Local Impacts of Budget

Dr CHALMERS (Rankin) (16:03): Honourable members would not be aware of this, but on Monday night in the Gold Lotto draw a couple of terrific people from Logan City, where I represent, won first division. I think they won about $1 million. I want to congratulate them—Nicholas and Cassi, who own News Extra Logan Central, a couple of doors down from my office. The reason I raise this is that it has proved once and for all that in budget week you have a greater probability of winning division 1 in the Gold Lotto than of getting a fair go from the Turnbull government. We know that because of the two defining features of this Turnbull budget.

The first one is that 73,977 people in my electorate will not get a cent by way of a tax cut from this government—that is 82 per cent of my electorate—but a millionaire will get a tax cut of almost $17,000. That says it all. The other defining feature of this budget is that the government are so desperate, as the member for Watson and others have said, to give big business a tax cut—at the same time that they are pulling money out of schools and hospitals—that they are going to redefine every business in Australia, even businesses that are turning over up to $1 billion as a small business. These are well-known small businesses like Porsche Australia, well-known small businesses like the Gladstone Port, which is the biggest port in Queensland, and well-known small businesses like Warner Bros and like Sensis—all redefined as small businesses by those opposite in their desperation to give big business a tax cut and hope that the people in my electorate, in Hunter, in Hotham, in Lalor and in other electorates will not cotton on to the fact that they have prioritised the biggest businesses in this country over schools and hospitals and tax cuts for people we represent in this place.

This is a really stark illustration of what they actually believe on that side of the House. The Prime Minister can wander around trying to be this cuddlier version of Tony Abbott all he likes, but the thing all of them over there have in common is that they still cling to this idea that has been long discredited: trickle-down economics—that if you pile lots and lots of money in to the wealthiest people in our community—

Mr Fitzgibbon: The Donald Trump model!

Dr CHALMERS: then somehow people at the very bottom will get the scraps, and that passes as an economic plan. On this side of the House we say, what rubbish. Trickle-down economics has been discredited. The only people who still believe in it, as the member for Hunter said, are Donald Trump and those opposite. And that is what this budget is really about.

The measures in this budget fall into three categories. The first one is all those Abbott obsessions that they are still clinging to. Page 8 of the budget's overview says:

The Government is committed to ensuring that the $13 billion of unimplemented expenditure savings measures are passed by the Senate—

That is the cuts to hospitals, cuts to Medicare, cuts to higher education, cuts to family tax benefits, all still there—all of the horrors from the 2014 Abbott-Hockey budget. The second set of measures are those that have been written and authorised by the big end of town. I read a story online this morning that said that the business community has come out in support of the budget—

Ms Ryan: I bet they have!

Dr CHALMERS: Yes. As the member for Lalor says, I bet they have. They wrote the thing, and they handed it to poor old Slo-Mo over there, and he announced it at that dispatch box last night—big business tax cuts, big tax cuts to the wealthiest Australians and these sorts of things, all written and authorised by the big end of town.

The third category of measures are those humiliating backflips. After campaigning against Labor policies for months, saying they would tear down the economy and they would ruin people's retirement aspirations, all of a sudden they have been adopted. To hear the Treasurer stand up here in question time and talk about a consistency of view after reinstating the low-income super contribution that they abolished, it is just entirely laughable.

The last point I want to make is about the fiscal situation. The Treasurer of Australia has done to the Australian budget what the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia is doing to the carp in the Murray. We know this because in the Treasurer's own budget we have net debt blown out by $109 billion, debt continuing to rise and tax continuing to rise as a share of GDP. Debt spiked at 12.8 per cent under us; it is now 18.9 per cent under them. There are huge debt and deficit blowouts. Tomorrow night we will see the contrast. Some of the speakers over there have pointed out that there is a sharp difference, and there is. We will put people first in our budget response tomorrow night, in the election campaign and in the government that we form after the election. Those opposite will continue to pursue policies which are written and authorised by the big end of town.

#speech #budget #cuts