Senate debates

Thursday, 2 October 2014

Bills

Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 6) Bill 2014; Second Reading

1:21 pm

Photo of Lee RhiannonLee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to acknowledge all your interjections. This was more than four months after the budget was handed down, and at the rally there were TAFE teachers, nurses, people from the Australian Education Union, the National Tertiary Education Union, the Nurses Association and a range of young people talking about the call centres that they work in. It was a very informative meeting, but again that white-hot anger about the budget is still there. I wish that that Campbelltown meeting was this Sunday so I could be telling them about Labor has done. It is extraordinary.

We should be hearing from our colleagues on the opposition benches about what has happened here. The turnaround within 24 hours on something so fundamental to the very fabric of our society, let alone the economy, is quite breathtaking. If Labor go ahead and vote with the coalition on this, we will see $400 million ripped out in the higher education area. What they have done is deeply wrong. Again, I congratulate the 'bust the budget' people for the huge—

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