Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is indeed a pleasure to follow on from my colleague Senator Ketter, who spends much time in regional Queensland and who gave a good account of the impact that these cuts will have on regional Queenslanders. Particularly at a time when a lot of those local economies are struggling and unemployment is high, these impacts will be felt very deeply by those communities.

I also want to talk about the 2014 budget, which is really the genesis of what we are talking about here tonight. As many people will know, I was not in the chamber as a senator at that time, but I was obviously following very closely. I have seen some political train wrecks in my time—I have indeed been a close observer to some. But in modern history that 2014 budget will go down as one that wrecked the career of a number of politicians who contributed to it, but also set in train what has been a continual decline in the primary vote of the Liberal Party and the National Party in Australia. You can trace all that back to that budget.

I think it is important that you look at the architects of that budget. Many people in this debate have talked about former Treasurer Joe Hockey. We all know what he is doing now, but the reality was that budget was the start and downfall of his career as Treasurer. We know where he has ended up. But it was also the same with former Prime Minister Tony Abbott. That budget was the starting point of the downfall of his prime ministership, and we all know how that ended up. At that time, because I was the Queensland state secretary gearing up to run a state campaign, I saw the damage that that budget did to the Liberal Party broadly across Queensland, where the Liberal-National Party in Queensland became synonymous with cuts. Whether it be at the federal level, whether it be at the state level, the Liberal-National Party from that day forth became synonymous with cuts. Sure, it was added to in Queensland with Campbell Newman making drastic cuts to public servants, to health care and to education—the important social services that so many Queenslanders rely on—but it really was dominated and started by the federal budget in 2014.

I mentioned what happened to those two. We know what happened to Joe Hockey and we know what happened to former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, but the other architect of that was Senator Cormann. He seems very good at claiming credit for being the architect of things, but accepts none of the responsibilities. He is the one that is still here in this chamber responsible for that budget. We are absolutely going to hold them to account for that. We have done it for three years and we will continue to do it for as long as it takes, because we know the community are on our side. So we look forward to taking this fight to the next federal election, because we know we are on strong ground defending those people that are going to be affected by it.

But there is another deal, and this is another example of Senator Cormann trying to get away with his actions. That is in regard to the deal with One Nation in Western Australia. We all know the devastating impact that had not only on the Western Australian Liberal Party but also on One Nation. Since then, we have seen Senator Hanson say that it was a mistake, but we have seen none of that contrition from Senator Cormann, the architect of that deal. I think that speaks volumes for the way that he has operated in this chamber and in this debate over the budget. But when it comes to One Nation, they said that that deal was a mistake—and where are we less than two weeks later?

They are in this chamber doing deals with the government over budget cuts that are going to have a negative impact on so many Queenslanders who can ill afford it. So, on the one hand they are saying they learnt their lessons but clearly they did not if they are prepared to do a deal with the government 10 days later to get these budget measures through that are going to have such a negative impact on the people of Queensland.

Regarding One Nation, think of Senator Hanson's political career. She has had a long political career of more than 20 years. For most of that time Senator Hanson has not actually been in parliament and has never actually had a vote that mattered. But in this chamber Senator Hanson and her colleagues do have votes that matter. I respect that they were elected democratically—I understand that. But when you have to front up here and vote we will hold you to account. So we make no apologies for vigorously holding Senator Hanson to account. We will do it on penalty rates and we will absolutely do it on the measures that are contained in this bill we are debating tonight, because we know what damage it will do to the most vulnerable Queenslanders, who are relying on the Labor Party to stand up for them. If only One Nation would do the same thing. With Senator Hanson and One Nation—her two other colleagues, and potentially three, when they get their Western Australian senator here—we will absolutely hold them to account on the votes that have here in the Senate. They have to explain themselves in this chamber and in the community as well. That is something we look forward to doing throughout the rest of this year and indeed as we get closer to an election.

When we look at the detail of the measures in this bill, it is something that is of significant concern to Queenslanders. When you look at the history of One Nation and how they have performed, any time they have had elected representation, like we saw after the 1998 Queensland state election, any time they have had to take responsibility for voting in the parliament, they fracture. In Queensland in 1998 they had 11 MPs elected, but it did not even last 12 months. They disintegrated. They could have worked cohesively. They could not argue their case in parliament. That was a very similar situation—there was a minority Labor government. But One Nation could not hold it together. They had splits and people leaving and quitting very soon after that happened. So it is very clear that the responsibility that comes with being elected and having multiple people elected from your party has been too much for them historically and I think it will again prove to be too much for them, because they have to defend themselves from voting continuously with this harsh Liberal-National government that continues to pursue an ideological agenda of cuts that hurt vulnerable people.

Some of the details in this bill are of particular concern. Looking at some of the measures, I think it is really important to highlight the waiting period for parent payment and some youth allowance. The Liberals want to extend the one-week waiting period. Previously, they have been advocating for a five-week period, but we have been strong in our advocacy against that. That is something we will continue to fight. There is also family tax benefit B, which is a payment to help eligible families. The impact the measures will have will result in 1.5 million families being worse off, and almost 600,000 of these families are on the maximum rate.

When you look at this from the Queensland point of view, particularly, how many of those families would also be relying on penalty rates? So think about this as a double whammy—this bill having a negative impact and then the penalty rates cut that is looming, unless we can change that in this chamber and in the other place. That is going to have a massive impact on those people who rely on penalty rates and on the family tax benefit. These are people on an income of less than $52,000 a year. These are people who are really struggling to keep their heads above water and this government is treating them in this way, firstly with this bill, but then down the track, looming over the horizon very quickly, are the cuts to penalty rates. These are the priorities of this government at the moment. It is clearly something that the Labor Party will continue to fight. While I thought that the Liberal and National parties would abandon the 2014 budget, it is surprising that I, as a newly elected senator, am continuing to debate those measures. But I am really proud of the stance the Labor Party took in 2014 and I am proud to continue that stance. I look forward to continuing to fight on this issue, not only tonight but over the next couple months and indeed as we get closer to a federal election.