Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2017. I have sat through this debate all day, and to be able to speak after Senator Lambie is such a stark contrast to the nonsense from Senator Roberts that I had to sit through earlier this evening. Here we have somebody who has been in this place a very short time, but he had the arrogance to talk about luminaries of the Australian Labor Party—to say that, 'they would been One Nation Prime Ministers,' was just astounding, to be quite frank—absolutely astounding. But I guess that is what happens in this place when you have a government that changes the order of business for the day and comes in with a new piece of legislation because it has done some dirty deal with the crossbenchers—at least some of them, like One Nation, which is really just a faction of the Liberal Party. Those on that side are the masterminds, yet again, of attacking some of the most vulnerable people in our community, but they are not in here debating this piece of legislation. They have left it to people like Senator Roberts.

This government are incompetent, dysfunctional and unable to govern this country with any sort of agenda. They have waited until the eleventh hour to do their dirty deal, to have the Xenophons of this world, along with One Nation, join with them to bring about these changes. They have done this deal. They have gone through a process today. We have been in this chamber. Labor senators and others on this side are supporting our position and opposing this legislation, but very few on that side have come into this place defending their government.

The Social Services Legislation Amendment (Omnibus Savings and Child Care Reform) Bill 2017, which is what we were supposed to be debating, was originally announced in 2015. Since then, the government who are running this country have failed to recognise how out of touch they really are. They still do not understand that the budget of 2014 was so bad that it was rejected overwhelmingly by the community. But they still insist on bringing this type of legislation here before us. And they have done it at the eleventh hour. They expected my colleagues to come into this place, with little more than half an hour's notice, and debate this piece of legislation—and we had not even seen it. We did not even know what the details of it were. I expect very few on that side knew the details either, otherwise they would have been in here defending it.

Quite frankly, this government knew that the omnibus bill would never, ever get support in this place. So they have had to run around, as I said, do a dirty deal and then make some sort of token gesture by having a few of their senators come into this place. It is not just Labor and people on this side of the chamber who were opposed to the omnibus bill. Women's groups and early childhood educators gave evidence to the committee that looked into the bill. We know that there is so much concern out in the community. The government have no idea, no understanding, of the effect that they are having on ordinary, everyday Australians, some of whom are doing it really tough, through no fault of their own; it is circumstances. Now some of the same people who are going to be affected by the cuts to penalty rates are going to get yet another slap by this government. This government will be remembered in this country as a government that had no vision, had no plan and had a leader with no soul. If he did, if he really understood what the Australian community were feeling, how they are hurting, what these cuts are doing to people, he would not be going down this track. This is not the man who went to the election promising so much to the Australian people.

We on this side will always fight for those who are disadvantaged in this community. We will always fight for those on low incomes, the lowest-paid workers in this country. Inequality is at a 75-year high. Wages growth is at record lows. Underemployment is at record highs. There could not be a worse time to cut penalty rates or cut family tax benefits.

The government said that there would be no cuts to family payments in this new bill, but that is a complete and utter untruth. It is a lie. Once again, they are being totally dishonest with the Australian community. We know that $1.4 billion will be cut from the payments. Through this bill the Liberal government, as I said, will take away $1.4 billion from Australian families. This is actually a 2014 budget measure. Can you believe it? Here we are three years later and they are trying the same stunt. Today they have regurgitated another unfair 2014 budget cut to families. They want to freeze current family tax benefit rates for two years which means 1.5 million families will be worse off and more than two million children will be worse off. Many of these families are on the maximum rate of FTB Part A, which means that their household income is less than $52,000 per year. That is $52,000 a year to raise a family.

Let us look at the history of these cuts when they were first introduced with the budget of 2014 which became synonymous with unfairness. It was completely rejected by the Australian people. Labor opposed the cuts then and we will oppose those same measures today, tomorrow or next month. We always will because the Australian families who are struggling with their everyday living expenses, trying to manage their budget and balance it, are relying on us to protect them. They know that the government have failed them, not once, not twice, but every single time they bring in legislation to attack these families through cuts to health and education, and these families know that they have been let down and they rely on us on this side of the chamber and others to support them and to protect them.

This government's proposed freeze to indexation on family tax benefits in this bill means that families will not be able to keep up with the cost of living for two years. Costs of living are rising around the country, and people are struggling, as I said, to put food on the table and to send their kids on school excursions, and the list of concerns that we have goes on and on and on.

It never ceases to amaze me how out of touch this government really are, that they do not listen and quite clearly do not learn, otherwise they would not continue to go down this road of cuts. They do not understand what social investment means because, if they did, they would not be going down this track. They do not understand what fairness means. This is not the United States, this is Australia where we believe in fairness and where we believe that we should help and give a hand up to those who are the most vulnerable. We on this side want to invest in people and we will never ever abandon them.