Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not quite know where to start after hearing from the member for Shortland—let's start from the beginning. I worked as a journalist for many years, and we always had a strong ethical inclination to tell the truth and report the facts. After hearing what I have heard from members opposite, if they were journalists, they would all get the sack. Because I have never heard more untruths in one debate in the entire time since I have been elected.

It starts with the member for Sydney. I have to say the member for Sydney's speech in this debate is an absolute disgrace. She made a number of statements that are demonstrably, factually untrue. She said families will be $6,000 worse off; pensioners will have their pensions cut; and uni students will be paying more than $100,000 for a degree. It is absolutely ridiculous and it is embarrassing that the member for Sydney could get it so wrong, and of course this was followed up by the sterling effort from the member for Shortland, who talked about a $60,000 cut—I am sure she didn't quite mean to say that, but nevertheless it shows how tardy those opposite are when it comes to numbers.

Our economy is in a mess, because of Labor. Let's have a look at the deficits that we have inherited: $191 billion total deficits over six years. They recognise that a surplus is important for this nation and yet $27 billion, $54 billion, $47 billion, $43 billion, $19 billion and $50 billion in deficits—we are heading towards $667 billion in debt, because of the utter mess created by the former government. What we are doing is cleaning up Labor's mess.

They are talking about the budget inflicting the greatest hurt on the most disadvantaged. Let's have a look at what Labor has done and what our budget is doing to help the most disadvantaged. I reflect on the damage that Labor did to sole parents by moving them from the sole parent pension to Newstart. That caused an absolute storm of protest. Let us never forget what Labor did to sole parents. If you have a look at our NDIS—the NDIS that we are delivering very proudly, caring for those with a disability—Labor ran the most disgraceful scare campaign, claiming that we would not fund the NDIS. We are proudly rolling out the NDIS. This is something that has not been reported, disappointingly, but I remind those opposite that they imposed an efficiency dividend on NDIS support packages of $44.9 million—a $44.9 million cut to the NDIS. We have reversed that in our budget. We are proudly rolling it out, and we are looking after some of the most vulnerable people in our society: people with a disability, their families and their carers.

Look what we are doing for young people, particularly those who have been unemployed for a long time. We are reversing the terrible record that Labor has on unemployment, particularly youth unemployment. The teenage full-time unemployment rate, for persons aged 15 to 19, went up from 19.6 per cent in 2007 to an astonishing 27.3 per cent. What did Labor do? Labor did nothing. We are reversing that trend by taking a strong focus on earning or learning. We are working hard, through our Work for the Dole program, to get young people off the dole, to give them confidence, to build their skills, through a whole range of different ways: our job commitment bonus; our relocation assistance of up to $6,000 for those who move to regional areas; the Restart program, $10,000 for people to hire someone aged over 50; and the trade support loans, proper $20,000 loans to get young people through their apprenticeships. Look what happened under Labor: one in two young men and women who started an apprenticeship did not finish it. And what did Labor do? Labor did nothing.

Yes, Mr Deputy Speaker, we have had to make some necessary and difficult decisions in this budget, but health spending is going up, education spending is going up and the pension will go up twice a year. We are not going to allow you to scare pensioners, university students, families and everyone else—

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