Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In 10 years, they made an art form of it. Four point seven billion dollars in funding to universities was cut, hundreds of jobs at the ABC and SBS were lost, and the former government scrapped the last two years of the Gonski reforms, and those were just the warm-ups. It just got worse and worse and worse. There were billions and billions in entrenched cuts that devastated the services that everyday Australians rely on, including the tearing up of $56 billion in funding under the National Health Partnership Agreement. Ask any Australian how hard it now is to get in to a doctor. Those were the kinds of broken promises that we saw day after day, year after year, during nine wasted years in Australia's history when we could have been really advancing on so many fronts. Mr Morrison was the PM with so many portfolios that he failed to do his day job and failed to fulfil his promises. He promised a religious discrimination bill, but his own party revolted against it. He promised a national integrity commission. He didn't even get up to bringing it into the parliament. He didn't even introduce it in the House. I don't have enough time to list the litany of pretences from the former government. So I'm absolutely not going to take any notice of the crocodile tears from those opposite when they come in here and talk about broken promises.

It's a joke to see the coalition going in to bat for the richest superannuation holders in Australia at the very same time that the scandalous robodebt program that they instituted is unfolding before the eyes of Australians in the royal commission. Minister after minister, day after day, has been admitting to covering up systemic theft, with debts being illegally raised against their own people. And they dare to come in here and have a go at a government that's actually making a positive difference in the lives of Australians. Let me tell you: when I'm out there, people are saying to me, 'I'm so relieved to wake up in the morning and not feel as if there's a disaster landing on my head.' That was the characteristic of the former government. People know that the former government were happy to send illegal debt notices out to hundreds of thousands of Australians, hound them with debt collectors and then systematically lie and bully their way out of accountability for this tragedy. It was supposedly to improve the budget bottom line, yet they've left Australian taxpayers with a trillion dollars in debt. That's their record in economic realities.

Labor, instead, is undertaking a responsible, orderly, predictable cabinet style government such as has not been seen in generations. We are making sure that we bring Australians along with us in facing the challenges that we face. The world changes, and our world needs a careful response from a government that pays attention to the detail. We know that fair and sensible measures need to be undertaken to restore our nation's finances. Those opposite think it's just fine for those people with millions and millions of dollars in super to actually pay a smaller marginal tax rate than a pay-as-you-go earner on a $44,000-a-year salary, and they think it's fine to borrow billions of dollars to keep in place those tax arrangements in super for people who have balances over $3 million.

Now, I love the endeavour of people to get into business, create jobs and get the benefits of business. If you've got $3 million in super, good on you. But, if you've got more than $3 million in super, I don't think you should be getting more of a tax break than is being applied with this option, at 30c in the dollar. I think there are people in your committee who probably need to be able to see a doctor. I think people need services from this government. People need services a lot more than somebody with $3 million needs the protection of those opposite, who are standing up for 0.5 per cent of Australians who are clearly not doing it that tough. We're going to continue on with our plan to support workers, families and small businesses with cheaper medicines, cheaper child care, wage growth and more paid parental leave—game-changing reforms that are real and will make a difference to the bottom line of families across Australia. (Time expired)