THE HON BILL SHORTEN MP

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
MONDAY, 26 MAY 2014
HUGHES

SUBJECT / S: Tony Abbotts Budget of Broken Promises; Cuts to education;
Uniersity fee increases; !ami"ies in #ub"ic "ife; $P Ta%; Senator Bi""
&effernan; 'm#artia"ity of S#eaker Bron(yn Bis)o#; 'mmigration*
BILL SHORTEN, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Its great to be at a remarkable
Canberra primary school, led by great teachers, full of great students, great kids who
are optimistic about the future. Today in Canberra, in Parliament, the future of
education isnt as bright as it should be. We have a udget of broken promises
based upon lies before the last election. Tony !bbott lied to !ustralians before the
election about education funding. "e lied to !ustralians about health care funding.
"e lied to !ustralians about not increasing ta#es. "e lied to all !ustralians about not
cutting or hurting pensions. $illions of !ustralians this week face the very real
prospect that Tony !bbott%s udget is going to hurt them and their families. We see
reports emerging in the last fortnight since the udget was brought down that many
of Tony !bbott%s own members of his government are feeling very concerned and
very unhappy about this dreadful udget of broken promises. $any members of
Tony !bbots own government are telling &ournalists they%re unhappy with
the udget. They%re certainly telling, having conversations amongst themselves in
the halls and corridors and rooms of Parliament that they don%t like Tony !bbott%s
budget. Today, 'abor is asking all those Coalition members of Parliament, don%t be
brave in the privacy of your own room where no(one can hear you speak. There%s
millions of !ustralians who want you to tell the Prime $inister how dreadfully
unfair his udget is. Coalition $Ps need to put politics back and put the nation%s
interests forward. $embers of the )overnment need to tell the Prime $inister that
this is an unfair udget of broken promises, based upon lies before the last
election. !ustralia deserves no less from its $embers of Parliament that they%ll put
the interests of families, pensioners, sick people and kids ahead of their own political
interests. I might ask my colleague *ate +llis to talk about the bill that we%ve put into
Parliament to fight the dreadful education cuts, which will give the marvellous
children we%ve met here a better future than they%ll have if Tony !bbott gets his way.
KATE ELLIS, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Well thank you very much.
It is fantastic to see the commitment of ill ,horten once again to !ustralia%s schools
and also that of our local member )ai rodtmann. It%s great to be here at "ughes
Primary ,chool and I%d like to thank principal *ate ,mith for having us here
today. We are here today though because it is now very apparent that Tony !bbott
lied when he told the !ustralian public before the election that no school would be
worse off and what we in fact see is that every school and every student will be
directly worse off as a result of his government%s budget. What we have seen is that
Tony !bbott has thrown aside the )onski agreements, which means that
,tate )overnments have now been given a green light to start cutting education
funding, and cutting school funding hard. ut not content with that damage, we also
learn that this -ederal )overnment has in store themselves the biggest ever cut to
school funding with the ./0 billion in cuts to !ustralian schools that they
themselves are implementing. 1ow the !ustralian people believed that they could
vote 'iberal or 'abor and there would be a plan to improve our schools. They believe
that we would now be working on making sure that every student in every
school across !ustralia was getting a great education, not that principals across the
country would now be scratching their heads trying to work out where they will cut
funding. !nd this is not what the !ustralian people were told. It was a blatant lie, and
it is no surprise that Coalition backbenchers are now themselves recognising &ust
how harmful this udget is, but there is no use in speaking 2uietly about it to each
other in the corridors of Parliament "ouse. +very member of the Coalition now has
to make sure that they speak up to this Prime $inister and this +ducation
$inister. +very member of the Coalition has to make sure that they put these lies
aside and start supporting !ustralian schools and start supporting the promises that
they made to the !ustralian public. Thank you.
SHORTEN: !re there any 2uestions3
JOURNALIST: If 'abor is so strongly opposed to broken promises why is it
supporting the deficit ta#3
SHORTEN: The deficit ta# is a broken promise. Tony !bbott promised before the
last election, in order to get people to vote for Tony !bbott, Tony !bbott lied to them
and said there would no increases in ta#es. ,o it%s the new income ta# increases but
it%s also the new ta#es on petrol, the new ta#es on going to the doctor and of course
the cuts to pensions. 'abor has to make decisions about what are our priorities
amongst this udget of broken promises. We have made a decision that low income
!ustralians, middle income !ustralians need to be the people who 'abor fights for in
terms of opposing the udget nasties that have been outlined in Tony !bbott%s unfair
udget. $ake no mistake about it, Tony !bbott has lied to high income earners,
&ust like he%s lied to everyone else.
JOURNALIST: Is 'abor prepared to negotiate on the .4 co(payment3 It looks like
the Coalition is at least leaving the door open for negotiations in Parliament3
SHORTEN: 1ever. 'abor will never surrender the principle of $edicare being
universally accessible. 'abor with fight with every ounce of breath in our bodies to
stand up for universal health care in this country. We think it is a dreadful and unfair
and divisive idea, the idea that you ta# the sick in order to try to make the health
care system better. The function of the national udget is to help family budgets, it%s
not to punish family budgets. We will never compromise in defending $edicare (
that%s who 'abor is.
JOURNALIST: 1ot even if there are e#emptions for pensioners or concession card
holders3
SHORTEN: ! bad idea is a bad idea, a broken promise is a broken promise, a lie is
a lie. Ta#ing the sick as some way to reduce your health care costs does not make
sense. We%re always up for trying to improve the costs in the health care system but
the idea that you have 5oe "ockey%s udget acting as a bouncer in front of )P
clinics, denying entry to the sick by a new ta# is only going to make sick
people sicker, it%s not going to make them better.
JOURNALIST: What about the higher education changes3 Christopher Pyne seems
to be indicating that he wants 6 that he is willing to negotiate on that as well3
SHORTEN: 7h well, you look at Christopher Pyne and the way they want to trash
!ustralian higher education. They are engaging in a 80 per cent cut out of
university funding, .9 billion. There are millions of families right now who are sending
their kids to school, who are trying to make ends meet every fortnight. It%s a difficult
battle, and they are being discouraged from the dream of sending their children to
university. I do not understand how this !bbott )overnment thinks, when many
of the frontbench were the beneficiaries of a free education, now they want to pull up
the ladder after they%ve climbed up the ladder and deny the opportunity for a better
life to other !ustralians. They are a selfish mob, this !bbott )overnment, and they%d
wreck our higher education system. !nd 'abor will have no part of their vandalism of
the dreams and hopes of millions of !ustralians for a better future for their kids.
JOURNALIST: ,hould action be taken against ,enator ill "effernan given his
stunts in udget +stimates today3
SHORTEN: ill "effernan%s made his point in a particularly unusual
and unconventional sense about security at Parliament "ouse. I have to say, though,
for me today it%s about the security of !ustralian pensioners, it%s the security of
!ustralian income earners against unfair ta#es of the !bbott )overnment. I wish that
the -ederal )overnment would pay as much attention to the economic security of
families as they are to this debate about Parliament "ouse.
JOURNALIST: :o you have any concerns about security at Parliament "ouse3
SHORTEN: ;ou%d have to ask the security e#perts about that. $y concern is the
security of !ustralian families to be able to make ends meet every fortnight. If we
want to talk about security, what about the security being denied to parents who
currently receive -amily Ta# enefit whose children are older than si# now3 What
about the security of !ustralians to be able to get an affordable health care system3
What about the security of pensioners that they can make ends meet each fortnight,
each week, rather than having their concessions cut by this mean and nasty !bbott
)overnment. ,ecurity comes in many shapes and forms. The !bbott )overnment
should think about the economic and social security of !ustralian communities.
JOURNALIST: "ow about the security of ronwyn ishop%s &ob3 We%ve got Tony
urke asking for her resignation over these fundraising activities. ,hould she go3
SHORTEN: The ,peaker of the Parliament should be independent. I think theres
2uite a few 2uestions to be answered about are the 'iberal Party turning Parliament
"ouse into a fundraising machine for the 'iberal Party3 7n udget night, where
Tony !bbott is preparing to make life harder for pensioners on .80,000, he calmly
attends a dinner raising .90,000. This is an out(of(touch )overnment. ut again
what !ustralians want us to focus on is not &ust the antics in terms of the 'iberal
fundraising efforts. What they want us to focus on is this unfair udget of broken
promises built upon lies before the election.
This is a )overnment who lie in the morning, they lie at lunchtime and they lie at
night(time and what they need to do is stop the lies. )overnment $Ps need to stand
up on behalf of their constituents, they should stop picking Tony !bbott over the best
interests of millions of !ustralian families.
JOURNALIST: ,hould she stand down though do you think3
SHORTEN: There%s 2uestions to be answered here. I don%t know if we%ve seen all the
facts come out here. I don%t think anyone wants to see the ,peaker%s position being
politicised. I%m sure there%s more 2uestions to be answered here. ut what I would
say is today and this week, even if the 'iberals are shooting themselves in the
foot by their own antics, 'abor will not be distracted from standing up for ordinary
!ustralians. What ordinary !ustralians want out of their Parliament is not a
fundraising machine for one political party, they want to know that they%ve got
a )overnment who%s in touch with paying the bills, paying the cost of living
pressures, paying for their kids to be able to go to university. They want a
)overnment who understands that putting a ta# on sick people is a bad idea. That%s
what people want out of their )overnment of !ustralia, not what we%re seeing in
this current rabble.
JOURNALIST: "as Tony urke got egg on his face given the letter he wrote to the
$inister about this 1igerian fellow that%s on the front papers in ,ydney3
SHORTEN: Tony urke has already e#plained all of these matters very clearly
earlier this morning. The only people with egg on their face today is an !bbott
)overnment who%s in denial to what the damage they%re doing to !ustralians. ! new
ta# on $edicare, a new ta# on petrol. 1ew cuts to pensions. !nd not even listening
to their own members of their )overnment who are privately concerned. I
would again &ust ask those backbenchers in the )overnment who are happy to
criticise Tony !bbott privately off the record< you need to actually stand up for
!ustralians, do the right thing by !ustralia, and dump this awful udget. ecause it%s
a bad idea, and bad news for the future of !ustralia.
JOURNALIST: Tim $athieson%s comments criticising the Prime $inister%s wife, are
they out of line3 Is he right to say to 2uestion whether she does enough for
community3
SHORTEN: Tim $athieson was the victim of unfair attacks when Prime $inister
)illard was in power. !nd I also believe that $argie !bbott is the sub&ect of
unfair attacks and I would &ust say to all !ustralians that what people want to see is
an honest and tough debate about the issues and direction of !ustralia. )oing after
families is wrong. !nd again, 'abor will make sure that this week and in coming
weeks, the focus is =00 per cent holding the !bbott )overnment to account for their
unfair udget of broken promises, built upon systemic and wilful lies to the
!ustralian electorate and we will stand up for ordinary !ustralians, we will stand up
for $edicare, we will stand up for the pension, we will stand up for the aspiration of
kids to be able to go to university no matter what postcode they come from, we%ll
stand up for ordinary !ustralians against an unfair budget. Thanks everyone.
E+,S