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

Well, here we are, the second budget from this Liberal and National Party government. One full year, and the bad taste of the last budget is still in the mouths of so many Australians. Sadly, it looks like that taste is set to continue. The government is still trying to force some of the most unfair elements through this place, particularly the Senate. Despite every assurance before the election, despite every assurance after the election and despite every assurance before this budget, this year's deficit is now forecast to be $41.1 billion. The Liberals, the great economic managers of the nation: $41.1 billion. Never again can you claim any economic credibility.

It is up by another $5 billion next year above the projections. It is up by another $3 billion the year after, and all this adding up to $12.5 billion extra debt, from this government, over the forward estimates. As every day passes, the people of Australia are cottoning on to the fact that this government just cannot be trusted. It is a government that does not know what it is doing, and it is a government that fundamentally completely misunderstands the notion of fairness. It is an exploitative, divisive and deceptive government.

In the mother of all insults, this government is set to cut paid parental leave to around 80,000 Australian mums. And with a perfect sense of timing, it delivered this message to mums on Mother's Day. So insensitive is this government to the reality of family life and any understanding of the challenges that face young families that it went ahead and made that kind of announcement—a leak—as if it was a positive thing for the country.

Australian families know now, even more after tonight, that they cannot believe a word that Mr Abbott says on anything to do with parental leave. First he said that paid parental leave would be introduced over his dead body. Then he promised an extravagant $20 billion scheme that gave wealthy women $75,000 to take six months off and have a baby. Then, in the face of Labor's campaign, he decided to scrap his so-called signature policy, despite declaring that it was his fundamental conviction.

Today, the Prime Minister has changed his mind. He wants to make savage cuts to parental leave, and that is going to leave almost half of new mothers worse off. This government's dishonesty and incompetence on paid parental leave is hurting Australians. It is hurting families. It is hurting the planning of families and it is damaging confidence in our community.

Not even the Nationals, their partners, trust Mr Abbott to do the right thing by Australian families. The coalition is divided because there is a small glimmer of conscience left in those benches just along there to the left, where the Nationals sit. They are trying to pipe up every now and then to say, 'You shouldn't really be doing this,' in their meek, mild-mannered way that Senator Cameron calls the doormat method of communication. Labor has been joined by the Nationals on this occasion to fight these short-sighted and cruel cuts to family payments. If Mr Morrison and Mr Abbott get their way, these cuts to family payments will leave a single-income family with two kids as much as $6,000 a year worse off. So when Mr Abbott tries to present this as a positive budget for families, Australians are awake to it. You cannot take $6,000 off an average Australian family and say you are doing anything good for them. Labor has been campaigning against these cuts for a year. Finally, it seems that the Nationals have caught on. Mr Abbott and Mr Morrison should be listening to Labor, or, at the very least, to their National Party colleagues and do the right thing by Australian families. Destroy those cuts. Get rid of the cuts that you have proposed in tonight's budget.

The fact is, this budget is not about the benefit of Australians, their families, their jobs or the economy. This budget is about one thing. It is about saving Mr Abbott's job. It is not about doing what is the right thing for Australia's future. When we see the programs that are being advertised and being pushed forward this evening we see a time frame of two years for so many of the funding commitments. Two years is not a wide-scoped or a visionary future being considered for this country.

This government promised to make things better, but they have made things so much worse. Labor has opposed much of what this government has tried to implement, and we will continue to oppose the government's cuts to family payments in the Senate until they are scrapped forever. Labor believes childcare should be accessible and affordable for parents, and we should support children's early education and development because it is an investment in those children and their futures and that of the nation. I am very concerned by reports that lower-income families will have their access to childcare cut in half, and others, the most vulnerable in many cases, will be pushed out of the system entirely. Meanwhile, under this Liberal-National Party government and the proposals that we have seen in the budget tonight, many wealthy families will see their assistance increased by a third. It is fundamentally unfair. This government does not understand the concept of fairness in the Australian nation.

I am also concerned that new childcare restrictions make it harder for families returning to work, and leave working parents, particularly those working casually or part time, with very much less support. Mr Abbott, in addition to putting these proposals forward, is holding families to ransom with cuts to the family tax benefit that would start now, if he had his way, leaving some families as much as $6,000 worse off. He needs to stop playing cynical politics and find a fair way to pay for these changes. Labor will fight the family tax benefit part B cuts that this government is proposing.

When it comes to jobs, the government has been asleep at the wheel for the last 18 months—over 500 days. Now, this government is spending $24.9 million over four years to ensure job seeker compliance. That is $24.9 million and the estimate that they think they are saving is $6.9 million. Did someone in the Treasurer's office lose their calculator? Spending $24.9 million to recoup just $6.9 million is just not good maths, and this is from the government who, in the very first acts of coming to power, trashed the Youth Connections program, a powerfully successful transformative program for young people. Labor established that program because we believe that government has a role to play in providing support for young people at risk of falling through the cracks.

This government has failed every test of fairness, and it has failed the tests it even set for itself: spending is up; tax is up; deficits are up; and unemployment is up. These are all the things that Mr Abbot said would be better under his government. The government has broken its promise to save as much as it spends—spending initiatives are greater than actual savings in this budget. Joe Hockey has achieved the incredible feat, almost unimaginable, of doubling the deficit in one year—from $17.1 billion to $35.1 billion. Tax is at its highest level since the last budget of the Howard government. Unemployment will be higher than expected next year and the year after.

The government's higher education funding is still inextricably linked to the legislation to deregulate university fees, which it assumes will pass through the Senate. That means $100,000 degrees are still very much on the agenda of Mr Abbott and his education minister, Mr Pyne. This would be a crippling imposition on a student, who would carry the debt long after their working career. By contrast, Labor set targets for boosting participation in tertiary education by 2025 with the aim of securing 40 per cent of all 25 to 34-year-olds a bachelor's degree or above, and 20 per cent of undergraduate enrolments coming from low-socioeconomic-status students.

What we are seeing is that the Liberal government has tried unsuccessfully to be all things to all people, and it has just cooked up a fiscal mess.

This is a budget of deceptions. While promising less tax, they have delivered 17 new taxes. While promising less debt, they have delivered $12.5 billion in new debt—$100,000 degrees remain, $57 billion in cuts to health remain and $30 billion in cuts to education remain. This budget is the worst of all worlds.

Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey have broken their promise to families, they have broken their promises to Australians and Australians will have a very long memory of this very bad budget. (Time expired)