Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The real test of a budget is not just in the numbers but in whether the decisions that underpin it make Australia a better nation. Does it reflect and promote a more caring society and relieve pressure from those who are feeling it most? Are benefits and opportunities shared among many or an elite few? Does it recognise that a healthy economy depends on ensuring a clean environment? Does it set out a long-term vision for our country? The answer, when it comes to this budget—and, indeed, the one that preceded it—is a resounding no.

When you do not have a destination, you cannot know where you are going. If you do not have a plan for where you want to be in 10 or 20 or 50 years, you will never get there. Budgets should reflect the values of our community—what we want for our lives and the lives of our families, our workplaces and the role we want Australia to play on the global stage. Can I go to the doctor, and how much will it cost? What type of education can I afford for my children? What happens to me if I become unemployed? Will I have enough for my retirement? And what sort of future will my kids inherit?

Instead of the small-minded, visionless budget that the Liberal government handed down this week, the Greens want to see a budget that tackles climate change and protects investment and jobs in the renewable sector; one that invests in health and mental health services; one that funds public transport; a budget that helps advance the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; a budget that supports those who need it most. We need a budget that puts the interests of the community ahead of those of a privileged few.

The budget that was announced this week cannot be separated from the budget that preceded it. The 2014 budget laid the foundations for a cruel and uncertain future, and this week the Abbott government cemented those foundations, maintaining cuts that hurt vulnerable Australians. It is a budget that further entrenches the Abbott government's cruel and brutal attack on the Australian community.

Tertiary education remains on the chopping block, with university fee deregulation still part of the government's agenda, despite being rejected by students and, indeed, by the Senate. Changes to the family tax benefit system remain, putting even more financial pressure on parents right around the country. The $80 billion slashed from health and education last year continues to take effect, with no indication that these cuts, that have caused tremendous stress and hardship in our public hospitals and public schools, will be reversed. Science and innovation continue to be under attack, with last year's cuts made even deeper through further slashing of funding to cooperative research centres, science funding and innovation. Investment in Australia right now in research and development is at record lows. Legal aid organisations that help care for the most vulnerable still face great uncertainty around their long-term funding.

Australia's foreign aid budget remains at record lows, with this budget doubling down on the massive cuts from 2014, with the contribution to Indonesia nearly halved, and foreign aid to Africa now cut by 70 per cent. Having witnessed the devastation of the Ebola outbreak, I know that this can only mean further misery and suffering for some of the most vulnerable people on earth. Foreign aid will be cut by a further $3.7 billion over the next three years, making it a total of $11 billion since the Abbott government came to office.

Attacks on young Australians continue, with young Australians who are trying to find work having to confront 'earn or learn' as the centrepiece of this government's budget. Tony Abbott fails to understand that, whether it is for one month or six months, young people cannot pay the rent or feed themselves if they do not have an income.

Landcare funding was slashed again in the budget, with the government going even further, ripping out another $12 million on top of the $483 million it has already cut. I know what this means to people in my own Landcare network who are doing such a great job in helping to rehabilitate our natural environment.

And where is climate change in the budget? Where is it? How can you hand down a budget with no mention of the very thing that poses the major threat to our economy, to our health and, indeed, the very planet that sustains us? We welcome the drought assistance to farmers, but the most effective form of drought assistance is tackling the very thing that will make drought a regular feature of the Australian landscape. We have to start tackling climate change. Instead, we are going in the opposite direction.

We have the introduction of a $5 billion infrastructure slush fund for Northern Australia, to hand out taxpayer dollars to fund coal projects in Queensland's Galilee Basin. With the planet burning and coal prices tanking, this government has chosen to prop up the polluting industries of the last century.

The irony is that, on budget morning, in the seaside town of Anglesea, not far from my home in the foothills of the Otway ranges, we received news of the dirty, polluting brown-coal-fired power station situated just one kilometre from a local school; we learnt that it would close. The town would now have clean air, and a healthier future: fewer kids would have asthma, and there would be less heart disease and fewer cancers. That announcement was made because, after a year and a half of searching, the owners of that plant, Alcoa, could not find anyone to buy the power station. They could not find anyone to buy it despite huge public subsidies and an extension of the mine lease for another 50 years.

The Anglesea mine's closure is just another expression of the clear transition that is happening in the global energy marketplace. There is now more global investment in clean energy than in fossil fuels. Coal has lost its advantage as the cheapest source of power, because, once built, clean energy costs nothing to run. The sun, the wind, the waves—they do the work for us.

This budget is not preparing us for this inevitable transition. Those workers who lost their job on Tuesday deserve better, because it seems that every one but this government can see the change coming. Australia has more power stations than we need, so we know there will be more closures of coal mines and coal plants. It will not be long before Hazelwood in Victoria, the Gladstone power station in Queensland and many others go the same way. If we do not support these workers right now to prepare for a new future we are throwing them to the wolves when they lose their jobs without warning.

After assuming the leadership of the Greens I said that I wanted to be a champion for the health of ordinary people. If we are to make real progress in health we need to address those factors that lie outside the health system. That means ensuring that we have clean air and water, on which we all depend. It means having a roof over our head, a decent education, meaningful employment and access to health care. We have to address all of these things if we are going to improve people's health.

Australians do deserve a world-class health system, but this budget takes us further away from that aim. Since taking office the Abbott government has argued that health care spending is unsustainable. But sustainability in health is a question of priorities and not just accounting. Don't be fooled into thinking that we cannot continue to invest in health care. Don't be fooled. We have a choice. We can either invest in primary care, in better hospitals, in providing dental care and mental health, or we can head down the American two-tiered route where your access to health care depends on the size of your wallet.

While Australia's health spending is projected to increase marginally as a proportion of GDP over coming decades, the major driver of increased costs is the development of new and improved health technology. It is not the ageing population or the frequency of GP visits, as this government would have you believe. Far from being a crisis, providing people with access to new, life-saving medicines, high-tech diagnostic procedures, and minimally invasive surgery is the sign of an advanced and prosperous economy. It is something we should be striving for. And good health means that we are more productive. So health spending is as much an investment as it is an expenditure.

It is encouraging that the health minister has embarked on some of the reforms I proposed to her soon after taking office. But this budget locks in some of the most damaging cuts that were introduced in last year's budget—changes that ripped $50 billion from our hospitals. These cuts can only mean longer waiting times in emergency departments, longer waiting times on elective surgery waiting lists, and difficulty accessing the care that people need. The budget also dismantles the National Partnership Agreement, which means less support for dental health, which is something we worked very hard to achieve under the previous government. It means cuts to health promotion programs and other frontline services. Worse still, there is absolutely no plan and no funding for mental health.

It is a budget that comprehensively fails to address the issue of affordable housing and homelessness. Housing affordability in Australia has reached a crisis point. One-in-200 Australians are experiencing homelessness. There are over 240,000 families languishing, who are stuck on housing waiting lists. Last year Hockey's razor gangs cut over half a billion dollars for homelessness and affordable housing programs. This budget locks in those changes. The cuts included $235 million from the National Rental Affordability Scheme, which would have seen 12,000 new affordable rental homes delivered, and it ripped $44 million from the National Partnership on Homelessness. That partnership would have built new homelessness shelters and emergency accommodation for people fleeing domestic violence. The Prime Minister proudly trumpets his national security credentials, but he has done nothing at all to address the security of women right across the country who are victims of domestic violence.

The government's first year in office was dominated by talk of debts and deficits and the ongoing budget emergency. There was no claim that was too outrageous. When in opposition, they claimed that the country was headed for a disaster that compared with the Great Depression, or even Greece. We were on track to default with our debt. We were an international pariah. We had a Third World economy. Only a couple of years ago the Treasurer went so far as to say, 'The cupboard is bare. There is no money left in the till.' He effectively declared the nation bankrupt. The strategy was crystal clear. This is a government that believes small government is the only government, that public assets need to be privatised, and that lower taxes and cuts to government services are the only pathway to prosperity. For the coalition these are articles of faith. In an attempt to bring the Australian community on board with its brutal agenda, it talked up the structural budget deficit. It was trying to create public support for its deep cuts to government expenditure. It made a commitment that it would keep tax-to-GDP fixed at a particular level, and then it prosecuted the argument that we had no choice but to tighten our belts and make deep cuts. This was a strategy that was always motivated by politics rather than sound economic policy, and the Australian community just did not buy it.

Australia's debt crisis is a fabrication. Our level of public debt is amongst the lowest in the OECD. Far from being a crisis, we are the envy of most governments across the world. This takes in the opposite direction to where we need to be heading. Making deep cuts at a time when unemployment is rising, when commodity prices are falling, simply in order to reach some artificial timetable for a surplus is motivated by politics, not by evidence. Borrowing money makes good sense when the job market is softening, when interest rates are low and it allows us to invest in productivity-enhancing infrastructure. The real picture of Australia's economy is totally at odds with this government's narrow agenda.

We can no longer ignore the issue of government revenue, and what better place to start than with the billions of dollars in subsidies that go to big business each year? If the government is serious about the age of entitlement being over, then let us abolish those huge handouts that go to mining corporations each year in fuel rebates and depreciation benefits. Rather than cutting Medicare, let us invest the $7 billion that goes as a handout to the private health insurance industry directly into health services. Let us have a real debate about the benefits of those huge concessions that go towards superannuation and negative gearing. Although they might not appear on the annual budget figures, these enormous tax concessions divert huge sums of money away from government services and vital infrastructure into the hands of largely wealthy Australians. They cost us billions of dollars each year and they strip money away from those services that Australians want, need and deserve. If we are serious about removing the inequity within the taxation system from one that looks after the big end of town to one where the wealthy pay their fair share, then we need to make sure that governments are willing to make the hard decisions and stand up to vested interests. The Greens believe that the big miners, big polluters and big banks should all pay their fair share; that is why we asked the Parliamentary Budget Office to fully cost our election platform. It raises almost $80 billion over the forward estimates and proves that we can raise the revenue we need to pay for the Australian society that we want, need and deserve—one that is more caring, one that is more innovative, one that is healthier and one where our children are not condemned to experiencing the impacts of global warming.

It is my firm belief that Australians want to live in a caring nation where you can afford to go to the doctor, where quality child care is available and where public transport is world-class. Taxing super contributions on a progressive scale will help us to get there. It would mean the end of the use of superannuation as a tax haven for the wealthy and it would help people on lower incomes to continue to save more for their retirement. The Greens proposal would see the current flat superannuation tax rate of 15 per cent replaced with a progressive system closely based on people's marginal income tax rate. And it would bring in $10 billion over the forward estimates. No need to cut health, no need to cut education.

If we move to the issue of multinational tax avoidance measures announced in the budget, let me first say that it is the Greens who have been at the forefront of calls for the government to act; we referred this issue to an inquiry of the Senate. While the measures that were announced in Tuesday's budget look good on paper—and I acknowledge that for the first time the government is talking about this publicly—there is still not one cent of revenue allocated to this in the budget. And there is absolutely no plan for enforcing the laws that were announced—the laws that would ensure the big multinationals pay their fair share of tax. And how can the ATO prosecute corporate tax dodgers when their staffing numbers have been slashed? We need to see the reversal to those damaging cuts if we are to achieve any progress on that measure.

I have said that, as the new leader of the Greens, I do want to achieve outcomes. I want to achieve good outcomes for people, for our kids and for our grandkids. I want good outcomes for the environment, for nature and for the land which feeds and clothes us. Where we can find common ground in the service of the Australian people, we will work with all sides to deliver those outcomes. That is our job as legislators, and I take that responsibility very seriously. But I remain sceptical of this Prime Minister and this government. We will run a fine toothcomb over whatever they propose. We are not going to get a deal just for the sake of getting a deal. I have already said that we would look at the assets test on pensions, but we also need a comprehensive review of the sustainability of the retirement system as a whole. When you consider that superannuation concessions will cost from $32 billion right now to a massive $50 billion a year—I will say that again: $50 billion—in 2018, it is clear that something is not working.

When it comes to child care, we do want to see people have access to quality and affordable child care, and I welcome the renewed focus on helping families. But why are we being held hostage by a government that refuses to understand the negative impacts that cutting family tax benefit changes will have on sole parents and their children? Why are we being asked to pick favourites? Why are we being asked to choose one family over another? Surely if we value the importance of early childhood education, as well as encouraging women to get back into the workforce and supporting low-income parents and families, we just would not be asked to choose between them. We would not. The government's backflip on small business is welcome; it is something the Greens have championed for a long time. It is a cynical move, though, when you consider that it was only a year or so ago that the government axed small business support, ripping out $5.4 billion in support and then a year later they tell us that they are the champions of small business. The tax deduction for asset purchases is only going to last for two years, and it is going to be a big sugar hit for the sector and for the broader economy, but there is no long-term, ongoing structural support for small business. We will look at that measure—we will examine it closely—and we will make sure that this package is genuine and that it brings in the change that is so desperately needed.

What fundamentally separates this government from the Australian people is that Australians do believe that their government has a role in building a fairer and more caring society. Australians do want high quality health care, they do want well-funded schools and they take comfort from the knowledge that their government will help people from falling through the cracks.

Paul Keating said, 'When you change the government you change the country.' A year and half into the first term of the Abbott government his words have never been more relevant. Through two successive budgets the Abbott government has made its mark or, in its own words, 'stamped its authority' on nearly every aspect of Australian life: on winding back action on climate change and on attacking the poor, the sick and the vulnerable.

In a short time this government have shown no reluctance to use their power to reshape Australia according to their narrow and uncaring ideology. Like most Australians, the Greens want a society where everyone can afford quality health care and education, where there is not a vast gulf between rich and poor, and where our natural environment is protected.

We do not subscribe to the dog-eat-dog agenda of this government. We do not want a world where it is everyone for themselves, where if you are lucky enough to be born into privilege and wealth you deserve more of it, and if not, well tough luck. There is another way and tonight, along with my colleagues, I pledge to lead the fight for a more decent, more caring and more compassionate country.

David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak for the millions of silent, hardworking Australians who have been taxed up to the eyeballs and have had enough. So much talk in this place is about fairness towards one group or another that claims it has special needs. But there can be few things less fair than taking money off hard working people and then squandering it.

On Tuesday night the government announced that in the coming year, it would take $370 billion in tax—the equivalent of more than $15,000 from every man, woman and child. It does this because it believes it can spend this money more wisely than the people and businesses from whom the money was taken, who would otherwise have kept it in their own pockets and spent it as they saw fit.

In most cases, the government is wrong. Australians who pay tax have worked to make themselves employable. They get out of their beds early every day, or they work shifts, and many of them commute for many hours every week. At this time of the year, a lot leave home in the dark and return in the dark. They work using their wits, their energy and their ingenuity.

While it is true that work provides dignity and many other benefits, for most people it is also exhausting. The vast majority of people do not work for the fun of it, or for the joy of being told where to be and what to do. They do it so they can have money to provide for themselves and their families, and to enjoy life outside of work.

But they also work because they believe their productivity will be justly rewarded, and in the hope their superannuation will provide them with a comfortable retirement. It seems to me that nearly everybody in this parliament is working, in one way or another, to make it harder for them. Every dollar the government takes from people should be spent in a way that matches, as far as possible, how those people would choose to spend it themselves if they were handing it out.

But their money is not spent like that. It is spent on welfare for people who are not poor and should not get it—like high-income families getting subsidies for up to 85 per cent of their childcare costs. It is spent on pork-barrelling for regions—like funding for a flagpole in Bathurst. It is spent on social engineering—like the continued Commonwealth funding of school chaplains. It is spent on policies that do not help anyone—like paying millions to telcos so they can store our metadata, and paying public servants to tie foreign investors up with red tape.

Ask any public servant and they will tell you stories about waste—about having too many people with too little to do; about ridiculously expensive coffee machines; about walls being built and removed and built again to fulfil budget allocations; about people paid to work from home who do not do any work. Australia has 1.9 million public sector employees. When did we agree that Australia could not function unless its governments employed a rough equivalent of the population of Perth? In fact, the only truly legitimate expectations of governments should be to provide a sound legal system, personal and property security, and a safety net for the genuinely disadvantaged. Instead, we spend millions that we take from people as tax and give back as handouts, and more millions on spin doctors and advertisements to tell us why all of this is a good thing—like $25 million on ads telling us about free trade agreements.

This budget ramps up spending on programs to encourage the long-term unemployed into work, while maintaining minimum wage and unfair dismissal laws that keep them out of jobs. This waste of taxpayers' money is bad enough, but what the government takes from Australians is, apparently, not enough. We are told there is no option but to put us deeper into debt.

This means we are not only taking from hardworking Australians but borrowing money for things they never wanted, and leaving the debt to their kids. Net debt will be higher than it has ever been in the last half century, apart from the last year of Keating's reckless prime-ministership. There will be $11,000 of net liabilities for every Australian: man, woman, and child. Now that is what I call unfair.

If you were to listen to the squawkers and the bleaters, you might believe that at all stages of our life cycle we are dependent on government. You might think that when people have a baby they should be given money; that they should be given money to let someone else look after their child, whether they are staying at home or not; that they should use other people's money to pay for their child's education, from early learning right through to university; that they should not have to pay when they see a doctor, or when they buy medicine; that they should retire at the same age their grandparents did and live out their retirement on other people's money. And if that baby becomes Prime Minister one day, he or she will expect to have a state funeral funded by other people's money, which is then reported on breathlessly by taxpayer funded reporters.

Of course, as history has taught us, all of this will fall in a heap when there is no more wealth to share. Indeed, Margaret Thatcher put it very well when she said: 'The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.' I believe we should stop listening to the tweeters, the rent seekers, the greedy people making claims about 'social justice', and corporate beggars in suits who beat a path to our doors demanding ever larger sums of money. They would have us believe that nearly everybody is a victim. No amount of generosity with other people's money ever stops their complaining. They should be ignored. Far too many politicians of all stripes have become responsive to the squeaky wheels while taking for granted the people who drive the economic engine of this country. I do not believe that the millions of Australians who create wealth are really as outraged by spending restraint as the squawkers would have us believe. Australian taxpayers are generous but they are not stupid.

Anybody who is committed to genuine fairness should be committed to getting off the backs of people who pay for it all. We have the power to do this by reducing spending and then cutting taxes. We should also be committed to protecting superannuation for people who have earned their retirement and not shifting the goal posts, because that is not fair either. By their very nature, people who do the work are not whingers, because they are focused on their jobs. But they desperately need people willing to stand up for them here. On their behalf, I am here to say: enough.

Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to have the opposition's 2015-16 budget reply speech incorporated into Hansard.

Leave granted.

The document read as follows—

A Budget should match the priorities of the nation.

And the priority of our nation has to be a plan for the future – a plan for the decades to come.

A plan to build beyond the mining boom, a plan for confidence.

Our people and our nation are interesting, imaginative, caring, productive and adaptive.

But the 2015 Budget has neither the qualities, nor the priorities of the Australian people.

Australians awaited this Budget in fear, anticipation and hope.

Fear - that the unfairness and cruelty of last year's Budget would be repeated.

Anticipation - that it might not.

Hope - that the Government would, at last, after 613 days get the economy right.

But once again, in every way, this Government let Australia down.

The test for this Budget was to plan for the future: to lift productivity, to create jobs, to boost investment, to turbo-charge confidence for the years and decades ahead.

To restore hope.

But this Budget fails every test.

It is a hoax, a mirage, a smokescreen.

To the extent that the Treasurer pretends this Budget is in any way remedial to the Australian economy, it is a hoax.

Does it return Australia to trend growth this year? No.

Does it smooth the transition in our economy? No.

Does it deal with the challenges of the digital age and the new skills and jobs we need? No

Does it: deepen our engagement with Asia; help older Australians live in comfort; advance equal treatment for women; tackle climate change?

No.

It is nothing but a cosmetic job by a very desperate make-up artist.

And this Budget also missed the main game – the challenge that will define life in the 2020s.

Let me unpack this:

In 2012 – 8 per cent of our GDP was investment, now slumping to as low as 2 per cent.

A fourfold contraction.

In a 1.6 trillion dollar economy – a $96 billion contraction – the biggest Australia has witnessed.

This is the reason we live in a low growth economy, the massive step change, the step down in investment.

But what does this Budget do about it?

A giveaway to start a fire sale at second-hand car yards and Harvey Norman…is good…as far as it goes…but it doesn't go very far.

The sum total of this Government ' s stimulus is a $5.1 billion deposit against a $96 billion withdrawal.

Is the Treasurer seriously asking Australians to believe that this is the best he can do in response to a $96 billion withdrawal?

Even the Government knows this is a short-term fix…they must.

They've only booked the measure for two years.

The truth is the 2015 Budget is silent on the big picture, the next decade, the long run.

This Budget records the Government's lack of vision and the price our economy is paying for it.

This Budget drops the ball on reform, change and fiscal sense.

It is a sorry roll-call: 17 new taxes; tax at its highest levels in a decade; the deficit doubled - up from $17 billion to $35 billion since the last Budget; spending outweighing revenue every year; over 800,000 Australians unemployed; and no plan to tackle the structural deficit.

The only polite description for the forecasts in this Budget is that they are an experiment in hope over experience.

This Budget is built on improving forecasts, preceded by worsening results.

According to the Treasurer, nominal GDP is forecast to jump by a whopping four percentage points in two years.

This year it came in at half what he forecast 12 months ago.

Tuesday's Budget banked wages growth at 2.5 per cent – Wednesday's figures put it at 2.3 and experts predict it will stay low.

The truth is, a trifecta of indecencies underpin this Budget.

One– the repackaging of last year's unfairness: cuts to hospitals, schools, universities and family support.

Two –relying on bracket creep to increase taxation by stealth.

Three– their unconscionable attack upon the States

In every respect this Budget is a hoax - an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of Australians

Where it counts, this is last year's Budget - rebranded, reheated and repackaged for an opinion poll.

The same broken promises, the same unfair, extreme ideology, wrapped in trickery.

Last year's Budget cut $6000 from families working hard to make ends meet.

Those cuts are still in this Budget – and Labor will never support them.

Last year's Budget cut university funding by 20 per cent and ambushed students with higher fees and bigger debt.

This unfairness is still in this Budget – and we can promise the Minister for Education – Labor will vote against $100,000 degrees, every time he brings them to this Parliament.

And whether it is for one month – or six – Labor will never support leaving young people looking for work to survive on nothing.

We will never sign off on this Prime Minister's plan to push young people into poverty, and worse.

The meanness of spirit in the last Budget lives on in this one, the same spitefulness in all things great and small: $2 billion in cuts to health and aged care, hidden in the fine print; $100 million cut from Indigenous housing; $70 million cut from dental care for Veterans and $130 million from dental care for children; and $1 million cut from a program that puts seatbelts on school buses in our regions – the Coalition has an eye for detail.

And this government's second Budget has one more thing in common with its first - it creates divisions and faultlines in our community.

Remember the lifters against the leaners – they're at it again.

Cutting family support to pay for childcare…pitting Mums and Dads of three and four year olds against Mums and Dads of six and seven year olds.

Forcing nurses, retail workers and police to choose between more at time home with their baby or a cut to their pay.

In just one year, this Prime Minister has gone from the staunchest defender of Paid Parental Leave, to vilifying tens of thousands of women who rely upon it.

From praising 'women of calibre' to demonising 'rorters' and 'frauds' – that's how quickly and viciously this Prime Minister reverts to type on women in the workplace.

And it confirms what we have always known: no employee. no employer. no family…can ever trust this Prime Minister with their rights at work.

Nowhere on Tuesday night did the Treasurer utter the words bracket creep.

He should have – because bracket creep is the biggest driver of revenue in his Budget.

The Treasurer should have told Australians that for every dollar the government keeps in spending cuts, two dollars will be collected through higher taxes.

In a lazy Budget, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer are getting inflation to do their dirty work.

80 cents in every dollar in the rise in revenue comes from bracket creep - the invisible hand in the pocket of every Australian worker.

Along with rehashing of the manifest unfairness of last year's measures…the abuse of bracket creep…the third cardinal sin of this Budget is the government's unconscionable attacks upon the states of Australia and the people who depend upon the services they provide.

And there is no atonement, not even a trademark, insincere mea culpa from this Prime Minister or a tear from the Treasurer.

Like the last Budget, this Budget cuts $80 billion from Australia's schools and hospitals.

This breaks an old - and new- promise by Mr Abbott.

Not just 'no cuts to health' and 'no cuts to education'.

But a breach of his promise before this Budget, not to hurt families.

Let us tell the Prime Minister something, on behalf of the families of Australia.

When the Prime Minister cuts $30 billion from our schools – he hurts families.

When the Prime Minister cuts $50 billion from our hospitals – he hurt families.

When the Prime Minister closes hospital beds…robs our kids of the resources they need …when the Prime Minister puts nurses and teachers under more pressure…he hurts families.

Right now, we need the states more than ever, we need a new approach.

For a decade, capital investment in mining has been running at 8 per cent - four times the long-run rate.

Now it is reverting to the long-term average of around 2 per cent of GDP.

And there has been a 17.3 per cent fall in spending on public sector infrastructure in the last year.

The Commonwealth must use its fiscal horsepower to work with the States and private investors to: provide more affordable housing; and develop our cities and towns.

We will bring certitude and direction.

We will bring confidence, that's what we are doing.

Confidence for new rail and roads and new ports and bridges, better social housing, smart energy grids, efficient irrigation projects and of course, the best digital infrastructure.

New infrastructure projects boost demand in the short term and lift supply over the long term, creating jobs and generating national momentum.

But this Budget does nothing to address the funding cut from important public transport projects like the Melbourne Metro and Brisbane's Cross-River Rail

It continues to overlook high-return, productivity-enhancing projects like Managed Motorways – a series of overdue improvements to Melbourne's south east.

This is the first Budget in recent memory with not one significant infrastructure project funded.

In government, Labor funded all 15 projects on the priority list: the Pacific Highway in New South Wales, Regional Rail Link in Victoria and Gold Coast Light Rail.

This government has not funded a single priority project, in fact they have abolished funding for three and have ripped away half of Infrastructure Australia's budget.

Inaction undermines confidence, and hurts State budgets – and we all pay a price.

More of us spend more time stuck in the car on our way to work.

We need a circuit breaker – for investment and a commitment to put the nation's interest at the heart of nation-building.

Just as the Reserve Bank of Australia is the independent voice at the centre of monetary policy…

We will put Infrastructure Australia at the centre of capital investment, this will bring greater rigour, transparency and authority to give investors greater confidence.

Infrastructure Australia will drive projects that deliver: benefits to our economy and community; commercial viability; and capacity to enhance national productivity.

We want the experts at Infrastructure Australia to play a more active role in getting projects properly financed.

To act as a broker, bringing together construction companies, long-term investors like super funds and most importantly - State Governments- to get projects underway.

Infrastructure Australia Priority projects will receive funding first.

And in Government, we will do what the Prime Minister proved incapable of.

We will consult with the Opposition of the day on every appointment to the Infrastructure Australia Board, to put the national interest first.

Australians are sick of the petty partisanship around appointments – we can do better and we will.

Infrastructure must be at the centre of any plan for Australia's future – and it is too important to be held hostage to short-term politicking or squabbling.

Good infrastructure makes our cities more liveable, our regions more accessible and our economy more productive.

It is essential to the jobs and economy of the future, to where we will live and the life our families will enjoy.

There is a role for the Commonwealth in the future of our cities.

By 2025, an extra 4.5 million people will be living in our cities.

And making our cities more productive, more sustainable and more liveable is a key responsibility of our national government.

When it comes to Small Business - we will offer the Prime Minister another thing he never extended to his opponents.

Co-operation.

There are measures in this Budget Labor will support, in the national interest.

We will co-operate on: national security; overdue drought relief for our farmers; and on small business.

When in government, Labor proposed a tax cut for small business – the Prime Minister opposed it.

When in government, Labor implemented an instant asset write off – the Prime Minister abolished it.

When in government, Labor introduced loss carry back – the Prime Minister unwound it.

But we are not like that.

We want to create jobs and grow the economy – not score political points.

A 1.5 per cent cut for small businesses might be enough to generate a headline – but it is not enough to generate the confidence and long term growth our economy needs.

So tonight we say, let us go further.

Let us give small businesses the sustainable boost to confidence they deserve.

Confidence to create jobs.

We invite the Prime Minister to work with us on a fair and fiscally responsible plan to reduce the tax rate for Australian small business from 30 to 25 per cent.

Not a 1.5 per cent cut, a 5 per cent cut.

That's the future. That's real confidence.

We understand this will not be easy and may take longer than the life of one Parliament.

That's why it must be bipartisan and has to be fair.

That's why it must be part of a more comprehensive approach that addresses the key pressures in our taxation system – not only small business, but bracket creep and tax rates for ordinary working Australians.

All of these things, and more, need to be addressed together – in a fair and fiscally responsible way.

This Parliament, government and opposition, working together to create more jobs, build a stronger economy and a better country.

And the Prime Minister is welcome to work with Labor: on our clear, fair plans to improve the Budget bottom line by more than $21 billion dollars in the decade ahead.

Making foreign multinationals pay their fair share of tax: a concrete, costed measure, raising over $7 billion dollars.

Improving the Budget bottom line by $14 billion, by tightening unsustainably generous superannuation tax concessions, subsidised by Australian taxpayers to those who already have millions in their accounts.

Labor created superannuation for the same reason we champion a fair pension: we believe dignity and security in retirement is the birthright of all Australians.

And we will take responsibility for making sure superannuation is sustainable and fair…a national retirement savings system for the many, not a tax haven for the few.

The Prime Minister's stubborn defence of these unfair loopholes will only cause Australians to pay even more tax and our deficit to rise.

Labor will back small business to support jobs today –and we have a plan for jobs tomorrow.

A plan to build a new engine for prosperity – and turbocharge it with science, skills, infrastructure and education.

Like so many of the Labor team, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Shorten, spent his adult life standing up for fairness – in the workplace, in the community and in this Parliament.

In twenty years of representing working people, he has been there in good times and hard times.

When economic change starts to bite, Australians don't reach for a hand out and they don't want charity.

But they do expect hope, a sense of confidence.

Above all, Australians want to know where the new jobs are coming from…what their kids will do for a living…what the jobs of the next generation will be.

Nothing matters more to Labor than securing the jobs of the future.

Jobs that help Australians aim high, raise families and lift their standard of living.

And the new jobs of the future will require new skills.

Designing skills, coding skills – building, refining, adapting and servicing the machines and supply chains of a new age.

Three out of every four of the fastest growing occupations will require skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Not just researchers and programmers but technicians, electricians, plumbers and machine mechanics.

Yet right now, in our schools, TAFES and universities not enough people are acquiring these skills.

Australia must get smarter – or we will get poorer.

We believe Australia can be the science, start-up and technology capital of our region: attracting the best minds, supporting great institutions and bringing home our great expats.

We should aspire, together: universities, industry, parliament and people to devote 3 per cent of our GDP to research and development by the end of the next decade.

We want more Australians making breakthroughs and adapting technology here in Australia.

And more Australian businesses sharing in the benefits of that technology: in our warehouses, factories, farms and design firms.

Together, let us harness the power of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to prepare for the future.

A future of knowledge and service industries and advanced manufacturing, a nation of ideas and a country that makes things.

Our future prosperity depends on harnessing Australian ideas and defining a new global market for world-leading products.

We want ideas born here, to grow up here and create jobs here.

25 years ago, if a person was looking for work, they bought a newspaper.

Today, all around the world, millions of people search online.

The world's largest online job ads company, seek.com, was created in Australia with the support of the Australian Government

A $2.5 million investment in 1998, helped grow what is now a $5 billion company, employing 500 Australians.

Labor will create a new, $500 million, Smart Investment Fund, to back-in great Australian ideas like this.

Our Smart Investment Fund, will partner with venture capitalists and fund managers to invest in early stage and high potential companies.

Our model has a definite, proven record of success both here and abroad.

Every global company begins as a local one, every big business starts out small.

And Labor will work with the banks and finance industry to establish a partial guarantee scheme, StartUp, to help more Australians convert their great ideas into good businesses.

We will enable entrepreneurs to access the capital they need to start and grow their enterprises.

So many of our competitors for the jobs of the future already have this kind of scheme in place: the UK, the US, France and Germany and Hong Kong is a leader in our region.

We understand, in the new economy, it's these businesses that will drive growth and create jobs – and it's our responsibility to support our next generation of designers, refiners, manufacturers and creators.

Productivity is the most important catalyst for our economy.

And the most important catalyst for productivity is education.

Resource booms come and go - but our future depends on investing in our best natural resource: the creativity and skills of our people.

Digital technologies, computer science and coding – the language of computers and technology - should be taught in every primary and secondary school in Australia.

And a Shorten Labor Government will make this a national priority.

We will work with states, territories and the national curriculum authority to make this happen.

Coding is the literacy of the 21st Century.

And under Labor, every young Australian will have the chance to read, write and work with the global language of the digital age.

All of us who have had our children teach us how to download an app, know how quickly kids adapt to new technology.

But we don't just want Australian kids playing with technology, we want them to have the chance to understand it, create it, and work with it.

We can't do this without great teachers – now and in the future.

We all remember our great teachers, Mr Shorten was raised by one of the best.

His mother lived the value of education: as a young teacher, a mature age student and a university lecturer – she showed him the doors education can open for Australians from every walk of life.

Yet today, two out of every five science and maths teachers for years 7 to 10, don't have a degree in these subjects.

20,000 teachers in our science, maths and IT classes didn't study these subjects at university.

We are asking too much of these teachers, and not doing enough to support them – or pay them properly.

Labor will: boost the skills of 10,000 current primary and secondary teachers; and we will train 25,000 new teachers who are science and technology graduates; and we will write off the HECS debt of 100,000 science technology, engineering and maths students; we will make sure more women study, teach and work in these fields.

We need to offer the most powerful incentive to Australians thinking about studying science and technology: a good job.

A career in science does not only mean a lifetime in a lab coat, it means opening doors in every facet and field of our national commercial life.

Innovation offers opportunities everywhere: smarter farming and safer food, more liveable cities and better transport.

New ways of learning from each other, working and communicating with each other and caring for each other.

It is the key to the jobs of the future, the jobs Labor will deliver.

The Government have nicknamed this the 'have a go' Budget.

But it doesn't have a go at returning to trend growth.

It doesn't have a go at smoothing the transition in our economy from mining to services and cities.

It doesn't have a go at getting us back to surplus – it doesn't have a go at reform.

It doesn't have a go at delivering skills required in the digital age.

It doesn't even have a go at apologizing for the last Budget.

But to be fair, it does have a go at some things.

This Budget has a go at schools and hospitals.

It does have a go at pensioners and the states.

It does have a go at working women and working families.

It does have a go at students, veterans, carers and jobseekers.

It does have a go at the sick and the vulnerable.

If this is an election budget, so be it.

But be under no illusions.

The failure of last year's Budget was not inevitable.

If Labor had not stood strong...if the government had had its wilful way…if the Prime Minister had controlled the Senate – last year's malignant Budget would have passed – with all its social vandalism.

And if he gets another chance, by having this one confirmed, he will, by ricochet, inflict last year's unfairnesses - this year.

Unfairness which remains at the core of this political document

The Prime Minister has only changed his tactics – he hasn't changed his mind.

Whatever this Budget brings, we are ready.

Ready to offer remedies, rather than reactions.

Ready to fight for equity and for what is reasonable.

Ready to fight for what is good and for what is true.

We see the future.

One defined by science, technology, education and innovation.

A future with good jobs and thriving businesses, productive infrastructure and liveable cities.

An Australia writ large, where opportunity is shared by all.

This is the future Labor believes in.

This is our vision for what we can achieve together, as a people and as a nation.

A smart, modern and fair Australia.