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

I think we can all agree that the federal budget was a terrible budget for education and for the future opportunities of our children. I think this view is unanimous across the country. A further $600 million was cut from TAFE, $3.8 billion from universities and $22 billion from schools. Thanks to Mr Turnbull's Gonski 2.0, Tasmanian schools will lose $85 million in the next two years, which is the second-lowest rate of funding for any state in the country. Then, to add insult to injury, today we had the Minister for Education and Training, Senator Birmingham, get up in question time and say that Tasmania will be getting the second-highest rate of funding of all jurisdictions. What a joke! No-one believes him. No-one in Tasmania believes him. Even the state Liberal minister acknowledges that Tasmania will lose $85 million. And what did the state minister say? He said, 'It was either take that or miss out completely.' Tasmanian children need every opportunity; the same as every child in this country. The ramifications of this budget are going to be very serious for future generations.

But it is not just education and health. There has been no investment in infrastructure, roads or tourism, and we know that this government has completely abandoned the Tamar River in terms of any money to clean up the sewage, which was an enormous issue at the last federal election—but, again, the Turnbull government has turned its back on Tasmanians.

Today this government reaffirmed that it does not care about Australian workers. It voted against Labor's bill to protect penalty rates for all workers, particularly those workers who are some of the most hardworking and who are not on very high salaries. This government reaffirmed that Malcolm Turnbull is so out of touch that he does not relate at all to working Australians.