Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

The problem with Senator Birmingham's contribution is that no-one in Australia believes you. No-one trusts you. No-one trusts this government, because this is a government that came to power based on lies. This is a government that came to power based on misrepresentations, and it is a government that came to power based on fear campaigns.

It is clear now that 12 months into this rabble of a government the Australian public are shaking their heads, wondering what happened to all the promises that were made. Why are pensioners being hammered by this government? Why is the health system being stripped of resources by this government? Why is this government not the government they said they were going to be, prior to the election? This is a government that has demonstrated in the last 12 months that it is incompetent. It is absolutely incompetent.

The Treasurer has delivered a budget that is universally condemned around this country. He has delivered a budget that has rank-and-file National Party members standing up at their conferences condemning the issues and the aspects of the budget that the Liberals are forcing on the National Party. If the National Party were not such doormats to the coalition, they would actually be standing up for rural and regional Australia. They would actually be saying, 'Why are you ripping away at the residents of rural and regional Australia?' They would be demanding a fair go for rural and regional Australia. Yet, what do we have from the National Party? We have absolute silence.

Removing the superannuation contribution for workers earning less than $37,000 affects rural and regional Australia more than most other areas. In the National Party seat of Cowper, 46.5 per cent of workers are earning less than $37,000, and they are the ones who are being affected by this cruel attack on superannuation. In Page, the seat of Mr Kevin Hogan, 46 per cent of the electors are affected by this. So you are getting superannuation entitlements ripped away from ordinary Australians. It is no use if Senator Cormann stands up here and tries to ignore what business is saying. Business is saying that this money will not come back to ordinary Australians. Business is saying, 'Because your superannuation increases are being stopped, you will not be getting pay rises.' That is what business is saying.

Yet this rabble of a government, this incompetent government, stands up here and continues its misrepresentation. It continues to live in a parliamentary bubble and just does not understand what is happening in the real world out there in Australia. They just do not get it. To save for your future is something the Liberal Party used to say was a good thing. Now we have the Liberal Party standing up and saying, 'No, just get the money now and spend.' Where is the argument that thrift, that saving for your future, is a good thing? Where has that gone? It has simply gone because this government has absolutely no compunction about lying to the Australian public. And when it has lied to the Australian public, when it finds itself in a difficult position, it just lies and lies again.

That is why the public do not trust this government. They see the government as one based on lies and misrepresentations. They see this government as one based on ideology, an ideology which says, 'If you have brown paper bags full of money and you can hand it over to the Liberal Party, we will look after you. But if you are a pensioner, we are going to cut the pension.' That is what this government is—incompetent and untrustworthy. (Time expired)