Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A letter has been received from Senator Moore:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

The Prime Minister's failure to honour his promise there would be "no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS" under a Coalition Government.

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clock accordingly.

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

I rise today to reflect on this arrogant and out-of-touch Abbott government; a government that is suddenly starting to preach fairness, but does not know the meaning of the word. Fairness is something that you have; it is intrinsic to your values. You cannot just say 'fairness', like those opposite do, and have it suddenly appear. Last year's budget was an outright attack on all Australians. It was a budget that hurt students, hurt pensioners, hurt low-income families and certainly hurt job seekers. Fundamentally, it was a budget that attacked the principle of fairness. Before the last election Mr Tony Abbott promised no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS. He broke all of those promises. Tony Abbott promised to make things better, but by attacking fairness in this country he has made everything worse.

Last year's Abbott-Hockey budget was a disaster for the Australian people and for the Australian economy. It directly resulted in the cost of living going up. The budget and its broken promises hurt Australians to the tune of $6,000 a year. Further to this, unemployment has increased again—and this was to be a good government! I think the Prime Minister said in February that there was going to be a good government, that there was going to be an adult government. But it has failed to turn up.

The unemployment figure now stands at 6.2 per cent—and this is a government that promised it would be a government of jobs, jobs, jobs. In my home state of Tasmania it has failed dismally, because they have not created any jobs. In the last month, 2,900 Tasmanians have lost their jobs—that is 2,900 families that are without a person working in our community. That is 2,900 jobs that have gone, which has a direct impact on our communities—our small communities, our rural communities.

Youth unemployment also continues to rise under the Abbott government, which said it was going to create one million jobs. As I said, the good government has failed turn up to work. This government has failed to deliver thus far on anywhere near creating a million jobs. Mr Abbott, you are taking this country and the economy in the wrong direction. As you can imagine, business confidence is also in decline. Roy Morgan data shows business confidence is at its lowest level in almost four years. Mr Abbott, you are taking the Australian economy backwards. The Prime Minister should be focusing on creating jobs, not protecting his own. That is what tonight's budget is all about—it is about Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey trying to protect their own jobs. This government has learnt the wrong lessons from last year's budget. It has failed not because it was too exciting or too bold, but because it was fundamentally unfair. Labor called last budget for what it was from day one. We have fought this unfair budget every single day since the last budget, and we will fight this government on any future unfair measures. Australia cannot afford a budget that puts Tony Abbott's job ahead of Australians' having jobs. The Abbott government's dishonesty and incompetence is still hurting Australians. Despite promising Australian voters a stable, a mature and an adult government, this government has achieved the exact opposite.

The problem with the coalition government is that it brought down a budget which broke all of the promises it vowed to keep. It not only misled but also lied to the Australian people when it said that there would be no cuts to health spending. It misled and lied to the Australian people when it said that there would be no cuts to education spending and there would be no change to the pension. If the pension indexation change that they tried to put through this place was not a cut to the pension why has it now been shelved? What I think really has happened to that pension indexation change is that it has been put in the bottom drawer, as I like to refer to it, because you cannot trust this government when it comes to their election commitments and promises.

To go out on the eve of the last election, the day before people went to the polling booths and voted for this government, and say—as the Leader of the Opposition at that time, Mr Abbott, said—there would be no cuts to education, he knew exactly that he had misled the Australian community. On the eve of the election he said there would be no cuts to health, there would be no change to the pension and there would be no cuts to the ABC and the SBS. It is not just we on this side of the chamber who are saying that Mr Abbott broke his promises. It does not matter where you go in the community. If you go out into your own electorates and listen to the Australian people, they will tell you that they do not trust Mr Abbott and this government. They have used up all their political capital. There is no future in this government when it continues to lie to the Australian community. Australians deserve so much more.

And then we have the Treasurer of this country—and I cannot remember: is it Mr Morrison or is it Mr Hockey?

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is easy to confuse.

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

It is.

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

He's hiding.

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

But he is still the Treasurer. Yes, Mr Hockey is still the Treasurer. He said to the Australian people that people on low incomes could afford a fuel tax because they do not drive their cars very far. That was from the Australian Treasurer. Before the last election, they—that is, Mr Abbott, Mr Hockey, Mr Turnbull and Ms Bishop—also promised that there would be no new taxes. Again, that is another broken promise because they have introduced the petrol tax. We know that they wanted to introduce a GP tax—now I have lost count of whether we are up to version 3, 4 or 5 of the different versions of trying to tax people going to see their GP—because they are all about fundamentally undermining Medicare in this country.

Then when we to turn to education, they said there would be no cuts to education. In my home state of Tasmania, the northern campuses of the University of Tasmania, both in Burnie and in Launceston, are at the mercy of this government as to whether or not they will have to close. Shame on those on the government benches—the three Amigos from Tasmania—who have failed to stand up for Tasmanians! They have failed to stand up for pensioners in Tasmania. They have failed to stand up to the health cuts. They have failed to stand up when it comes to this government trying to introduce $100,000 degrees.

This is unacceptable to the Australian people, and they have seen through this government. As I said, in February Mr Abbott said that a good government had arrived. He has failed to deliver on that promise. At the last election, as we know, Mr Abbott said that there would be no changes to the pensions. There was no caveat. There were no qualifications. But yesterday in this place the minister, in response to a question that I asked, said: 'We did not bring in any change that was going to have effect in this term.' You can play with words, but the reality is that you have lost the trust of the Australian people. There is probably not a lot more that will come out of tonight's budget, because the government have leaked everything to the newspapers to get their stories out to try to prepare the Australian people for the unfair second budget that they will bring down. But there is one thing: you cannot fool the Australian people all the time. They are a wake-up to this childish, heartless, harsh government. (Time expired)

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am delighted to rise to speak to this particular matter of public importance. In fact, it is very much the same as the one on 28 October 2014. As Senator Kim Carr demonstrated today in question time, the question time committee have run out of ideas and, obviously, so have the MPI committee. But I will accept the fact that Mr Abbott did make one mistake leading up to the 2013 election. Mr Abbott believed the then Treasurer, Mr Swan, that the deficit in 2013-14 was going to be $18 billion. That was Mr Abbott's mistake. I will tell you why it was a mistake: because the deficit was not $18 billion. It was not even $20 billion or $30 billion or $40 billion, but, of course, as Mr Abbott should have predicted, based on the previous performances of Mr Swan and the various prime ministers of the Labor government during the six years, it was a $48 billion deficit.

For those of us on this side who are used to running businesses and used to running governments and used to turning around the debt of past Labor governments, the simple reality is that when you inherit a $48 billion deficit you have got to show some leadership and you have got to do something about it. You cannot let it keep going the way it did. What we inherited as we came into government was a scenario in which this country was spending $100 million a day, seven days a week, more than it was earning as revenue. And what have we actually seen since the coalition came into government? As my good colleague Senator Smith well knows from our producing state of Western Australia, we have had a further $90 billion write-down in our revenues. So if Labor was in government, where would we be now? We would be running much higher deficits, much higher debts.

Those in the gallery might like to know that when Labor came into government in 2007, as a result of the legacy of Howard and Costello there was no debt. We had cash in the bank. We had a significant surplus. And where did we find ourselves in September 2013? We had cumulative deficits of $200 billion and the debt was running towards $670 billion—and Senator Moore invites us to comment on some form of failure of a government that has got hold of the failures of its predecessors and indeed is reversing those failures for the long-term benefit of the Australian community! Peter Costello inherited a $96 billion debt and he created a surplus. He established a saving of $6 billion a year in interest. That reminds me of the fact that we are actually paying $1 billion a month—not on repaying the debt, just on repaying the interest. That is a primary school that we are giving up every 12 hours, seven days a week, because we are borrowing overseas to repay the interest on Labor's debt.

So what level of responsibility do we have this evening from a leader of a party who should be hanging his head so deeply in shame? I quote from one of the newspaper articles: 'Comrade Bill Shorten says "nyet" to budget'—without reading it! This is the man who said: 'I support what Prime Minister Gillard has said, although I do not know what she said.' And here today, before he even knows what's in the budget, he is saying: 'No, we're going to oppose it.' On the ABC this morning he said: 'The truth is it is a budget for the rubbish bin'—before he has even read it! What level of responsibility is the alternative Prime Minister of this country showing to the people of this country when he comes out with those sorts of statements!

In her condolence speech a few moments ago Senator Wong spoke about the efforts of the late Senator Peter Walsh, who came from a fine Western Australian wheat-growing family that is only about 40 miles from my own family in the wheat belt of WA. She said Senator Walsh had inherited a $5 billion deficit from the outgoing Fraser government and turned it into a $2 billion surplus. But we are not talking about $2 billion; we are talking about a $200 billion deficit moving towards $670 billion of debt. Contrary to what we have just heard from Senator Polley, let us talk about where we are. In the first three months of this year alone, 73,000 new jobs—most of them, I understand, full-time—have been created. In the 18 months since this government was elected in September 2013, some 247,000 new jobs have been created—70 per cent more than in the last 18 months of the Labor government. Job advertisements are up, retail trading numbers are up—and this is a very hard circumstance.

So the people of Australia have really got a right to ask: what is the Labor opposition doing to work with the government and with the Australian people to overcome these issues? It is not so much that they have opposed initiatives in this place; it is the fact that the Labor Party, in opposition, have opposed some $5 billion of savings that were their own savings—and that is an act of bastardry in which they left the country with some $200 billion worth of deficit.

The economic recovery of this country has started, and we will see further evidence of it this evening. Export volumes are up some 70 per cent through this year. Bankruptcies have fallen. Residential building approvals, in a fine sign of confidence in the economy, are 24 per cent higher than they were a year ago and at record levels. These are all signs of people's confidence in the government. Has it taken some time? Yes, it has—because people remember that we are still paying off $1 billion a month in interest. And imagine what that figure of $1 billion in interest would be if interest rates were to rise from their current two per cent to four or six per cent! So we are seeing recovery economically.

Senator Moore, in presenting today's MPI, spoke of the situation with education. Let me focus on education for a few minutes. Labor, along with the Greens, said very proudly about education: 'We give a Gonski!' The one thing the Labor Party did not do was put any money into it. In the final year of the Labor government—in case there are those who either do not know or have forgotten—they actually carved $1.2 billion out of the education budget. It required an incoming coalition government to put that $1.2 billion back. So it is a little bit rich for the now opposition to jump up and down about education expenditure when it is this government that has returned it. There has been an increase in education expenditure of some $3.7 billion, bringing Western Australia and the Northern Territory back into a circumstance where there would be a return to fairness.

Over the last decade, for governments of both persuasions, there has been an increase of some 40 per cent in education expenditure. But it has been left to this government, a government which sees value in more than just throwing money at a situation, to put funding into education. We are putting money into better teacher quality; into better support for new teachers; into engagement with parents, who we all know are so vital; into increasing the opportunities for school autonomy so that school principals, their boards and the parents can have a greater say; and, of course, into the curriculum itself. There are many fine areas in which this coalition government is assisting education.

Senator Polley spoke of the risk, now, to university campuses in northern Tasmania. She can sheet that home exactly to herself and to the Labor Party in opposition, who have opposed the higher education initiatives of this government. Those in opposition can answer the 80,000 students who would have been getting HECS or HELP assistance and the 20,000 apprentices who now may not have the opportunity of that excellent funding—the opportunity for the universities to capitalise on international students. I, for one, remain very proud of what this government is doing. I eagerly look forward to the outcome of the budget this evening to further strengthen Australia's economy.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to this debate because the government did not keep its promises not to make those particular cuts. They also brought down a budget that attacked the most vulnerable members of our community, and they knew they were doing it because they knew from the information they had that those who were paying the most were the most vulnerable in this country. The situation would be worse if this Senate did not stand up to oppose those vicious budgetary attacks on the most vulnerable in our community. Our most vulnerable, however, are suffering from the cuts that the government has made to date, such as the cuts to the Department of Social Services—cuts to the vital services that communities need to survive, and cuts to emergency relief support services. Cuts to the programs that support and provide services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are cutting very deeply into the community, particularly when you combine those with the cuts to social services and the health cuts.

People have inundated my office with concerns, and they continue to ring to tell me of the concerns they have over the budget, and in particular the impact it is having on their lives. When you look at the cuts to health you see that the government broke their promise. They keep trying to break their promises on health, despite the fact that the measures they concoct do not get support from the community—measures such as co-payments and changes to rebates on times of consultations. And now they are trying $5 cuts to rebates and indexation freezes, or freezes to increases in rebates to 2018.

So they continue to try and break that promise. And who does that hurt? It hurts the most vulnerable, low-income members of our community—yet again hitting them. The government may think these cuts are little but they are immense to people who are struggling to make ends meet. Then the government made promises about no cuts to pensions. The attempted to bring in not only cuts to the indexation of age pensions, but also cuts for struggling single parents and those on disability support pensions. They were cuts, and the community was not fooled for one minute.

There were attacks on families—cuts to family tax benefits, again—and now the government is attempting to blackmail the Senate. We will see what is in the budget tonight but there have been comments in the media saying that we, the Senate, have to pass their cruel measures—again, measures that impact on single parents through cuts family tax benefit part B; again, attacking the most vulnerable in our communities.

Their piece de resistance was their move, which is still on the books, to kick young people under 30 off income support for six months. I wonder if the government is going to try and say, 'Oh, don't you worry about that; it's only going to be a month in this budget,' or whether they actually do see the absolute folly in that measure and finally take it off the books. We will wait and see.

Then there are the issues around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the government's promises not to cut health. What do they do? They cut $270 million from the provision of health services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. That is, for me, a double broken promise because this is the Prime Minister who came in saying that he was going to be the Prime Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and would deliver for them. Here we go! They have delivered chaos in the Indigenous Advancement Strategy. They have delivered cuts to health services. What do they do? They go to Andrew Forrest to give us the answers. And what is going to happen with the health and welfare card in this budget?

Who really believed the government when they said there would be no cuts to the ABC and SBS? Really, it is a joke that anybody would even believe that this government would not do that. They were always gunning for the ABC and SBS. You only had to look at comments by members of the opposition at the time to know very well that they would make cuts to the ABC. It was quite obvious that they were going to do that.

I move to Gonski and education. Again, who can actually believe the government when they make any commitments on anything?

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

I, too, rise to take note of our MPI today, which is on the Prime Minister's broken promises. Certainly, we have heard, over and over again in this place—and we will keep repeating it—that Australians are entitled to have confidence in their politicians. But what the Abbott government has shown us is that you cannot have any confidence in them. You cannot believe anything they say because everything they have committed to has amounted to broken promises. We heard the pledges of no cuts to health. We heard the pledges of no cuts to education. We heard the pledge of no cuts to the SBS. We heard the pledge of no cuts to the ABC. I think that someone who puts themselves up as a future prime minister of the country should tell the truth. Yet, what we have seen, with every single one of those commitments, is a broken promise.

We heard, 'No change to superannuation,' and yet one of the first things the government did, in a dirty deal with the crossbench senators, was to freeze superannuation employer contributions—somehow trying to hoodwink workers that that money would end up in their pockets. Well, nobody believes that, and even the government has stopped trying to pretend on that one.

We also heard that there would be no changes to pensions, and yet we know, and Australian pensioners know, that if this government goes ahead with the cruel cuts they will be worse off—make no mistake. It does not matter how they dress it up. They can talk about savings because they do not like the word 'cuts', but whether it is cuts or savings, under the Abbott government, pensioners in this country will be worse off. Make no doubt about that.

Budgets should be the centrepiece of a government's agenda. They should represent the commitments made during an election campaign. They should be forward-looking and they should deliver to all Australians. With the Abbott government, we are seeing quite the opposite—nothing but broken promises and backflips. Worse than that, their first budget was so bad, so full of broken promises and so detrimental to Australians, that Labor rejected it outright, because we stand for fairness. Fairness is not something you can buy; fairness is something you believe in, and that first Abbott government budget clearly missed on the fairness agenda.

The Prime Minister said there would be no cuts to health. Despite repeated claims by the Abbott government that the GP tax is dead, research published in the highly respected Medical Journal of Australia and, more recently, in Deloitte Access Economics' Budget Monitor finds that the four-year rebate freeze, some sneaky backdoor deal of the Abbott government, will lead to even higher charges than the original GP tax. Low-income earners, pensioners and those who are unemployed will be slugged the hardest, as research tells us that the freeze on rebates will hit the hip pockets of ordinary Australians. This backdoor GP fee will hit harder than any of the GP taxes proposed by the Abbott government, as GPs will be almost $9 per patient worse off—and that cost will be passed onto patients. Australians will remember that the Prime Minister promised them 'no cuts to health', and they will remember that broken promise every time they pay more to see a doctor. They will remember that broken promise when they make the hard decision that they cannot afford to see a doctor—that they cannot afford that extra almost $9 that the Abbott government is pushing on them through some backdoor rebate freeze.

We have heard today from Mr Freudenberg on higher education. It is still on their agenda.

Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Frydenberg.

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

Remember Mr Abbott's election promise?—and those over there just parrot in with, 'Yes, that's right.'

Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, we said 'Frydenberg'.

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

Remember Mr Abbott's election promise that there would be no cuts to education? Then we had the bombshell in last year's mean and harsh budget that universities would be cut and students would be slugged $100,000 for degrees—a big broken promise on education. According to the Assistant Treasurer, the Abbott government still wants to hike up university fees. Despite an overwhelming rejection by Australian voters, this out-of-touch government wants to continue to push students into $100,000 degrees. The Prime Minister is not doing any of the listening he promised he would do after he almost lost his job, and we have certainly not seen the good government that he committed to again after his job was threatened.

Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I tell you what, you people are hypocrites!

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

From what has been leaked to the media, families will take a hit through cuts to family—

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator O'Sullivan, I suggest it would be helpful for you to withdraw that comment, please.

Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw that, Mr Acting Deputy President.

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you.

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

So the Prime Minister is not listening and we have certainly not seen good government. We did not see it from September 2013; we are certainly not seeing it now. The Abbott government has no idea what good government is. We had all that talking up of the childcare package and what the government was going to do, and now we know that that package will come at a cost—robbing low-income families to help other families. The Abbott government somehow thinks it is fair to take $6,000 a year from some families to pay for its childcare package. Last year's budget favoured those who needed help the least and hurt those who could least afford it. It was bad for Australian households and bad for the Australian economy.

The Abbott government has continued to link spending measures that will be announced tonight to measures that were in last year's budget. The $6,000 cut to family payments remains even though it will not be in the budget papers tonight. What a dishonest, backdoor tax; what a dishonest, backdoor approach. This is what has been leaked. We hear tonight that the budget will be boring.

Senator Seselja interjecting—

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order on my right! Senator Seselja!

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

We know from the parroting coming from the Abbott government senators that, obviously, they do not like to hear the truth. The truth hurts them and they think, by shouting and carrying on, they can drown out the truth. But the truth is there; Australians know. They can carp and parrot all they like, but the truth is well and truly out there.

Where has Mr Hockey been? He is missing in action. Fancy a Prime Minister saying that tonight's budget will be a boring budget. How can you have a forward-looking document and be an agenda-setting government if you have a boring budget? I do not know how you achieve a boring budget on the one hand and be an agenda-setting government on the other. I do not believe you can do that. I know that Australians agree that you cannot be an agenda-setting government that delivers, by the Prime Minister's own words, a boring budget. He is on the record as saying that. Really, what this budget is about is the Prime Minister saving his own job. No matter how he tries to hide Mr Hockey, no matter how he tries to put a photoshoot up—that is so awkward it is embarrassing, where the Prime Minister is touching the Treasurer on the arm, somehow trying to portray they are friends—no matter how much Mr Abbott puts Mr Morrison front and centre, the fact remains that Mr Abbott's success is linked to that of his hiding Treasurer, Mr Hockey.

We all know it is Mr Hockey who has his name as Treasurer, and he is such a lame-duck Treasurer. All of the major announcements are being done by the Prime Minister and Mr Morrison. We have hardly seen Mr Hockey, and when we have he has not been able to answer the questions. On the odd occasion that he has been in the media recently, he has done nothing but blunder or look very awkward, to say the least. The Abbott government and the Prime Minister know that Mr Hockey's job is on the line with this boring budget. Let us see how it hurts ordinary Australians, once again. Let us see who the winners and losers are—because the biggest loser will be the Prime Minister.

Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to the debate on this matter of public importance. It is difficult to know where to start, because there were about 27 conflicting messages from Senator Lines about what will be in this budget. But it was instructive, and Senator Lines gave us a glimpse of where she and the Labor Party are up to with their budget critique. The Labor Party's critique is now seriously flagging and running out of steam. Senator Lines, like her fearless leader, Mr Shorten, is running out of ideas and critique and really has nothing positive to say.

We heard about this 'year of ideas', that the opposition would present something to the Australian people about what they would do to fix the mess they left this country in. So far, we have heard nothing. When you have no ideas, when you have no plans and when you have no positive vision for the future, all you can do is have these flagging criticisms that change. We have heard it is going to be an 'unfair' budget, a budget about 'saving the Prime Minister', a 'boring' budget and a budget about 'saving the Treasurer'. Which is it? It will actually be a budget about the needs of the Australian people. It will be a budget about fixing the fiscal mess—that the vandals on the other side of this chamber left this country in—whilst seeking to grow jobs and support small business and families. That is what this budget will be about.

That is why we see such a confused critique from Senator Lines, Bill Shorten and others in the Labor Party. They just do not know what to say. It is one of the reasons we are seeing the Australian people waking up to Mr Shorten. We are seeing his personal approval rating go through the floor. Do you know why? It is going through the floor because people have figured out that he does not stand for anything. People have figured out that it is very easy, when the government makes tough decisions, to be critical. It is very easy when you have made the mess—as Bill Shorten and the Labor Party did—to pretend it is not your fault, that it is the fault of the incoming government, which is trying to fix the mess you left. It is very easy to do that.

Over the last 12 months we have seen this critique falling flat. That is because the Australian people do not believe the Labor Party can fix the mess they created. The Labor Party are showing no signs of it in opposition—and we certainly know what their record is like in government. It is interesting to hear Labor senators talking about budgets and promises. I am reminded of Mr Swan's promise to return the budget to surplus. Hundreds of times, he promised that the budget was coming back to surplus. Mr Shorten went further than that: he said they had already delivered a surplus. He went out to the Australian people and said, 'We have delivered a surplus.' That was not true. In fact, we were tens of billions of dollars in deficit—every year.

Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It hasn't been true for 26 years!

Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We do recall, Senator O'Sullivan, that wonderful footage of Wayne Swan when he was asked when the Labor Party had last delivered a surplus. He scratched around, spilled his water and broke his glass and then—

Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You were in primary school!

Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I may have just entered high school that year. I am pretty sure it was 1989 and that was my first year in high school. Wyatt Roy may not have been with us then, but I was in high school the last time the Labor Party delivered a surplus. Senator O'Sullivan was but a young man in that generation when the Labor Party last delivered a surplus.

Politics is about choices: our plan for the future, our plan to grow the economy, to stimulate small business and support families, and to try to bring the budget under control. This is critical and this is an issue of fairness. This is a moral issue. Borrowing from your grandchildren or your children to fund your lifestyle—and the kind of profligate spending we saw under the Labor Party—is absolutely immoral.

Senator Wright interjecting—

We have an interjection from the Greens. Have the Greens ever come up with a savings measure? They take the Labor Party view that a savings measure is, in fact, a new tax. They certainly do support new taxes—but it would not matter how many new taxes you came up with for the Greens, they would always find more ways of spending that money, more ways of throwing that money away. That is a moral issue. You would lumber generations to come with debt and deficit to pay for your lifestyle, to pay for ridiculous spending, to pay for the ridiculous schemes we saw under that Labor-Greens government. So we are not going to take lectures from the Greens. The Greens have the craziest of economic policies. They have no economic credibility.

Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They have never been in business.

Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Most Australians clearly believe that, because we see it in the level of support the Greens get across the country. It tends to be around eight to 10 per cent. So 90 per cent of Australians reject Greens policies, but unfortunately we have an opposition, the alternative party of government, which sometimes gets infected with the Greens' view of the world. We are certainly not going to be lectured to by the Labor Party on how to do budgets. We are not going to be lectured to by the Labor Party or their Greens coalition partners on how to fix the mess that they left us. But what we will do and what this budget will do—and I am confident that it will—is continue on the path of fiscal repair, which is critically important.

We have to acknowledge that this is a serious issue. We cannot just let the deficits keep growing as they would have under Labor. Whilst doing that, we need to deliver the critical services, but we need to support jobs growth and support the economy. We need to support small business, and I am very confident that there will be excellent news for small business in this budget. We need to support families. We need to help them in all sorts of ways, including getting back into the workforce and supporting them in those choices. By doing that, we can fix the mess that we inherited and we can ensure that we have a prosperous future as a nation. That is our responsibility as a government, that is a responsibility that this government is up to and it is a responsibility that those opposite have comprehensively failed at, which is why they have no credibility when it comes to these sorts of discussions.

Glenn Lazarus (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the only Independent senator for Queensland, my focus is, of course, on the people of Queensland. I have just returned from extensive tours around northern and western Queensland, much of which is on its knees. Communities are suffering due to the high levels of unemployment—particularly high youth unemployment—crippling drought and difficult business conditions. Since coming to office, the Abbott government has done nothing but cut, slash and burn. While the people of Australia are desperately trying to make ends meet, the Abbott government has quietly been cutting federally funded community support programs across the country and many of these cuts have occurred in my home state of Queensland. To make matters worse, many of the cuts are affecting the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our community, including First Australians.

I would like to give you an example. The Learn Earn Legend! program is a national Indigenous education program which was established in 2010. I will be seeking leave to table some documents regarding the Learn Earn Legend! initiative later on. It now sits under the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Tony Abbott's portfolio. It was moved to this portfolio in 2013. The program was established to support young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to stay at school, get a job and be a legend for themselves, their families and their communities. The program promotes the importance of education, training and employment to young First Australian peoples through the integration of sport and recreation. The Learn Earn Legend! program addresses three key closing the gap targets on Indigenous reform: to halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy initiatives for Indigenous children within a decade; to halve the gap for Indigenous students in year-12-equivalent attainment by 2020; and to halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade.

While I was in Townsville I visited several sporting organisations which are actively involved in the delivery of this program across North Queensland: the North Queensland Cowboys Rugby League Club and, of course, Townsville Fire, their women's basketball club. These clubs, with federal government funding through the Learn Earn Legend! program, worked with year 12 Indigenous students to assist and support them to complete their year 12 education and transition into further study or employment. As a result of the good work of the Cowboys and Fire across North Queensland, hundreds of Indigenous youth are mentored, supported and encouraged by some of our country's leading sports stars to succeed and build meaningful lives for themselves. Townsville Fire in particular focused on helping Indigenous girls to finish their high school education, build their self-esteem and plan for their future. They also encourage young girls to play sport and be healthy. The Learn Earn Legend! program is so successful it has become a model for other programs across the world. However, according to many sporting organisations and First Australian communities across the country, they are distressed because they have been advised by the Abbott government that funding has been cut and the program will cease at the end of June 2015.

To clarify and confirm this, my office rang the office of the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, the Hon. Nigel Scullion, to question the status of funding for this program only to be told that there was no such program. My office then rang the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet today to speak to someone regarding the status of the program, but was told by the operator and someone else who we were transferred to in the department that they have never heard of the Learn Earn Legend! program. It would be nice if the Prime Minister's own department and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs actually knew about some of the programs they apparently administer. Maybe that is why funding is being cut. It must be easy to cut funding to a program you deliver but do not know exists. I call on the Prime Minister's office to get your department sorted, find out what you deliver and, once you have done this, reinstate funding to the Learn Earn Legend! program—

Senator Scullion interjecting—

or whatever you call it now, to previous levels, because Indigenous youth across the country really need this.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the MPI to remind the people of Australia about the Liberal-National coalition government's seemingly endless trail of broken promises. It has been a year since Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey unveiled a pathetic and cowardly budget that sought to attack the most vulnerable in Australia. The Australian people and the majority of senators in this place have rejected Mr Abbott's plans and his broken promises. Never has a government been so out of touch. Before the election, the Prime Minister—well, the Prime Minister for now—Mr Abbott, promised no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS, and that is what the Australian people expected. But, unfortunately, that is not what they got. Mr Abbott's promises have been broken time and time again.

Last year's budget paper show cuts of around $60 billion from health funding over the next decade. These cuts will increase emergency department waiting times, increase elective surgery waiting times and reduce the number of hospital beds across the country. Last year's budget also cut hundreds of millions of dollars from preventative health, dental clinics, mental health and medical training. They shut every Medicare local and sought to slug all patients with a GP tax—I think we had about four iterations of that—and higher prescription charges. This is clearly a broken promise which will hurt all Australians.

The last budget also ripped $30 billion from our schools, locked in inequality and ignored the need for further investment to ensure that Australian students do not fall behind. Education is the single most important thing that we can invest in to improve the lives of individuals and improve the productivity of our nation. It cannot be understated just how important education is. The government have shown that they either do not understand or do not care about the importance of education. And in tonight's budget they need to reverse this $30 billion cut and commit to funding years 5 and 6 of the Gonski reforms. They also need to keep their promise to fund the Gonski disability loading from 2015 to ensure that children with disability get the best educational outcomes that they can.

Our teachers and our schools do their best, but without extra resources students with disability will continue to miss out on vital educational opportunities. Before the election, the Abbott government promised to deliver extra funding for students with disability from 2015. Instead, they terminated the More Support for Students with Disabilities program—a cut of $100 million per year. And they have failed to implement the Gonski disability loading in 2015. They should be ashamed.

For the last year the government has fought tooth and nail to change the indexation for pensions, which would have left pensioners $80 a week worse off in a decade's time. Mr Abbott knew his cuts to pension indexation were unfair but stood his ground. He stood by his decisions and he put millions of pensioners through an entire year of worry and anxiety. Over that time, Labor fought relentlessly for pensioners and forced the government to back down from their plans for now. In addition, the government also cut, in the last budget, about $1.3 billion of funding for pensioner concessions, such as public transport, council rates and help with the cost of electricity and water bills. Mr Abbott and his ministers are both cruel and out of touch.

We have also seen more than half a billion dollars worth of cuts to the ABC and SBS. Since the 2014-15 budget, more than 250 people have been sacked from the ABC, and there are another 150 who will face the sack in coming months. Production facilities are being shut down, regional radio stations have gone and the Australia Network is but a distant memory. The Abbott government's dishonesty and incompetence is still hurting creative Australian jobs and ABC and SBS listeners and viewers. The ABC and SBS are crucial voices of our nation. I am extremely disappointed that women's sport is the latest casualty of the so-called Prime Minister for Women's unfair policies.

Tonight, Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey hand down their second—and possibly their last—budget. Already, we know it will contain more broken promises. We know it will not be fair; we know it will not be balanced. It will be a document designed to save the political skin of the Treasurer and the Prime Minister. But it will not work. The government has not learnt their lesson from last year's disastrous budget— (Time expired)

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Lazarus, do you seek the call?

Glenn Lazarus (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do, Mr Acting Deputy President. I seek leave to table a document.

Leave granted.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to take part in this debate on a matter of public importance today. It is always a pleasure to take part in any debate when the Labor Party starts on the issue of keeping promises. You have to admire the utter shamelessness and the brazen way that Labor Party senators have come in here this afternoon to lecture people, to lecture government senators, on the importance of keeping promises. This, of course, is the same Labor Party that promised 'no carbon tax' three days before an election and then introduced a carbon tax within months of forming a government. This is the very same Labor Party that promised it would deliver six budget surpluses and delivered six deficits. They promised that FuelWatch would keep prices low; they promised that Grocery Watch would keep grocery costs down. The list of broken promises from those opposite would take longer than I have time to recite this afternoon.

We heard in this Senate chamber not so long ago some very fine contributions from senators on all sides reflecting on the memory of the late Labor senator Peter Walsh from my home state of Western Australia, who, of course, served as Minister for Finance in the Hawke government back in the days when the Labor Party took a responsible attitude towards fiscal management and economic reform. Of course, it was Peter Walsh who memorably dubbed the Australian Democrats—who were at that time a major influence in this chamber—as 'the fairies at the bottom of the garden' because they dwelled in a make-believe world which economic reality seemed not to touch. As I have noted before, the mystical, ethereal spirt only seems to have grown since that time. Yes, the Democrats have gone but they have been ably replaced by the Australian Greens and, increasingly, a Labor Party that seems to think fiscal challenges can just be resolved by magic, and magic alone.

I have no wish to be a Grinch—especially not on the eve of the budget—but the simple fact is that the deficit is not going to fix itself. The government promised the people of Australia that we would get the budget back on a path to surplus and would draw down Labor's unsustainable debt legacy. That is precisely what we have been attempting to do. That is precisely what we have been doing. That is what we will continue to do with tonight's budget.

Of course, Labor's shopsoiled complaints about cuts are not sustained by the evidence. The facts do not interest the Labor Party. But let's look for a moment at their claim of 'cuts' to education. Under the Abbott government Commonwealth spending for schools will actually reach record highs and increase over the next four years—an inconvenient truth for the Labor Party. At the last federal election the coalition promised to match the previous government's school funding commitments dollar for dollar over the four-year forward estimates. In fact, we have done better by adding almost $1.2 billion more than the previous government. This new investment is especially important in my home state of Western Australia as well as in Queensland and the Northern Territory after those states and territories had their funding cut by Labor.

But you do not have to take my word about the dishonesty of Labor's claims on supposed cuts to education funding. Where should we look? We should look to no other than the ABC's Fact Check Unit—not noted, of course, for being a mouthpiece for the government or for senators on this side of the chamber. But let's have a look at what the ABC's Fact Check Unit had to say last year in response to shadow minister Kate Ellis's claims about alleged cuts to education. The verdict was there for the world to see:

The Government did not cut $30 billion from schools in the May budget.

Senator Bilyk interjecting—

Senator Bilyk might be interested in hearing what the ABC's Fact Check had to say.

The Government did not cut $30 billion from schools in the May budget. The $30 billion figure is calculated over a 10 year period starting in 2017. It adds up the difference between the increase in funding that Labor says it would have delivered and the increase the Government may deliver. There is too much uncertainty for such a long-term estimate to be a reliable measure of either cuts or savings.

And what did they say about the shadow minister for education's commentary? They said:

Ms Ellis is sprouting rubbery figures.

Surprise! Ms Ellis and the Labor Party are sprouting rubbery figures—an inconvenient truth: the coalition has not cut education spending.

Senator Bilyk interjecting—

Challenge me, Senator Bilyk. Talk about pension cuts. I accept the challenge. Let us look at pension cuts.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Where's the Gonski disability funding?

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know you want me to talk about GST distribution reform, but, Senator Bilyk, I will not be drawn—

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Smith, you will make your remarks through the chair, please. Continue.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know that Senator Bilyk would love me to talk about GST distribution reform, but I will not. I will stick to the issue of pension cuts. So let's have a look at pension cuts. Pensions have increased several times under this government already, and, as a result of what Minister Morrison and the Prime Minister have recently announced, 170,000 pensioners will have a pension that is higher by around $30 a fortnight—and that includes 50,000 pensioners who will move on to a full pension. The Labor Party are running around saying this is a cut. It just does not measure up—another inconvenient truth for the Australian Labor Party.

Now, I am not here to assist the Australian Labor Party, but I might just take this brief opportunity in the time remaining to me to offer some words of caution. Less than a week ago we saw a stark example of what happens when one political party pursues a range of difficult but necessary policies to get the nation's fiscal situation back on a sustainable path while the other runs a national complaints bureau, indulges in class warfare and fails to acknowledge the folly of its own irresponsible spending while in office. I predict that the Prime Minister will be more like David Cameron, and Bill Shorten will be more like Ed Miliband. That is the inconvenient truth for the Australian Labor Party. Let's see the big ideas. (Time expired)

Debate adjourned.