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

I rise to speak about all the ways that this government has undermined low- and middle-income Australians. This government only looks after the big end of town. We heard it from Senator Smith in his contribution. He does not like big unions, big business and big government being in bed with one another. But it is all right for those on that side to give big business $50 billion worth of tax cuts. That is all right!

Let me put on the record just a few facts about what the Turnbull government have done to Australian families. They have been slicing and dicing household budgets with cuts to family payments, Medicare, health and education. They have supported cutting the take-home pay of hundreds of thousands of hardworking Australians who already live from pay cheque to pay cheque. That is the reality. When people who work in hospitality and retail come to you, if they ring your office or they talk to you in the street, they are in tears because they do not know how they are going to be able to support their children at school to give them the same opportunities as their classmates. But that is all right, according to those on the other side—because that is what they believe in. We know that they have consistently undermined and cut the education system in this country.

We had another contribution from Senator Smith, who actually surprised me when he talked about the new childcare package, because one in three families are going to be worse off. I also would have thought that as a Western Australian senator he might have had a bit of interest in what is happening to people who live in regional Australia. Because Western Australia is so vast, there are regional and rural areas, and there are also remote areas. The cuts the government have made in regional Australia have been to services that were there providing early education for the children of our Aboriginal brothers and sisters. But, no, that is all right! As long as no-one else is in bed with the big end of town, then that is all right!

Senator Smith also touched on penalty rates. Now, we know that the cut to penalty rates is going to have an enormous impact on those who depend on penalty rates to make their budget stretch as far as it can. They do not use their penalty rates for luxury items; that is just not the way real people live. People depend on those penalty rates. We know that families rely on them to pay their electricity bill and take care of the kids' excursions so they can go with their classmates. All of these things that this government has done have been about one thing, and that is making sure that people who are low-income workers, people who rely on benefits, are kept down where they belong, because that is in their DNA. That is how reckless this government is. Imagine if you suddenly got a pay cut and you knew it would take you 17 years to get back to your current wage. How would you feel? Well, 700,000 Australians, 40,000 of them from my home state of Tasmania, are facing those very cuts to penalty rates.

That is without the extension that we know is going to incorporate other sectors—and what are they? They are predominantly industries in which low-paid women are working. And why are they doing that? They are working to try and get ahead to give their kids opportunities and to support their families so that they can make a contribution to the economy. And what they do because they have such low wages? They expend all their money. They do not have huge bank accounts. They do not have investment properties. They do not have shares. What they have is some self-respect. They have self-respect because they can send their children on school excursions and they are able to meet their bills. They do not go away on holiday. They do not go out to luxurious restaurants. They do not go on overseas trips. All they are trying to do is get by, each and every day. That is the reality.

If you have never, ever been in those circumstances, then it is very hard to understand—and I give you that. So I can understand why the Prime Minister does not have any empathy for these people. It is because he has never had to do it. But when you have to do it day in, day out, it is really hard, and it is very hard as a parent to say to your children, 'No, you cannot go to the cinema, because I just cannot afford it,' or, 'No, we cannot go to the Gold Coast, because we cannot afford it.' That is very difficult for parents. It is very, very difficult. (Time expired)