Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Attorney-General (Senator Brandis) and the Minister for Finance (Senator Cormann) to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today relating to the 2017-18 Budget.

It is great to have the opportunity to follow-up on the questions Labor senators asked in question time around the 2017 budget. Senator Brandis today in question time was not able to answer any of the questions he was asked. He did not even really attempt to answer any of them, because he knew that he could not justify the decisions the government has taken and are contained in this budget. Specifically, he could not answer why Australians earning as little as $21,000 per year will face a tax hike when some of the highest income earners in the country, millionaires, will get a tax cut of $16,000 a year. Nor could he answer why it is fair that $22 billion less will be spent in Australian schools whilst at the same time the government can find $50 billion to continue tax cuts for big business. He also failed to explain why university students will have to pay more in fees and why they will have to pay HECS sooner when the government, again, can find all this spare capacity to provide tax cuts—$50 billion worth for big business.

In failing to answer these questions, Senator Brandis thought that by repeating or perhaps chanting the word 'fairness' he would be able to dress up these decisions. Well, we all know the doublespeak that this government engages in and is becoming famous for. Just because you say something a lot of times does not actually make it true. So I think it is worth looking through the budget in more detail to find the many elements that we argue are not fair. Regardless of how many ministers front cameras and talk about fairness and opportunity, the reality of the decisions that underpin this budget tells a different story.

For example, to hit low-income earners with a tax increase is not fair, particularly when you are giving the highest income earners a tax cut. To make schools across the country sacrifice education funding to ensure that big business gets tax cuts down the track is not fair—and that is a decision taken in this budget. It is not fair to ask uni students to pay more and to repay loans earlier, and to provide an efficiency dividend of $3.8 billion on universities when at the same time the government is providing a $50 billion tax cut to business.

To delay cuts to Medicare for three years is not fair. The people of Australia made that clear at the election last year. They want Medicare protected. They do not want cuts and they want to be able to access bulk-billing when they need it. To do nothing meaningful on housing affordability when we see the struggles that young people are going through to get their first home is not fair. To not tackle some of the unfair tax concessions that exist, and are contained in this budget, is not fair. To cut $300 million from foreign aid and sabotage the programs that go to support perhaps the most vulnerable people in the world is not fair.

The $600 million cuts to TAFE—not fair. The failure to deal with the energy crisis; keeping in place $500 million of cuts for Indigenous affairs; cutting jobs for Human Services; failing to invest in science, in research and in innovation; cutting hospital service for veterans; and no mention of climate change at all, not one word in the budget—all certainly not fair; not fair for this generation and not fair for future generations. This is a budget which leaves Australian women behind—not fair. No women's budget statement and no clear policy analysis for how these decisions affect women. Cuts to tourism through Tourism Australia—not fair. Not calling a royal commission into the banks—not fair.

They are all decisions that were taken in this budget. I do not know if it is just me, but George Brandis and fairness really are two things that do not go together. Just because you say it, no matter how many times you say it, it does not make it true.