Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm glad we've clarified that. Let me say to the crossbenchers in the Senate: this is a crucial time, an important time, when you can influence an important decision to reflect the battlers of this country. Sixty-five billion dollars in cuts to big business should not be your priority. It should not be the priority of this Senate. The priority of this Senate should be issues like CDP, when we know that 33,000 people across this country can do so much better. When we look at the penalty cuts that have impacted on workers right across this country, where is the relief and the fairness for them? When we look at housing partnerships and the agreements that fail to be met, where is the priority of this government? It is not with the needs of the battlers of this country. And what about NAIF? There is $5 billion that has not been spent in the three years that it has been fed to be a lifesaver for companies across northern Australia. Not one dollar of a $5 billion program on infrastructure and investment, to provide confidence to this country, has been spent. If this government spent as much time as it is spending now to push, bully, persuade and provide any kind of support to crossbenchers to vote for it on working in the other areas that I mentioned that impact Australians in this country, we would be in a different place. We would certainly be in a different place.

At a time when wages growth has hit record lows, Malcolm Turnbull is doing everything he can to give big business a $65 billion tax cut and is doing nothing to stop a pay cut for workers. For workers, it is getting harder to make ends meet. In fact, under this Prime Minister, electricity prices have risen by 12.4 per cent, health prices have risen by four per cent, education costs have risen by 3.2 per cent, residential house prices have risen by more than eight per cent, and yet his priority is a $65 billion cut to big business.

What plans does this government have to address the increased cost of living? They have a plan to attack penalty rates. This time, it's hairdressers who are going to get the chop. The government have a plan to cut funding for our public hospitals. They have a plan to cut people's pensions. In fact, last week, they voted with One Nation to ensure poor women are worse off when their husbands die—an absolute disgrace. The government doesn't have a plan to end the Medicare freeze. The government doesn't have a plan to protect people's penalty rates. The government doesn't have a plan to increase apprenticeship numbers. Indeed, during question time, we heard Minister Birmingham respond to Senator Watt, saying that, yes, there has been a decline in apprenticeship numbers since the Liberals assumed power. The government's only plan, their only objective in this place, is to shamefully pass on tax cuts for their mates in big business. The government is one for billionaires and certainly not for battlers.