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

No, I am not surprised. He came in here to attack the Labor Party and to talk about why he is supporting these measures in front of us, but he failed to do so—he failed to coherently argue why. He attacked the Labor Party—the Labor Party who always stands up for working families. He talked about the light on the hill. I am very proud to be a Labor Party senator who protects the light on the hill—the light on the hill that is shining brightly.

I hope that One Nation supporters listened to Senator Roberts's contribution in this debate tonight, because they will not be happy with his contribution. They will not be happy with the fact that it looks like Senator Roberts walked past the Liberal Party caucus room and picked up some speaking notes on this measure. They will not be happy that once again One Nation have thrown their lot in with this government, which is determined to rip money from those most vulnerable—the struggling families in our community. I hope anyone who is thinking of voting for One Nation heard that contribution, because just six weeks ago this government tried to ram through—again with the assistance of some of the crossbenchers—massive cuts to working- and middle-class families, to pensioners, to young people and to vulnerable Australians by tying these enormous cuts to their childcare package. We are finally landing where everyone knew we would. It is an absolute stitch-up—a dodgy deal cooked up in the dead of night with crossbench senators to rip money out of the pockets of struggling Australians. I am going to say this again, just for the benefit of Senator Roberts: struggling Australians. This is what this will do; this is what this bill before us, the Social Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2017, will do—it will rip money out of the pockets of struggling Australians. It is absolutely galling to have the government come in here and try to ram through this new legislation without even allowing the Australian people, through the parliament, an opportunity to scrutinise the measures. It is a shameful act indeed. If senators have had, as I have had tonight, emails asking, imploring and begging them to vote against these measures, they should really go back and think about what ordinary Australians—their constituents, most likely—are now emailing them about. They are asking us to vote against the measures that we are debating here tonight.

We have had no opportunity to scrutinise these measures, and they are from a government that is so out of touch with the Australian people they actually think it makes sense to make life harder for struggling Australians—the vulnerable, the sick, the elderly, the young, the jobless, the working- and middle-class families—while at the same time proposing to give away one of the biggest ever tax cuts in this nation's history to the big banks and multinational corporations. It is an absolute disgrace.

This bill is a smash-and-grab on the hip pockets of ordinary Australians. It makes this country more unequal. The government is seriously suggesting that, by taking money from the pockets of hardworking and struggling Australians and handing it over to multinational corporations that have money spilling out of skyscrapers in downtown Manhattan, they are acting in the interests of the Australian people or this nation's budget. This is about robbing ordinary Australians of assistance and of what they need to make ends meet—to put food on the table, to pay the rent. To come in here this morning and try to foist this on the Australian parliament without allowing proper debate is a low act indeed.

Speaking of low acts, let us not forget that the Treasurer even tried to put into question future funding for the National Disability Insurance Scheme by tying it to his government's now split omnibus bill. They should be ashamed of what they were trying to do. They go out there, they say they support the NDIS, and then they try to pit one section of the community against another. It is a shameful, shameful act. The Treasurer seriously said to Australians with disability, their families and their carers that he was going to put in jeopardy their NDIS just to satisfy his base political need to rip money from ordinary Australians and then shovel it off to his big business mates in a giant tax giveaway.

The rushing through of this legislation is indicative of just how much chaos this government is in. Yesterday we had the Prime Minister, on Harmony Day, forced into proposing a bill to weaken the protections for race hate speech, just to satisfy the Abbott agitators in his party room—a bill which is dead on arrival in the Senate. His much vaunted childcare package, which he inherited from Mr Abbott, is the measure used to justify these zombie budget cuts from the horror 2014 Abbott-Hockey budget.

The Prime Minister is simply implementing the agenda of his predecessor. It is a very sad state of affairs and an indictment of his leadership. It is no wonder that the Australian people have very quickly looked Mr Turnbull up and down and decided they are done with him. This government has nothing new to offer unless you are a big bank or a multinational corporation. They are still pursuing measures from their 2015 budget, measures comprehensively rejected by the Australian people.

This bill before us tonight has $1.4 billion in cuts to family payments. Let's look at some of what is now in here—some of what has been snuck in by the government through their late-night deal making. The bill will freeze current family tax benefit rates for two years. This is a very impactful measure. It affects 1½ million Australian families, all of whom will be worse off. It leaves more than two million children worse off. Up to 600,000 of these families are on the maximum rate of FTBA. That means their household income is less than $52,000 per year. That is hitting some of the lowest-income people in Australia—families who need our help, families who expect us to do our job. How are we supposed to do our job and protect these families when the government and crossbenchers want to cook up cosy little deals to hide these cuts from the Australian people by ramming them through the Senate?

That is what is happening here tonight. Make no mistake—these bills are being rammed through the Senate with little scrutiny and with absolutely no opportunity for the Australian people to understand what the government is putting forward that will impact on them. Presented in this place, without any opportunity to scrutinise the contents of this bill, $1.4 billion is ripped from the pockets of low-income Australian families. It is another zombie measure from 2014, universally acknowledged as one of the most unfair budgets in Australian history. Of course we know what happened to former Treasurer Hockey, mostly because of the terrible 2014 budget.

Labor opposed this cut and we continue to do so now. Labor will not resile from our support for working and middle-class Australian families. We will stick up for them. We will defend them. We do not sell them down the river so we can give a huge tax cut to big banks and multinationals. This Government would not know a working-class Australian if they tripped over one. They are too busy rubbing shoulders with the big business elite. They are arrogant, they are out of touch, and it shows in this bill. This bill shows that they do not care how they will hurt ordinary Australians. The manner in which they have stumbled into the chamber today and thrown this onto the table shows just how out of control this ramshackle mob are. When Labor last opposed this measure the Liberals actually withdrew it from the parliament and took it out of the budget.

Let's not forget that family tax benefit payments play a critical role in helping to alleviate child poverty. They help low- and middle-income families cover the costs of children. They are a fundamental bedrock of the Australian tax and transfer payment system, a system designed to spread equity, to boost equality and to foster inclusive prosperity. This proposed freeze to indexation of family tax benefits means that these payments will not keep pace with the cost of living for two years. That means two years of cuts—cuts which will have an ongoing affect after the freeze is lifted.

Families are under real pressure in this country. Bills are rising. Rents are sky high. Health costs are ballooning. Families cannot afford this. They do not deserve it. This bill is just another kick in the guts to hard-working Australian families. The truth is the Liberal Party's vision for Australia's future is about ripping up the basic social contract in this country. They want to make life harder for ordinary Australians, to make them poorer, all so they can line the pockets of their mates at the top end of town. It is 'lifters and leaners' all over again. That is just not the Australian way. We are a generous and compassionate country that deeply values fairness. Labor will never stop fighting for the values we know that Australian people hold. We will defend the lowest-paid workers in this country, many of whom will be affected by the proposed cuts to family tax benefits contained in this bill today. It is another blow to many workers who face real cuts to their take-home pay—700,000 workers who face a pay cut of $77 a week, cuts imposed on them by Mr Turnbull and his government because they refuse to back Labor's bill to protect penalty rates. It is a real demonstration of their priorities: all take and no give, unless—I am sure you know the answer, Madam Deputy President—you are a banker.

This bill attacks the incomes of students. It freezes for three years the income-free areas for all working age and student payments. This would mean that for three years the income tests applying to payments for single parents, jobseekers and students will not keep pace with the cost of living. This affects Newstart payment recipients also—again, some of the people doing it the toughest. This government, this Prime Minister, this Treasurer and some on the crossbench all say, 'I know: let's stick it to the jobless. Let's kick them while they're down.'

This bill will affect 204,000 Australians on the lowest incomes. The thresholds being frozen are already incredibly low. For example, for parenting payment the threshold after which the payment is reduced is $188 per fortnight. There is no rationale to freeze this for three years, no explanation for why this would be done. After all if the budget can afford a $50 billion splurge on the big banks and multinationals, some of which are overseas companies, why can't it afford to look after vulnerable Australians? These priorities are all wrong. The cuts in this bill mean that for Newstart the threshold after which the payments are reduced is $143 per fortnight. Let that sink in: $143 before their payment begins to be cut. And this will be frozen for three years. In 2020 it will still be $143. But we can afford to give big banks a tax cut. It is unbelievable.

Labor will stand up in this place today, tomorrow and Friday—whenever, wherever—and oppose these cruel cuts. But that is not all that is in this bill; oh no. The Liberals want to extend the one-week waiting period served by recipients of Newstart and sickness allowance to recipients of parenting payment and some youth allowance recipients. They also want to make it harder for people who are already in a perilous financial situation to access the financial hardship exemption by requiring that they also be experiencing a personal financial crisis. This is just one more example of Mr Turnbull's clear disregard for those who are struggling to make ends meet. Again, there is no policy rationale for this—just cuts to the most vulnerable: cut, cut, cut; hammer, hammer, hammer. That is all the Liberals know.

Well, we have already beaten their draconian five-week wait for Newstart, but now here we go again. Of course these cuts will be felt particularly acutely in my home state of Tasmania. We have a higher proportion of people in need of assistance payments. It is no wonder that when you treat the young, the sick, the aged, the jobless, and families and low-paid workers with such contempt you get a result that sees massive swings against the Liberal government and the loss of all their lower house seats in Tasmania.

And it goes on, because now they are even raising and issuing fake debt notices to payment recipients—demanding that they pay back money they do not even owe, putting the onus on them to prove that they do not owe it. How outrageous. Following the Centrelink robo-debt debacle, why would we trust the government with automation of payment review processes? Yet in this bill, again, supported by some in the crossbench, we have a measure that will automate the process by which the Department of Human Services collects income stream information. From 1 January 2018, a six-monthly electronic data collection process will be introduced for income stream information from financial service providers. We have already seen thousands of ordinary law-abiding Australians who did nothing wrong but were sent debt letters—pensioners being shaken down by debt collectors, horror stories, stories of unfairness. Now they want to extend the debacle. Well, it is just not on.

Labor will fight this smash and grab on vulnerable, working and middle-class Australians. We invite crossbenchers to do the same. Instead, some crossbenchers have come in here today and supported an hours motion to derail the orderly business of the Senate so they can support this bill. If the government were actually in control of their own agenda, if they were not in a constant state of rolling crises, they would be able to put their legislative agenda through the normal processes. But they do not want scrutiny. They do not want the Australian people to have the opportunity to see what it is they are seeking to ram down their throats. But of course, this bill fits neatly into the Liberal agenda. It is about making the poor poorer and the rich richer—textbook Liberal ideology. They all know it. It is in their DNA. It is the founding principle of Liberal philosophy. It is arrogant. It is out of touch: 1½ million families left worse off because of this bill, Tasmanian families left worse off because of this bill, 1½ million children worse off. They cannot afford it, they do not deserve it and they certainly do not deserve this government.

(Quorum formed)