Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers to all questions asked by the opposition.

It is no wonder that the Australian public have lost all confidence and all trust in this rabble of a government sitting across here. This is a government that has absolutely no idea about the issues that affect ordinary people. Nothing could have been clearer in the strident response from the Minister for Human Services, Senator Payne, to a legitimate question about how we look after some of the poorest and the most underprivileged people in this country. Senator Payne had an opportunity for two minutes to say that she cares about what happens to people who are unemployed or who rely on a pension, and people who are being ripped off by unscrupulous companies. But what did she do? She spent about one minute and 20 seconds of that response not caring about what is happening to the poor and not caring about what is happening to people who are being exploited. All she did was to try to score political points. The public are over these political points. The public want governments that care about communities. The public want governments that care about jobs, that want to do something about jobs, that want to get kids into apprenticeships, that want to get kids off the dole but do not want to push them in for six months with absolutely no income and force them to rely on charities. Being strident and being uninformed—like Senator Payne was today—is not a good example of how a government should work. You cannot just care about political points. You have got to care about the Australian public.

When people go to the ballot box in New South Wales on Saturday they can look at the quality of the senators, the ministers and the MPs in New South Wales. And Senator Payne epitomises this uncaring approach from this government. They only want to look after the big end of town. They only want to look after their mates who will pull up in their Bentley and hand over the brown paper bag for their election funds. That is the people that they want to look after. They do not care. They do not care about the workers in Penrith, they do not care about the people in Blacktown, they do not care about the people in Mt Druitt. All they care about is the big end of town. Let me tell you, Mike Baird is no different. He wears the same blue tie, he belongs to the same party and he takes the same political position—that is, they do not care about those who are in trouble.

Nothing could epitomise this more than the response of the federal coalition and the New South Wales Liberal government to the bushfires in the Blue Mountains. When you hear Senator Payne stand up saying that things are under consideration, remember she told the people in the Blue Mountains—those who had been moved out from getting any support from the federal government—that that would be 'under active consideration'. These are people who could not get into their homes, people who could not get out of their homes, people who had lost their fridges, people who had lost their food. People who had to go into hotels were told, 'You are on your own.' But what they actually did was tell the people in the Blue Mountains that the issue of providing support was 'under active consideration'. So when you hear the Liberals talk about 'under consideration' and 'under active consideration', you know that this is another way of not delivering for people in New South Wales. We have got two MPs up in the Blue Mountains: we had Mrs Louise Markus, the member for Macquarie, who was absolutely silent. She is one of the worst members of parliament ever in this country. And there is Mrs Roza Sage, the state member, who is absolutely pathetic. She did not raise her voice against Blue Mountains people getting their wages and their entitlements cut.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, I rise on a point of order. Under the standing orders is it appropriate for this senator who has an unenviable reputation for abuse to speak to other members of other houses of parliament in the way and give them the descriptions that this senator has?

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes. I have been listening carefully, and I do not think Senator Cameron has breached the standing orders. Senator Cameron, you have the call.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Sage and Ms Markus—absolutely pathetic, incompetent, unable to represent their electorates. (Time expired)

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am delighted to take part in this debate. Who did Senator Cameron just seek to demonise? Louise Markus, the member for Macquarie. He said 'one of the worst ever'. What did he ever say against Craig Thomson, the member for Dobell? Absolutely nothing. And there you have a window into the moral standards of the New South Wales Labor Party represented by Senator Doug Cameron in this chamber. Louise Markus is a wonderful person and wonderful human being who has a genuine heart for her electorate, and he demonises her in favour of Craig Thomson. Let us not be mistaken that this Senator Doug Cameron was the same Senator Doug Cameron who weaved the magic numbers within the Labor Party to allow Senator Macdonald's namesake, the corrupt Ian Macdonald, to retain his endorsement in New South Wales. So, if the people of New South Wales want to do a compare and contrast, let them do so on the basis of the words that have just come out of Senator Cameron's own mouth.

But the reason I want to be part of this debate this afternoon is to remind all honourable senators of the great words of the former Prime Minister John Howard, who said, 'Never rely on a quote alleged by your political opponents, especially those in the Australian Labor Party.' Today in question time Senator Wong sought to put o me certain alleged quotes from Prime Minister Abbott. Allow me to read into the Hansard the full quote of what the Prime Minister said:

Debt as a percentage of GDP, which would have been 120 per cent under the policies of the former government, is about 60 per cent under the policies of this government.

Listen to this:

Now, that's too high. We want to get it in a much, much better situation than that.

Oh. Why would Senator Wong refuse to put that into the quote to contextualise that which the Prime Minister had said? Because she went on a deliberate campaign to misrepresent that which the Prime Minister had said. He then went on to say:

We'd like over time to achieve this green line, but a ratio of debt to GDP at about 50 or 60 per cent is a pretty good result—

and what were the words missing?

looking around the world, 120 per cent is a dire result and that's what we were going to have under the policies of the former government.

Senator Wong is an intelligent human being and therefore you cannot assume anything other than that she may have done this deliberately. When you read the words of the Prime Minister saying that a debt ratio of 60 per cent is:

… too high. We want to get it in a much, much better situation than that—

you have a clear understanding from the Prime Minister of Australia that he is going to continue to deal with the situation.

The Labor Party legacy of 120 per cent was dire. At the moment, we have a trajectory of about 50 to 60 per cent. In anybody's language, halving that debt trajectory is good news. However, it is not enough, and that is what the Prime Minister himself said when he said:

Now, that's too high. We want to get it in a much, much better situation than that.

And so let's just get this exceptionally clear: we as a government are determined to clean up the mess by the Australian Labor Party—especially that left by the failed Minister for Finance, the now Leader of the Opposition in this place. The sad thing is that each and every time we try to fix their mess they deliberately stand in the way—standing in the way in circumstances where their own policies of saving five thousand million that they took to the election that they then vote against after they get defeated, deliberately seeking to avoid the issues of the day.

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

I rise on the back of that speech that we have just heard from Senator Abetz to say that we as the Labor Party will stand in the way every single day that this government tries to roll over the Australian people and completely reject any of the claims that they made before the election. The fact is this government has a massive trust deficit and it will never overcome the trust it has broken with the Australian people. That is because they absolutely said one thing before the election and have been delivering a completely different thing since they got in the place. Before the election there would be no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to the pension, no changes to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS, for good measure. And what do we have? The Prime Minister arrives and he says, in a manner of words, 'I didn't say that.'

And we hear it again. He made a number of comments last year in the lead-up to the budget. He claimed at that point in time that a ratio of 14 per cent debt to GDP was a 'debt and deficit disaster', and on the back of that he went ahead and created the most appalling budget it has been my great displeasure to witness in my entire life in this country. He could not have constructed a more unfair budget, and in doing so he revealed the Liberal Party and everything it stands for both here in the federal parliament and in the state of New South Wales. If they can take a knife to education, they will slash and burn. If they can take a knife to health, they will cut it and they will scalpel away at it until it is a shadow of its former self. They are determined to break access for every Australian to education and health. They want to set up a two-tier, Americanised system where the rich get richer, and can access health and education, and the poor do not even get a look in. That is what they are in the business of constructing right now.

What did they do the minute they got in here? They said, 'Debt and deficit. Debt and deficit. Debt and deficit.' They drew everyone's attention to a fake emergency. Then they went ahead and, in their very first budget, they cut $50 billion out of health—but that was not quite enough. They had a crack at education, which was their next target, of $30 billion. Mike Baird followed that lead with a $1.7 million cut from education, axing the jobs of 1,100 teachers and staff and cutting courses such as the second-chance HSC syllabus, tourism, hospitality and IT. Access was wiped for young people on the Central Coast, where youth unemployment is hitting nearly 22 per cent. But Mike Baird says, 'Let's cut TAFEs and get rid of it.' He has the hide to call it the Smart and Skilled program. It is dumb and it is removing any opportunity for skilling for young people. There is a pattern here: say one thing before the election, get in and then cut like crazy in health and education. This is what is going on with this government.

What can we hope for from them? In the lead-up to this next budget, he we are hearing them one day saying, 'It is a debt and deficit disaster,' and they are getting ready to kill us again in the budget. The next day they say, 'It is really not that bad.' The Prime Minister actually did say those very words. He said:

… a ratio of debt to GDP at about 50 or 60% is a pretty good result …

It is for this year, because he has decided that it is. Last year, 13 per cent was a disaster. We have him saying, 'I never said that. I never said that.' People know what they heard this Prime Minister say. They know that he promised not to cut health and education and they can see exactly what he did. There are massive cuts to health and education. We should be very, very worried that if a Baird government gets into New South Wales in the next 48 hours, we will see the end of a powerful state giving this government the sort of scrutiny that it deserves.

At the moment, there is no consultation with experts across the fields. The government are just making of their policies they go, flip-flopping from one day to another, to the point where an eye roll from the Foreign Minister has now secured foreign investment. I can only hope that Christopher Pyne and Ms Ley—

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's Mr Pyne to you.

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

I can only hope that Mr Pyne and Ms Ley can actually develop their eye rolling skills to adequate sufficiency that they might also save a little bit of money for health and education for this nation. In the meantime, the people of New South Wales should be aware: if you believe in health and if you believe in education and a fair go, Labor is the only way to vote on Saturday.

Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I perfectly understand the theatre of politics and I do understand that those on the opposite side are meant to come into this place, pluck figures out of the air and just read the talking points that they have been given. But I would implore upon them, if they are genuine about the crisis of confidence that is engulfing politics in this country, to actually speak the truth. That is because what we have is people like Senator Cameron and Senator O'Neill coming here and reading verbatim what is put in front of them, with no regard to the veracity of the claims that they make.

Senator O'Neill has reflected about changes to health and changes to education. Let us put this in perspective: there are no changes in the forward estimates and, in fact, there are actually improvements in the forward estimates from when we came into government for health, pensions and education. But what Senator O'Neill is referring to is these ridiculous last-minute decisions of their government, which said, 'In 2020, 2025 or 2050, we are going to put more money into something.' The money was never there. It was a figment of the then Prime Minister's—I cannot even recall who was, quite frankly; it could have been Mr Rudd or Ms Gillard—imagination. It was a falsehood peddled upon the Australian people.

The result of that is that we have the likes of Senator Cameron and Senator O'Neill coming in here, who make the spurious claims and who pluck elements of a speech and then try to portray that without any context around it. It is demeaning. I have respect the Senator O'Neill. I even have respect to Senator Cameron, albeit that he is part of the socialist mob and a much different philosophical line than myself. He does believe in something. But this diminishes them in the public capacity.

Let me make the point that the crisis of trust in politics and politicians in this country is born of the actions of the New South Wales Labor Party and the federal Labor Party, because the federal Labor Party backed up that man who abused the trust of many thousands of union members, Mr Craig Thomson. Mr Craig Thomson, we will recall, was a man who used hard-earned money of those low-paid workers from the Health Services Union for prostitutes and to rent the red ruby room in New South Wales for his prostitutes. What sort of betrayal of trust is that? We also know that those on the other side—including Senator Dastyari, as he was the shop steward for the Labor Party at the time—spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of Labor Party funds defending Craig Thomson, defending the indefensible.

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

Eleven NSW Liberals were removed!

Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator O'Neill is here defending it again. It diminishes you in the public square, Senator O'Neill.

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

Chris Spence, Chris Hartcher and Darren Webber!

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you want to uphold yourself as someone of integrity, you do not come in here and defend the actions of Senator Dastyari and the disgraced Craig Thomson. You come in here and you condemn the bad and corrupt Ian Macdonald and you condemn the bad and corrupt Eddie Obeid.

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

There are 11 NSW Liberals sitting on the crossbench in shame.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You condemn the grubbiness, the filth and the disgust that the New South Wales electorate exposed and turfed out. That is what you do if you want to be a person of integrity, but no: we have the defenders of it on that side. Let me make this point: when the people of New South Wales return a Baird Liberal government this weekend, what we will see is the extinguishment and demise of that small man of Australian politics, whose vision for this country is so myopic and so short-sighted that he is already under enormous pressure in his own party. That man is Mr Bill Shorten.

He is a man who has no plan for this country. He is a man who is prepared to sacrifice the future of our children, who is prepared to stand in the way of returning the budget to surplus, who is prepared to stand in the way of making progress to fix the mistakes of the previous government. He is a man the Australian people cannot trust. If you doubt that, ring Mr Rudd, ring Ms Gillard, and say, 'Can you trust Mr Shorten?' The answer to that is no. He is an impediment to this country becoming all that it can be. Shame on you for defending him. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers to questions that Labor asked in question time today. I will focus particularly on the answers Minister Scullion gave on issues around homelands in Western Australia. This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart and a subject that I have raised in this place on three or four occasions. I have to say that Senator Scullion's response today was completely incorrect. The Premier of Western Australia has stood up and said to Aboriginal people in Western Australia, without a skerrick of consultation, that 273 homeland communities are not viable.

The back story is that, about three months ago, Minister Scullion stood in this place and said that WA welcomed the opportunity to lose $90 million in funding to homeland communities and that it welcomed the opportunity to take control of municipal services in those communities. Nothing could have been further from the truth, because at the same time that Minister Scullion was making those claims Mike Nahan, the Treasurer, and Colin Barnett, the Premier, were well and truly saying the opposite. They were absolutely sheeting home the blame for the state of homeland communities, for having these potential forced closures, absolutely at the feet of the Abbott government. Somehow, today, it is Labor that is scaremongering. I cannot believe the hypocrisy that goes on in here; I seriously cannot. We have a Liberal Premier in Western Australia who does not even know where these communities are—would not have a clue, does not have a list—but who announces out of the blue, without consultation, that 273 groups of people will lose their homes.

Let us look at some of the rural towns in Western Australia where white fellas live that perhaps are not viable. There is no threat to them. This is an attack on Aboriginal people right across the country by the Abbott government and by Liberal state governments, particularly the Western Australian government.

Last year, the Abbott government received a report from Twiggy Forrest, but it was a bit too far to the right for them. They said at that time there would be no BasicsCard. Now what are they doing? Another backflip, and it looks as though Aboriginal people in this country will be forced onto some kind of cashless economy. That came from their billionaire mate Twiggy Forrest, who would not have a clue what it is like to live the tough life that some Aboriginal people in Western Australia and across the country live. They demonise Aboriginal people and the communities they live in. Many of those communities are very, very successful, but that fact completely passes Premier Barnett and Minister Scullion by, because they do not know anything about them.

The Premier of Western Australia is yet to consult with Aboriginal communities. He is yet to consult with one, single homeland about what its future will be after the two years—the mere pittance the Abbott government has given to homeland communities to survive on—runs out. There has been not a skerrick, not a word, nothing. Last week we saw thousands and thousands of Western Australians march on the state parliament and let Premier Barnett and his mean-spirited Liberal government know in no uncertain terms that the Western Australia community would not cop people being thrown off their homelands.

Since making the announcement that homeland communities would close, directly as a result of the withdrawal of funding by Minister Scullion, Premier Barnett has backpedalled a little bit, saying that nobody will be forced off their lands. But if they have their water cut off or their school is closed or there is no electricity they will be forced off their lands. WA has a long history of forcing Aboriginal people off their lands, ignoring the fact that many of them have viable businesses there. There is very strong micro-tourism going on, but does either Minister Scullion or Premier Barnett bother to inform himself about that? Of course they don't. It is long over time that Aboriginal people, particularly in Western Australia, were treated with respect and dignity and not forced to leave their traditional lands. It shows just how out of touch are the Abbott government and the government of Western Australia that they continue to demonise Aboriginal people in the communities they live in. It is time to sit down and talk.

Question agreed to.