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

I was inspired tonight to witness the speech tonight in the House by the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Bill Shorten. He laid out why we on the opposition side and the Australian people see this budget as one of betrayal, one of broken promises and one of deceit. If you look at the legacy that was left by the Labor government, when we look at the low inflation, when we look at low interest rates, when we look at the net debt and when we look at the Triple-A rating, that is a picture that tells the story as to why those in government now have manifested their own story to tell about a budget emergency. When Mr Shorten tonight in the House of Representatives delivered his budget in reply speech he spoke for the Australians who are going to be hurt by this cruel budget. He spoke about the Australians who will not be able to afford to go to the doctor. He was speaking about those who have prescriptions that they will have to think twice about filling. We are also concerned about those families and those people in the Australian community that will have to struggle now to be able to fill up at the petrol bowser. There are so many issues that were covered and highlighted by the Leader of the Opposition in relation to Medicare, in relation to education and talking about having a vision and the lack of vision from those opposite.

I will talk about a few other issues that have come out of this budget of broken promises and what it means to ordinary Australians, many of whom will wonder what they did to earn the wrath of vindictive tory politicians. Tony Abbott has broken his word; it is as simple as that. If there is any sort of fairness or balance in the reporting of Australian politics and in the response of the Australian electorate to political messaging, then our Prime Minister should be absolutely taken to task. When Labor sought to introduce an emissions trading scheme via a fixed period price on carbon it was deemed a ruinous 'carbon tax' and clearly a broken promise. The coalition hammered this point at every opportunity at the expense of intelligent debate or analysis. They misrepresented the price on carbon and, sadly, their attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator succeeded politically. So here we are with their new taxes and clear broken promises, and I certainly hope that those opposite are held to account. In some small way I actually marvel at their pluck. Here are two leaders who advanced their careers beyond most people's expectations by misrepresenting Labor's carbon policy as a 'carbon tax' now nonchalantly introducing new taxes which they actually promised they would never introduce.

It just gets worse and worse no matter how you look at the budget. In my own role as shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care I have taken careful note of some of the harmful changes that will impact on older Australians. Just a little over six months after scrapping the Advisory Panel on Positive Ageing, the government has opted to also axe the Andrew Fisher Applied Policy Institute for Ageing. This was a body charged with placing Australia at the forefront of policy development on the opportunities and challenges of an ageing population. Now, due to the short-sightedness of the Abbott government, it is gone. Right now, we have an ageing baby boomer population entering retirement. This is something that the Abbott government really needs to pay close attention to but we know it is not their priority—they do not even have a minister for ageing. The government has no strategy. There is no vision here in their budget and there certainly is no heart either.

I would also like to point out that many of the aged care cuts in this budget will negatively impact on those who deliver care and support for older Australians at the most vulnerable point in their lives. The decision to reduce the annual growth of the Commonwealth Home Support Program means that valuable services such as Meals on Wheels and respite care will be hit hard. The axing of the National Respite for Carers Program is particularly cruel. This program had a simple but compelling aim: to provide just a little bit of help to those relatives and friends caring at home for older people who are no longer capable of caring for themselves. But of course there is more bad news in this budget—it isn't just deceitful and cruel, it is retrograde. This budget cannot be seen as an anomaly and it cannot be seen in isolation. It is part of a broader trend in conservative politics and it needs to be analysed in full, proper context. So that is precisely what I will do and what we on this side of the chamber will do.

If we are looking for reasons as to why we are being handed this budget, I think we need to look at the people that are influencing the coalition's direction. As Rachel Nolan noted recently in The Monthly, the Abbott government is influenced by certain figures who wildly agree with each other at every opportunity. As soon as the coalition assumed power, it was review time. It is not so much what the reviews were investigating that is so important, it is who led them. Let us look at the cavalcade of conservative white men who lead the charge.

The man who led the National Commission of Audit, Tony Shepherd, is a past president of the Business Council of Australia. He is someone who is so out of touch that he falsely claimed that Australians were going to the doctor too frequently—a claim soundly rejected this week by the ABC's Fact Check. His comment that a GP co-payment will 'give people cause for thought over whether they really need to go to a doctor' was nothing short of condescending. He may have a born to rule mentality, typical of conservative Australia, but he is not a medical professional nor is he a health policy expert.

Then we saw a similar sort of comment today from our esteemed Treasurer, Joe Hockey, who momentarily lost control of his conversation on ABC radio and claimed that the co-payment was not a big deal because it was only equivalent to a few beers. I certainly hope people remember that one. I certainly hope it comes back to haunt him. Treasurer, there are people out there struggling to make ends meet. Once costs like school equipment, medicine, petrol and healthy food for the family are factored in, there is not very much left over in their weekly budgets. And, when there is, it does not necessarily go to cigarettes or alcohol; it goes to things like a visit to the doctor—and now that has become just a little bit more difficult. I just do not think you guys understand it.

It just goes to show how out of touch you all really are—I mean, really, the pure arrogance to lecture people on how to spend their money wisely when families around the country are doing just that! A GP co-payment will disproportionately affect those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds—a segment of our society especially prone to chronic diseases that require medical attention. The Treasurer should consider this and, as our Prime Minister is so fond of saying, stick to his knitting. We do not want people avoiding the doctor, for crying out loud! Don't you get it? Those opposite me are so out of touch. They have no vision. They have no concern for families. They have no concern for those struggling to make ends meet and no concern for the future environmental challenges. All they are about is short-term political gains.

The Prime Minister himself said, 'It just isn't right that people should say one thing before an election and do the opposite after the election.' Well, for once, let Hansard show that I wholeheartedly agree with the Prime Minister. Those opposite should hang your heads in shame for the decisions that you have brought before this chamber and the other house and before the Australian people with your budget. I certainly hope that we and the Australian people make you a one-term Tony.

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We live in a community, a society, a country—not in an economy. This sounds simplistic but how we think about these things helps frame our world view as individuals, political parties and as governments. The truth is that there are only two real things in this world: people and nature. Economics should primarily be targeting social and environmental outcomes. The economy is not a physical thing. It is not something that exists in its own right. Rather, it is a tool we have invented for governing the relationships between people, between governments and people and between people and nature.

Our economic tools, such as money, national accounts, trade, financial markets and business investment make good servants but poor masters, because they have failed to deliver universal prosperity, and make even worse religions. This Tony Abbott budget sacrifices these profoundly important wisdoms and insights on the altar of the empty, dangerous and fickle religion of extreme ideology. Joe Hockey said in his budget speech that he wants to redefine the role of government in people's lives—those last words again: 'in people's lives'. To me this was the most critical, honest and revealing line in his speech.

I grew up in a generation when it was a government's primary role to look after its people. Mr Hockey wants to spend less on people—most the poor and needy. He wants to increase Australians' cost of living—all, ultimately, at the expense of giving big business and investments the opportunity to prosper. He is a reverse modern day Robin Hood—taking from the poor and giving to the rich. His message, the ideology, is simple: economy before people; focus on business profits, money and economic management and health, prosperity, happiness, an end to suffering, poverty, inequality and lower catastrophic risks of global warming are sure to follow—in other words, let the economy govern us all. Government has little role to play except to help business make more profits.

This is the biggest regression of public policy our nation has ever seen, by arguably the most ideological reactionary government our Federation has ever seen. In an attempt to put economic forces and principles first, such as their obsession with business investment and the elimination of budget deficits, the government has perpetuated a full-frontal assault on the most vulnerable people in our society. This is not a conservative government. A conservative government wants to maintain the status quo. This is a reactionary government. A reactionary government wants to send us all back to some distant bygone era—way back; back before Rudd and Gillard; back before Howard, many of whose reforms are proposed to be unwound; back before Hawke and Keating's social contract; back before Whitlam, who gave us all our publicly funded healthcare safety net that Mr Hockey now wants to take away; and back before Chifley and Menzies. Remember Menzies' forgotten people.

It was Curtin who introduced universal unemployment benefits. They started in 1945. We have had universal unemployment benefits now for nearly 70 years. Before this, charities and state governments handed out blankets and food stamps. If you were lucky there was a make-work scheme that you could earn a pittance from. Mr Abbott, Mr Hockey and Mr Abetz are going to take our unemployment benefit scheme back to the pre-1945 days for people under 30—and who knows what in next year's budget? Now, if any young person has the misfortune of losing their job, they will be without any government support for the first time since 1945. This is the definition of a reactionary government.

Mr Abbott, Mr Abetz and Mr Hockey will widen the divide and entrench the poverty gap in Australia. Nowhere in Australia will this be more apparent than in my home state of Tasmania. Youth unemployment, as Senator Colbeck well knows, is currently at around 17 per cent. In the north and north-west of Tasmania the levels are now over 21 per cent.

The Liberals are asking parents with grown-up children across Tasmania to take the role of financially supporting the unemployed. What was once a government role—a role that I expected when I was unemployed and on unemployment benefits—is now a family role. If your 20-year-old son is laid off from the mechanic, it is now your job to feed, clothe and house him until he gets employment again. If your daughter struggles to get a job after her hairdressing apprenticeship, it is your role to feed, clothe and house her.

What about the young people whose parents cannot afford this? What about the young people from abusive families, or families or individuals who suffer from mental illnesses? How does a young person afford to buy clothes for an interview? How does a young person afford to travel to places to ask for work?

This is ideological. It is cruel. And it is unnecessary. We will see more destitution and more homelessness. We will see more crime. We will see more people with no money and no opportunities doing desperate things simply to survive. If you had no income and no opportunities, what would you do?

Economist Saul Eslake said that the No. 1 thing that needs to be done for Tasmania's economy is to lift the educational attainment levels of the state. This budget sends that goal backwards. There is no commitment to the full rollout of Gonski. They are putting up university fees, and putting up the interest on university loans. It becomes more expensive to enter university and more expensive to pay it back. The government has put up the price signal for education. Fewer people will study. People from poorer backgrounds will stop seeking a tertiary education. So not only is the government making it harder for the unemployed in Tasmania, it is making it harder for them to gain an education. The government is entrenching a two-class society.

And to top it all off for the young unemployed, this government has cut funding to the three youth employment programs in existence—a triple whammy for the youth of Tasmania: cutting unemployment support, making university more expensive, and cutting youth employment programs. And it's not just the unemployed that are going to suffer.

Tony Abbott is pushing the retirement age up to 70. Australians will have the oldest retirement age on the planet. In Tasmania, where blue-collar physical jobs like nursing and cleaning dominate, this will be devastating. Not only are Tasmanians less likely to physically cope with a later retirement age, they will also be less likely to have built up a large amount of retirement savings. My wife works with chronically injured patients in Tasmania, and I understand this to be a truth.

Single-parent pensioners, age pensioners and disability support pensioners are going to be made poorer by this government's change to indexation. I do not remember the self-proclaimed 'three amigos' elected into Bass, Braddon and Lyons campaigning on lifting the pension age and cutting the pension indexation, or charging fees to go to GPs and taking away free health care. I do not remember the Liberals telling the 65,364 pensioners and the 27,993 disability pensioners in Tasmania that the indexation would be cut.

Lyons and Braddon have the third and seventh highest proportion of disability pensioners in this country. What did their local MPs tell them about this at the election, and what have they told them since? What about the doctor's payment and the payment for going to emergency or the medical co-payment?

The Liberal Party were elected in 2013 on a cascade of lies. They were deceitful, because they never told Australians how they would make up the revenue shortfall after they 'axed the taxes'. On the day before the election, Tony Abbott promised that no matter how much the budget may blow out, he would still keep his election promises.

Tasmania and Tasmanians will reject these policies. They will reject any politicians that brought them—especially in light of the failure of the new government to deliver jobs and prosperity in the next three years. It is a big roll of the dice: the inevitable risk you take when you put your economic ideology—your religion—first, before caring for people and providing equal opportunity.

I will fight these policies from here until they are repealed, and the Greens will stand with Tasmanians shoulder to shoulder to help them get through these very difficult next few years to come.

David Bushby (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make a few comments about the benefits of the budget to Tasmania. But, before I do, I might just make a couple of comments on some of that which I have heard in this chamber while I have been waiting for my turn.

Senator Polley's comments demonstrated to me, and I think probably to any objective listener, that which was so evident from the speech which was delivered tonight by the Leader of the Opposition—and that is that Labor is in total denial and will not face up to the mess that they created and are totally unable to offer any solutions to fix that mess. Senator Polley mentioned in her speech the issue of aged care and the funding of it. Coincidentally, the amount of interest that the Australian government currently has to pay on the debt that arises as a legacy of the last six years under Labor is around $12 billion a year, every year, and that is only going to rise, in the absence of policy changes. As it turns out, that is almost exactly the same amount of money that we spend a year on aged care. So we could double the amount that we spend in this country on aged care if we did not have to pay the $12 billion a year interest on the debt that Labor accumulated.

As an economist, Senator Whish-Wilson should know that economics is all about the best use of scarce resources. For some reason he tried to divorce economies from people and nature. But the reality is that they are inherent in people and nature. Whether it is a hunter-gatherer society or a modern 21st century society, the economy arises when people look at the best ways of how to make use of scarce resources.

The fact is that getting the economy right means that we are making the best use of those resources for the benefit of those who comprise it. So you cannot divorce the economy from people and nature. It is an inherent part of people making use of resources, which are needed to survive.

On Tuesday night the coalition stood up as an adult government and delivered a necessary and responsible budget for Australia. After six years of reckless spending, debt and deficits from Labor the government has clearly and methodically laid out a plan to strengthen our economy and get the nation moving forward.

The coalition has delivered an honest budget that will move Tasmania forward, my home state. As I mentioned, the nation is currently borrowing $1 billion per month just to cover the interest on our existing borrowings. To break that down, Tasmanians are paying $30 million a month to pay Australia's interest bill. That is $360 million that Tasmanians have to pay a year that is realistically going down the drain. Six years of Labor has torn away at Tasmanian's future.

The coalition respects the taxpayer and wants to invest and build a strong and prosperous economy in my home state of Tasmania. That is why in the budget the government announced up to $1 billion in a raft of incentives and benefits for my state. Tasmania's unemployment rate is above the nation's average. The government believes that those who can work should be able to do so. Job growth in Tasmania is vital.

The Restart program announced by the government will provide up to $10,000 in federal assistance and will be available to individual employers who take on job seekers aged 50 or over. Restart will be available to all employers in conjunction with the Tasmanian Jobs Programme, which already provides a payment of up to $3,250 for businesses that employ job seekers who have been out of work for at least six months and who are at risk of long-term unemployment in full-time positions for at least six months.

Tasmanians will notice that infrastructure investment is the centrepiece of the budget. That is why the government has announced $400 million for the Midland Highway infrastructure initiative. This will upgrade the road significantly and improve safety and efficiency as freight and passenger vehicle usage increases.

The Abbott government will also honour its commitment to lengthen the runway of Hobart International Airport. The $38 million upgrade will see the runway extended by up to 500 metres, allowing Hobart airport to become Australia's gateway to the Antarctic. On Antarctica, early last month Greens leader Senator Milne held a stump press conference, fearmongering outside the Antarctic Division, claiming that the government would be abandoning all funding and research involvement. She said:

Tony Abbott is jeopardising Australia's actual investment in Antarctica at a global level in strategic terms, he's risking jobs in Tasmania and he is undermining Tasmania as one of those key global hotspots for Antarctic research …

I am pleased to say tonight that Senator Milne's fearmongering has been well and truly quashed. The government announced in the budget a long-term commitment to Antarctica, by approving the process to procure a new icebreaker to be based in Hobart to replace the ageing Aurora Australis. This will be a massive boost for jobs in the region and will expand Tasmania's role as the doorway to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. As those who are interested in Antarctic research know, it is absolutely vital to Australia's presence in Antarctica and its continuing research.

Also contrary to Greens' alarmism is the government reaffirming its commitment to the funding of the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme, the TFES. The government is retaining the TFES, as promised last election, and eligibility for the scheme remains unchanged. The Greens, having done all they could to destroy Tasmania's economy, now seek to misrepresent the coalition's efforts to repair the damage!

Tasmania's environment is also benefitting from the budget: $3 million will be dedicated to the Tamar River Clean Up Program, which will be welcomed by the local community and will have a positive economic, environmental and recreational impact.

Other benefits for Tasmania include: $2.7 million to establish the Tasmanian Major Projects Approval Agency for Launceston that will speed up regulatory approvals and encourage private investment in the Tasmanian economy; funding for the Tasmanian agriculture sector, including $100 million for research and development and $15 million to help small exporters with export costs; $5.2 million for improvement of the Bell Bay intermodal terminal; funding for the veteran's community, including funding to support the work of veteran's advocates, pension and welfare officers, in helping veterans to access important information and services; and $20 million to build a stronger biosecurity and quarantine system; and $8 million to improve access to agricultural and veterinary chemicals—measures that will benefit Tasmanian farmers and producers.

There is also funding to upgrade the iconic Cadbury factory. The upgrade is aimed at boosting tourism by creating a unique visitor tour offering a chocolate manufacturing experience—and, for those who had the luxury of experiencing that tour in the past, I can assure you it is something that has been sorely missed since 2008 and will be warmly welcomed when it restarts, courtesy of the assistance that we are providing by restoring the famous tourist attraction to the standing that it once had.

The upgrade was announced prior to the election. Work on the factory will create 200 new direct jobs and 120 indirect jobs by 2017, and helping to secure 600 existing direct jobs and 340 existing indirect jobs. It will also have a massive supportive effect on the dairy industry in Tasmania, requiring a significant percentage increase in the dairy herd across the state to supply the milk needed.

Funding for mobile phone black spots in Tasmania has been included in the budget. There is also funding for the Burnie Pool redevelopment; Smithton and Devonport hockey clubs; the Devonport soccer club; and the Cradle Coast outrigger club.

The Coalition government has begun the job of repairing the budget mess we inherited from Labor. Tasmanians deserve to have their tax dollars put to investment in their state—not thrown away by paying down debt to overseas investors.

The Labor-Greens alliance in the Senate needs to allow the government to get on with the job of building a more prosperous Tasmania and strengthening our economy by acknowledging the mess that they left and help doing their bit to fix it.

Senate adjourned at 21:21