme. I find that just amazing—that he thinks there are enough jobs out there for people to be picking and choosing. I tell you what, under this government, job security in the public sector just is not there, after what they have done.

Their budget is short-sighted. There is nothing in it for Australia's future. We know that Mr Abbott was fighting for his own political survival, and we know that the inherent unfairness of the previous budget is there. As has already been stated in other contributions, there were the other $80 billion cuts to hospitals and schools. We know that the higher education policies are still there. We know that there are cuts to family payments. And we know that even on Mr Hockey's own numbers he has doubled the deficit in one year. That is on Mr Hockey's own numbers. This government should be ashamed of bringing down a budget that is for Mr Abbott's future and not Australia's.