MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (15:35): Back in 1976, AC/DC, one of my favourite bands, released a song called 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap'. Today, in the Senate, we saw a sequel to 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' when Labor sided with the Greens, their old friends. As much as Labor try to deny that they are best mates with the Greens, we see it writ large all of the time, and again today in the Senate with Labor trying to get through their bad budget and getting help from their old friends the Greens.
I've been in this place long enough to remember Julia Gillard, the former Prime Minister—I don't think she really wanted to, but she had to do a deal with Bob Brown and the Greens. What did we see after that? The carbon tax. 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead,' she said as Prime Minister.
Unfortunately, she had to go down that path to get the numbers to form government. That's going to cause hardship. That's going to cause higher taxes.
The budget is going to be responsible for $77 billion of increased taxes for everyday ordinary, hardworking Australians. This matter of public importance, 'The economic harm caused by the government's plan for higher taxes,' moved by the shadow treasurer, the member for Goldstein, is correct because at the nub of it is higher taxes. If you had said 10, 15 or 20 years ago that in Australia we'd be talking about the sorts of issues that we are in this House now, they would look at you and think that you were stark raving mad.
But in Australia today we have a government facing $1 trillion worth of debt and what are they doing? They're spending $430 million buying productive water from farmers and flushing it down the mouth of the Murray—the equivalent of 34,400 Olympic sized swimming pools. Eighty-six gigalitres of water—to do what?
Well, it's not to grow food! Growing food and feeding a hungry world is the moral challenge of our times. Don't worry about anything else, forget everything else that you have been told, that is the greatest moral challenge of our times because many people in Australia, and other nations besides, who rely on our farmers go to bed hungry every night.
That's wrong. It's morally wrong. It's morally bankrupt.
This budget does nothing to address the issues besetting our farmers, our regional Australians. Yes, the government has extended the fuel tax relief, and so they should. We called for it.
The government were finally dragged to the table, kicking and screaming, and agreed to it. And then you look at the capital gains and the trust changes that the government has finally relented on, finally reneged on, and yet the veterans are being slugged. It's not higher taxes as such, but it is a cruel cut to the benefits that they once—I won't use the word 'enjoyed'—deserved.
The $5,000 cap per year on their allied health is just wrong, and I would implore the government to revisit that. It is a cruel cut to our veterans who had this nation's back when we called upon them, and now, when they need us to have their backs, we're turning our backs on them. That's what the government are doing.
Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting— Mr McCORMACK: No, Member for McEwen; you be quiet. That's what the government is doing. I had a forum last week where I listened to service providers and families in the National Disability Insurance Scheme space.
They are some of Australia's most vulnerable. They have also had cutbacks to their services. Yes, a full audit of the NDIS needs to be done—no question.
There are spivs and shonks and shady operators in that space. But the cuts that Labor has brought about in its budget are going to affect Australia's most vulnerable. There were heart-rending and heart-wrenching stories from these people, who are now going to be forced to go without and won't have quality of life.
It's just plain wrong, and so are many of the measures in the budget. Labor will crow about making the $20,000 instant asset write-off permanent. It should've been permanent.
It was unlimited under us. There are so many areas of endeavour that this Labor government has failed the nation on. People are hurting, and it's up to the government to fix these problems.