Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The real test of a budget is not just in the numbers but in whether the decisions that underpin it make Australia a better nation. Does it reflect and promote a more caring society and relieve pressure from those who are feeling it most? Are benefits and opportunities shared among many or an elite few? Does it recognise that a healthy economy depends on ensuring a clean environment? Does it set out a long-term vision for our country? The answer, when it comes to this budget—and, indeed, the one that preceded it—is a resounding no.

When you do not have a destination, you cannot know where you are going. If you do not have a plan for where you want to be in 10 or 20 or 50 years, you will never get there. Budgets should reflect the values of our community—what we want for our lives and the lives of our families, our workplaces and the role we want Australia to play on the global stage. Can I go to the doctor, and how much will it cost? What type of education can I afford for my children? What happens to me if I become unemployed? Will I have enough for my retirement? And what sort of future will my kids inherit?

Instead of the small-minded, visionless budget that the Liberal government handed down this week, the Greens want to see a budget that tackles climate change and protects investment and jobs in the renewable sector; one that invests in health and mental health services; one that funds public transport; a budget that helps advance the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; a budget that supports those who need it most. We need a budget that puts the interests of the community ahead of those of a privileged few.

The budget that was announced this week cannot be separated from the budget that preceded it. The 2014 budget laid the foundations for a cruel and uncertain future, and this week the Abbott government cemented those foundations, maintaining cuts that hurt vulnerable Australians. It is a budget that further entrenches the Abbott government's cruel and brutal attack on the Australian community.

Tertiary education remains on the chopping block, with university fee deregulation still part of the government's agenda, despite being rejected by students and, indeed, by the Senate. Changes to the family tax benefit system remain, putting even more financial pressure on parents right around the country. The $80 billion slashed from health and education last year continues to take effect, with no indication that these cuts, that have caused tremendous stress and hardship in our public hospitals and public schools, will be reversed. Science and innovation continue to be under attack, with last year's cuts made even deeper through further slashing of funding to cooperative research centres, science funding and innovation. Investment in Australia right now in research and development is at record lows. Legal aid organisations that help care for the most vulnerable still face great uncertainty around their long-term funding.

Australia's foreign aid budget remains at record lows, with this budget doubling down on the massive cuts from 2014, with the contribution to Indonesia nearly halved, and foreign aid to Africa now cut by 70 per cent. Having witnessed the devastation of the Ebola outbreak, I know that this can only mean further misery and suffering for some of the most vulnerable people on earth. Foreign aid will be cut by a further $3.7 billion over the next three years, making it a total of $11 billion since the Abbott government came to office.

Attacks on young Australians continue, with young Australians who are trying to find work having to confront 'earn or learn' as the centrepiece of this government's budget. Tony Abbott fails to understand that, whether it is for one month or six months, young people cannot pay the rent or feed themselves if they do not have an income.

Landcare funding was slashed again in the budget, with the government going even further, ripping out another $12 million on top of the $483 million it has already cut. I know what this means to people in my own Landcare network who are doing such a great job in helping to rehabilitate our natural environment.

And where is climate change in the budget? Where is it? How can you hand down a budget with no mention of the very thing that poses the major threat to our economy, to our health and, indeed, the very planet that sustains us? We welcome the drought assistance to farmers, but the most effective form of drought assistance is tackling the very thing that will make drought a regular feature of the Australian landscape. We have to start tackling climate change. Instead, we are going in the opposite direction.

We have the introduction of a $5 billion infrastructure slush fund for Northern Australia, to hand out taxpayer dollars to fund coal projects in Queensland's Galilee Basin. With the planet burning and coal prices tanking, this government has chosen to prop up the polluting industries of the last century.

The irony is that, on budget morning, in the seaside town of Anglesea, not far from my home in the foothills of the Otway ranges, we received news of the dirty, polluting brown-coal-fired power station situated just one kilometre from a local school; we learnt that it would close. The town would now have clean air, and a healthier future: fewer kids would have asthma, and there would be less heart disease and fewer cancers. That announcement was made because, after a year and a half of searching, the owners of that plant, Alcoa, could not find anyone to buy the power station. They could not find anyone to buy it despite huge public subsidies and an extension of the mine lease for another 50 years.

The Anglesea mine's closure is just another expression of the clear transition that is happening in the global energy marketplace. There is now more global investment in clean energy than in fossil fuels. Coal has lost its advantage as the cheapest source of power, because, once built, clean energy costs nothing to run. The sun, the wind, the waves—they do the work for us.

This budget is not preparing us for this inevitable transition. Those workers who lost their job on Tuesday deserve better, because it seems that every one but this government can see the change coming. Australia has more power stations than we need, so we know there will be more closures of coal mines and coal plants. It will not be long before Hazelwood in Victoria, the Gladstone power station in Queensland and many others go the same way. If we do not support these workers right now to prepare for a new future we are throwing them to the wolves when they lose their jobs without warning.

After assuming the leadership of the Greens I said that I wanted to be a champion for the health of ordinary people. If we are to make real progress in health we need to address those factors that lie outside the health system. That means ensuring that we have clean air and water, on which we all depend. It means having a roof over our head, a decent education, meaningful employment and access to health care. We have to address all of these things if we are going to improve people's health.

Australians do deserve a world-class health system, but this budget takes us further away from that aim. Since taking office the Abbott government has argued that health care spending is unsustainable. But sustainability in health is a question of priorities and not just accounting. Don't be fooled into thinking that we cannot continue to invest in health care. Don't be fooled. We have a choice. We can either invest in primary care, in better hospitals, in providing dental care and mental health, or we can head down the American two-tiered route where your access to health care depends on the size of your wallet.

While Australia's health spending is projected to increase marginally as a proportion of GDP over coming decades, the major driver of increased costs is the development of new and improved health technology. It is not the ageing population or the frequency of GP visits, as this government would have you believe. Far from being a crisis, providing people with access to new, life-saving medicines, high-tech diagnostic procedures, and minimally invasive surgery is the sign of an advanced and prosperous economy. It is something we should be striving for. And good health means that we are more productive. So health spending is as much an investment as it is an expenditure.

It is encouraging that the health minister has embarked on some of the reforms I proposed to her soon after taking office. But this budget locks in some of the most damaging cuts that were introduced in last year's budget—changes that ripped $50 billion from our hospitals. These cuts can only mean longer waiting times in emergency departments, longer waiting times on elective surgery waiting lists, and difficulty accessing the care that people need. The budget also dismantles the National Partnership Agreement, which means less support for dental health, which is something we worked very hard to achieve under the previous government. It means cuts to health promotion programs and other frontline services. Worse still, there is absolutely no plan and no funding for mental health.

It is a budget that comprehensively fails to address the issue of affordable housing and homelessness. Housing affordability in Australia has reached a crisis point. One-in-200 Australians are experiencing homelessness. There are over 240,000 families languishing, who are stuck on housing waiting lists. Last year Hockey's razor gangs cut over half a billion dollars for homelessness and affordable housing programs. This budget locks in those changes. The cuts included $235 million from the National Rental Affordability Scheme, which would have seen 12,000 new affordable rental homes delivered, and it ripped $44 million from the National Partnership on Homelessness. That partnership would have built new homelessness shelters and emergency accommodation for people fleeing domestic violence. The Prime Minister proudly trumpets his national security credentials, but he has done nothing at all to address the security of women right across the country who are victims of domestic violence.

The government's first year in office was dominated by talk of debts and deficits and the ongoing budget emergency. There was no claim that was too outrageous. When in opposition, they claimed that the country was headed for a disaster that compared with the Great Depression, or even Greece. We were on track to default with our debt. We were an international pariah. We had a Third World economy. Only a couple of years ago the Treasurer went so far as to say, 'The cupboard is bare. There is no money left in the till.' He effectively declared the nation bankrupt. The strategy was crystal clear. This is a government that believes small government is the only government, that public assets need to be privatised, and that lower taxes and cuts to government services are the only pathway to prosperity. For the coalition these are articles of faith. In an attempt to bring the Australian community on board with its brutal agenda, it talked up the structural budget deficit. It was trying to create public support for its deep cuts to government expenditure. It made a commitment that it would keep tax-to-GDP fixed at a particular level, and then it prosecuted the argument that we had no choice but to tighten our belts and make deep cuts. This was a strategy that was always motivated by politics rather than sound economic policy, and the Australian community just did not buy it.

Australia's debt crisis is a fabrication. Our level of public debt is amongst the lowest in the OECD. Far from being a crisis, we are the envy of most governments across the world. This takes in the opposite direction to where we need to be heading. Making deep cuts at a time when unemployment is rising, when commodity prices are falling, simply in order to reach some artificial timetable for a surplus is motivated by politics, not by evidence. Borrowing money makes good sense when the job market is softening, when interest rates are low and it allows us to invest in productivity-enhancing infrastructure. The real picture of Australia's economy is totally at odds with this government's narrow agenda.

We can no longer ignore the issue of government revenue, and what better place to start than with the billions of dollars in subsidies that go to big business each year? If the government is serious about the age of entitlement being over, then let us abolish those huge handouts that go to mining corporations each year in fuel rebates and depreciation benefits. Rather than cutting Medicare, let us invest the $7 billion that goes as a handout to the private health insurance industry directly into health services. Let us have a real debate about the benefits of those huge concessions that go towards superannuation and negative gearing. Although they might not appear on the annual budget figures, these enormous tax concessions divert huge sums of money away from government services and vital infrastructure into the hands of largely wealthy Australians. They cost us billions of dollars each year and they strip money away from those services that Australians want, need and deserve. If we are serious about removing the inequity within the taxation system from one that looks after the big end of town to one where the wealthy pay their fair share, then we need to make sure that governments are willing to make the hard decisions and stand up to vested interests. The Greens believe that the big miners, big polluters and big banks should all pay their fair share; that is why we asked the Parliamentary Budget Office to fully cost our election platform. It raises almost $80 billion over the forward estimates and proves that we can raise the revenue we need to pay for the Australian society that we want, need and deserve—one that is more caring, one that is more innovative, one that is healthier and one where our children are not condemned to experiencing the impacts of global warming.

It is my firm belief that Australians want to live in a caring nation where you can afford to go to the doctor, where quality child care is available and where public transport is world-class. Taxing super contributions on a progressive scale will help us to get there. It would mean the end of the use of superannuation as a tax haven for the wealthy and it would help people on lower incomes to continue to save more for their retirement. The Greens proposal would see the current flat superannuation tax rate of 15 per cent replaced with a progressive system closely based on people's marginal income tax rate. And it would bring in $10 billion over the forward estimates. No need to cut health, no need to cut education.

If we move to the issue of multinational tax avoidance measures announced in the budget, let me first say that it is the Greens who have been at the forefront of calls for the government to act; we referred this issue to an inquiry of the Senate. While the measures that were announced in Tuesday's budget look good on paper—and I acknowledge that for the first time the government is talking about this publicly—there is still not one cent of revenue allocated to this in the budget. And there is absolutely no plan for enforcing the laws that were announced—the laws that would ensure the big multinationals pay their fair share of tax. And how can the ATO prosecute corporate tax dodgers when their staffing numbers have been slashed? We need to see the reversal to those damaging cuts if we are to achieve any progress on that measure.

I have said that, as the new leader of the Greens, I do want to achieve outcomes. I want to achieve good outcomes for people, for our kids and for our grandkids. I want good outcomes for the environment, for nature and for the land which feeds and clothes us. Where we can find common ground in the service of the Australian people, we will work with all sides to deliver those outcomes. That is our job as legislators, and I take that responsibility very seriously. But I remain sceptical of this Prime Minister and this government. We will run a fine toothcomb over whatever they propose. We are not going to get a deal just for the sake of getting a deal. I have already said that we would look at the assets test on pensions, but we also need a comprehensive review of the sustainability of the retirement system as a whole. When you consider that superannuation concessions will cost from $32 billion right now to a massive $50 billion a year—I will say that again: $50 billion—in 2018, it is clear that something is not working.

When it comes to child care, we do want to see people have access to quality and affordable child care, and I welcome the renewed focus on helping families. But why are we being held hostage by a government that refuses to understand the negative impacts that cutting family tax benefit changes will have on sole parents and their children? Why are we being asked to pick favourites? Why are we being asked to choose one family over another? Surely if we value the importance of early childhood education, as well as encouraging women to get back into the workforce and supporting low-income parents and families, we just would not be asked to choose between them. We would not. The government's backflip on small business is welcome; it is something the Greens have championed for a long time. It is a cynical move, though, when you consider that it was only a year or so ago that the government axed small business support, ripping out $5.4 billion in support and then a year later they tell us that they are the champions of small business. The tax deduction for asset purchases is only going to last for two years, and it is going to be a big sugar hit for the sector and for the broader economy, but there is no long-term, ongoing structural support for small business. We will look at that measure—we will examine it closely—and we will make sure that this package is genuine and that it brings in the change that is so desperately needed.

What fundamentally separates this government from the Australian people is that Australians do believe that their government has a role in building a fairer and more caring society. Australians do want high quality health care, they do want well-funded schools and they take comfort from the knowledge that their government will help people from falling through the cracks.

Paul Keating said, 'When you change the government you change the country.' A year and half into the first term of the Abbott government his words have never been more relevant. Through two successive budgets the Abbott government has made its mark or, in its own words, 'stamped its authority' on nearly every aspect of Australian life: on winding back action on climate change and on attacking the poor, the sick and the vulnerable.

In a short time this government have shown no reluctance to use their power to reshape Australia according to their narrow and uncaring ideology. Like most Australians, the Greens want a society where everyone can afford quality health care and education, where there is not a vast gulf between rich and poor, and where our natural environment is protected.

We do not subscribe to the dog-eat-dog agenda of this government. We do not want a world where it is everyone for themselves, where if you are lucky enough to be born into privilege and wealth you deserve more of it, and if not, well tough luck. There is another way and tonight, along with my colleagues, I pledge to lead the fight for a more decent, more caring and more compassionate country.