Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader (Tasmania)) Share this | Hansard source

including funding for safe housing options for women and children fleeing family violence—and I'll take that interjection. We have costed all our policies because we actually put women ahead of tax cuts for the wealthy. And there will be proper funding for health and education services that all women and all Australians rely on.

Federal Labor are the only major party with a plan to reform the tax system and concessions, make them fairer and provide structural repair to the budget and to demonstrate how we will pay for better schools and hospitals as well as pay down the debts—something that the people on that side have failed miserably to do. Labor have made the tough policy calls, and we have been up-front about the need for structural budget repair and how we'll go about achieving it fairly and responsibly. Because of our responsible approach, we've been able to commit to delivering bigger surpluses over the forward estimates and substantially bigger surpluses over the median term. As I said, those opposite have blown out the budget and got us further and further in debt—the highest debt this nation has ever seen. That's under those people, who laugh and scoff at plans that are going to provide the Australian people with something better for their future.

As I said, politics is all about choice. Labor would prefer to invest in better hospitals, schools and TAFE than spend taxpayer money helping property speculators with their sixth or seventh investment property. Labor has the boldest reform agenda of any opposition in 25 years. What we are doing is putting our policies out to the Australian people. We're an opposition that are not afraid to share our ideas, our values and our plan for the future, unlike those opposite, who have lied to the Australian people countless times. They've let down pensioners. We know, when it comes to aged care, how they've neglected to look after the most vulnerable older people in this nation. We are happy to argue these reforms based on facts, but we would never let flirtation or poor analysis drift by without calling it out.

It's time the Liberal Party learnt the lessons of the Victorian state election and the recent by-election results and dropped the politics of fear and lies and their scare campaigns, like the one on Labor's reform to refundable franking credits. The Australian people are smart. They know when someone is trying to pull the wool over their eyes. Australians don't want the best tax loopholes in the world; they want the best schools and the best hospitals in the world. They want to know that their grandparents, parents and older relatives are looked after and respected with the best possible aged care. That's what they want from this government, but it has failed miserably. I don't believe Australians are going to be able to trust this government to turn the economy around and do something about stagnant wages. They are relying on the next election and electing a Labor government. (Time expired)