MOTION TO SUSPEND STANDING ORDERS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, CANBERRA
THURSDAY, 19 MARCH 2015
***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***
I move that so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion forthwith.
That this House condemns the Prime Minister for:
One, leading a chaotic and incompetence Government which seeks to
- slug Australian students with $100,000 degrees,
- rip $80 a week from pensioners
- rip $6,000 from the budget of a typical Australian family,
Two, putting Australia's AAA credit rating at risk through his own incompetence and mismanagement, and,
Three, having no economic plan for Australia's future.
Tony Abbott is the Captain Chaos of Australian politics.
He is the captain of a team who has no economic plan for Australia's future.
They have no budget plan.
It has been 39 days since 39 Liberal MPs voted to get rid of this Prime Minister, yet I've heard in the PMO bunker they look back on that as the golden age of this Government.
This Government has no adoptable economic strategy.
This is why standing orders should be suspended,
Listen to the Government, say that they want to talk about anyone else's plan.
Where is the Government's plan?
This Government is running the classic defence, “don't look at us, look everywhere else”.
Let's have a look at the plan which they say that they want to maintain.
They want to put forward $100,000 degrees for Australian university students and it has failed in the Budget and it has failed when it has gone to the Senate and it will keep failing whenever you call your election.
The real issue why we should be suspending standing orders here is that Australians have had a deep concern that they couldn't trust Tony Abbott.
They’ve deep down wondered “can they trust Tony Abbott?”
Many of us have thought “you can't” but what has been revealed in recent days in the Government's misfortune is this Government has now junked even any pretence of a surplus.
I love hearing these people talk about surplus.
In 2012, Tony Abbott said - the Prime Minister - the current Prime Minister I should call him - he said in 2012, "An incoming Liberal and Coalition Government will bring to surplus in their first year."
Remember that promise?
Then they said - then we've seen the old Liberal slip and slide and they've said “we'll do it in the first three years” but the slide isn't finished, this is one of the big slides like you see at the show.
They've then said, Tony Abbott who has made many contributions to the English language, has invented broad balance.
Let me decode what the “broad balance” Budget within 5 years will be.
It is not a surplus.
Then Treasury let the cat out of the bag yesterday, this honest Treasury official on the way through disowning that piece of propaganda called the Intergenerational Report, they said there would be no surplus for 40 years.
No surplus for 40 years. Australians have heard that right.
The Treasury has said that this Government cannot generate a surplus for 40 years.
What we've seen, and the reason why we've seen this, is this so-called braveheart of Australian politics, this crusading Prime Minister.
Many of us have had doubts about can we trust him but one thing he's always had as his mantra, as his holy grail, as the item he politically genuflects before is surplus and what we've seen is a slip and slide away.
Why? Because he wants to save his own job.
There is only one policy of this Government - save Tony Abbott's job.
There is only one Budget strategy - save Tony Abbott's job.
Now the Prime Minister says it will be a dull Budget. There is going to something good for families, something good for childcare, it will be dull.
One thing about this Prime Minister is he's never dull. He is never dull but what he has done is he's given up his commitment to ever getting to surplus.
This was a core belief.
We know that Tony Abbott has trouble keeping his election promises but at least on surplus we mightn't have liked the way he would get to it but what he does is that's what he's always pushed.
What I have to say to be fair to Tony Abbott here - to be fair to this Prime Minister here is this is not a captain's pick to dump everything they believe or to try and save their job, it's a team vote. It's a team vote.
See, this Government leak on each other about whose idea it was to knight Prince Philip but when it comes to leaking on each other who opposed the bad ideas in this Budget, unusually for this rag-tag mob, radio silence.
Because no-one anywhere can seriously say they ever disagreed with each other on any of it - the $100,000 degrees, the cuts to families, payments and of course the pensions.
The thing about this Government is at their heart they don't believe it's the unfairness of the Budget which is the problem, they just blame the salesmen.
Let me tell you you've got half the answer. You do have a problem with your salesmen but much more than just who's selling it, it's the unfairness you're selling.
What we see is the so-called economic first officer of the nation - I'm referring to the Treasurer in case anyone was confused about who I was speaking about- they have got less than two months to go for their Budget and they are adrift.
What the Government often says is that it's just gossip, the inside talk about the problems they've got.
Treasury officials have made it clear it is five minutes to midnight, less than two months before this Budget and there is no Budget plan, there is no Budget plan.
But standing orders should be suspended because…there's the Agriculture Minister. You've done enough this week, son.
Standing orders should be suspended because we've got an Education Minister. He is not a fixer, he is a failure.
Arguably the worst higher Education Minister that we've ever seen since we had higher education in this country.
$100,000 degrees. What a stupid idea. $2 billion from vocational education, skills and training and of course the vandalism that they are committing to Australia's schools by cutting $30 billion from schools over the next 10 years is a disgrace
But standing orders should be suspended as well because the Health Ministers have no plan for health. What mind would have dreamed up a GP tax on the sick and the vulnerable? $50 billion from Australia's hospitals and that's an important point to remember.
This Government's last Budget, which none of the would-bes, could-bes or never-weres opposite have not repudiated, contained a $50 billion cut to our hospitals.
The damage this Government is doing to Australia with their lack of economic plan to our hospitals is absolutely appalling.
The real problem here is that this Government, unlike predecessor Governments of Liberal or Labor persuasion, have no adoptable strategy.
They cannot convince the Senate - they act as if having a Senate not of their own political persuasion is a new phenomenon.
For many years in Australian history there's been a Senate of a different political complexion to a government but this the first time we've had a government who hasn't got an adoptable economic plan.
Australia has no budgetary plan because this government has no budgetary plan which Australians want.
So Prime Minister, the man who loves to get up and say one thing and then apologise, I'm really sorry, and then do it again and apologise again as if life is one huge "I make a mistake, I'm a fool and then I repent," this is not good enough.
Your budgetary policies, your $6,000 cuts for families are just a bad idea.
Your $100,000 degrees are just a broken promise.
Your cuts to pensions are an outrage and your cuts to hospitals and schools, $80 billion worth in the next 10 years, is absolute economic vandalism.
So if you want to take these rotten ideas to an election, please do it.
Give the Australian people an opportunity to have a say on your policies rather than trying to intimidate the Senate with your broken promises.
And I also advise the Prime Minister it doesn't matter when you bring the election, the battle lines are most certainly drawn.
You love to talk about Liberal can do this and Liberal can do that.
You haven't done much in the last 18 months.
You have taken 18 months of the nation's life and wasted the time of the nation.
We believe in universal health care versus your GP tax and health care cuts.
We believe in access to higher education for all, not $100,000 degrees.
We do not share the narrow-based extremist philosophy of the Education Minister who says that people who haven't been to university begrudge paying taxes for those who have.
I have never met a parent or grandparent who begrudged it.
This is a Government with no economic plan and you most certainly do stand condemned.
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