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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 2 Hansard (19 May) . . Page.. 350 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

which forces our young people into a work for the dole scheme which does not even include training as a responsibility of the employer and which, basically, blames the victims of the Government's economic policies, that is, the unemployed, for being unemployed, and all this in the name of so-called mutual obligation? I would argue that the Government has failed in its obligation to the people of Australia by not pursuing increased employment as a major focus of its agenda. Cuts to employment, education and training over the last two Federal budgets were $1.6 billion.

This budget is a good example of how flawed our economic indicators are. It is a good reason to get serious about developing indicators which actually are related to the everyday experiences of Australians and to the state of our natural environment. How can we be proud of financial management which has found a surplus through cuts to our basic social support services? Our most vulnerable citizens have been left more vulnerable. These include social security recipients, indigenous people, students, many of the elderly, the sick, and rural and regional people. Sole parents are targeted again, with Aboriginal part-time students and sole parents both suffering reduction in income. Child care is already a problem for many parents as a result of previous cuts. It appears the Federal Government is expecting to spend $100m less on child-care assistance and cash rebates. This is because so many parents have dropped out already. What does this mean for the quality of child care in our country? What does this mean for the people who can no longer afford to work at all because of child-care costs?

In health we also have grave concerns. The sum of $3.6 billion has been cut from pharmaceuticals, hospitals, dental care and Medicare in the last two budgets. Less than $2 billion has been put back. No wonder the State governments mostly walked out of the Australian health care agreements. The concerning thing about the Liberal Government's approach is that it causes division in our society. It blames the unemployed. It increases polarity in our society. The haves and have-nots are more and more obvious. And, of course, we have the huge unknown of the Liberals' tax package. It is about winning votes through tax cuts, and this will always benefit the haves, of course. Those who pay tax will reap the benefits. A GST is widely regarded as disproportionate in its effects on low-income earners. It is easy to see whom Mr Costello is rewarding, and it is not the disadvantaged. Welfare providers on the ground are seeing an increase in the need for their services.

Even in narrow economic terms this budget is questionable. Professor Quiggin questioned the fiscal strategy. The Government fails to recognise that Telstra is a major contributor to public savings. Telstra uses retained earnings to finance investment and produces over $1 billion in retained earnings every year. This is a huge contribution to public sector savings and it does not show up in the budget papers. The environment does not do well out of this budget, either. The premium environment budget for managing Australia's World Heritage areas is being cut by $20m over four years, excluding Natural Heritage Trust funding. There is no new funding for solar energy or other renewable energy research and development, but coal-fired power stations will get $2.4m for research into greater efficiency in their area. The $300m for the environment is pathetic when put in the context of the real debt that we are incurring - for example, $1.5 billion in lost production due to land degradation.

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