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Budget reply speech: Bill Shorten to promise $470m boost to Tafe – politics live Budget reply speech: Bill Shorten says Labor will double Coalition's tax offset plan – politics live
(35 minutes later)
Getting back to the speech: Question: Your plan wouldn’t benefit people who earn more than $120,000 a year. Let’s take the example of a teacher. You might be a teacher, a senior teacher, a head of department and a principal. You might hope that through your own hard work and some lucky opportunities that one day you might earn $120,000 a year. You said in your speech your plan is a fair go for everyone. Why is somebody in the position I have outlined not as worthy of a tax cut as a first year teacher?
“Now Mr Speaker, every Australia understands that wages have grown by 2% in the past year, slower than the price of things you need to buy, way less than your bills. Shorten: Your question presupposes we are not doing anything else for people. That principal also lives in a community where they want to have well-funded schools and well-funded hospitals. And the reality is there is only so much money you’ve got. I form the view and my Labor team forms the view that if we can look after 10 million taxpayers - and let’s be straight - what happened is I have almost doubled the tax cut offered by the government. This government said we, Labor, doesn’t support lower taxes. I’ve got the better offer for ten millionAustralians.
“Yet this government in its budget is pretending that wages will increase by over 13% in the next four years. We know that the Liberals haven’t the slightest idea of how this will be achieved. Question: I’m asking if you are saying it’s a fair go for everyone, it is not a fair go for high income earners?
“And when the current wages system is demonstrably not delivering for workers, they are dreaming. Shorten: High income earners need our support less than low income earners. The fact of the matter is that if you are someone on a good salary, I’m not going to say $120,000 is an amazing salary, if you are someone on $1 million, this government has reduced your taxes by $16,000. At the end of the day, you have to make choices. The deal I’m offering Australia is we will reduce the national debt more quickly because we are not getting a lot of money away to the top end of town,we will restore funding to schools,we will make sure hospitals and schools are properly funded. This is a clear choice. This government is saying to people we will give you $10 and forgive us our cuts and decisions, we are saying we will give you more, but it is on the basis we can fund our other schools and hospitals and essential services. That is the difference. It is a priorities game.
“If they think that same system will magically deliver much better outcomes. Tonight Labor has shown that we are a party of lower taxes for working and middle-class families, and for more than 120 years we have been the party of higher wages for workers. Question: On reducing debt and then getting the Budget into balance, when would Labor return theBudget to surplus?
“We have a real wages policy. Shorten: Same year as the government.
“Our wages policy will restore Sunday penalty rates, will crack down on wages theft, the abuse of labour hire, where companies shift their permanent jobs on to labour hire jobs just to cut their pay. Question: So, 2020-21?
“We will get enterprise bargaining off life support and employees and employers back to the negotiating table, for more productive work places, more profitable enterprises and higher wages, and we will lead a new push to deliver genuine pay equity for Australia’s working women.” Shorten: The government said they will return it to 19-20, so will we.
It seems there are some Bill Shorten fans in the gallery They said they would do it in 2019-20. So the same as the government.
Bill Shorten tries to hush to galleries, they started to chant “BIll Bill Bill” when he entered the chamber to deliver his budget reply tonight @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus @murpharoo #politicslive pic.twitter.com/lMUj5aLwe9 Question: If there is a blowout in that would you expect to follow them is this
So the headline item there is Labor plans on doubling the government’s tax off-set plan. Shorten: What do you mean?
The opposition has costed its tax plan at $5.8 billion over the next four years. Question: Would that be the same - you would not stick to your projection then?
Under Labor’s plan, this is the size of the offset: Shorten: We have - we depend in part upon the government numbers, so if the government has got its numbers wrong, that is a challenge for all of us. Beyond that, we are making long-term reforms and that’s the difference. This government didn’t do anything other than keep their old cuts. What they are - they don’t have a plan, let’s face it. They are offering $10 and hope you ignore the cuts and everything is on the never-never.
$20,000 - $0 “The full range of their much-vaunted personal income tax scheme will arrive in seven years. I don’t think Malcolm Turnbull will be around in seven years’ time. It’s a promise on the never-never.”
$25,000 - $350 Bill Shorten starts his 7.30 interview by wishing Leigh Sales a happy birthday.
$30,000 - $350 Question: Let me put to you the same question that I put to the Treasurer the other night. Given that the nation has a high level of debt, and the Budget is still in deficit, why is now the time to cut income tax?
$35,000 - $ 350 Shorten: Because we’ve made hard decisions on economic reform. I mean, the fact of the matter is even though we’ve had some criticism from some people,we’re going to wind back the overly-generous dividend imputation rules where people who don’t pay income tax get an income tax refund.
$40,000 - $508 “We’re going to close down income splitting and discretionary trusts to cap that at 30 cents and we will reform negative gearing as well. So what we’ve done is we’ve said that we want to reform the tax system and as a result, we can deliver more money for what I think is a great trifecta for Australia. Restore the funding and the cuts, reverse the cuts in schools and hospitals, be able to provide a much more better income tax cut for people up to$120,000, and also be in a better position to reduce debt. We have made hard decisions and we’re not giving $80 billion away to the big end of town.”
$45,000 - $770 So, what can we [very quickly] take from that?
$50,000 - $ 928 It’s certainly an election commitment. And it doesn’t come close to spending all the money Labor says it can save from its negative gearing and franking tax changes. Which means the opposition has a giant election war chest up its sleeve.
$55,000 - $928 It’s very much a Labor budget - health, education, working class battlers and taxing the top end of town.
$60,000 - $ 928 It is also quite targeted, I think. Labor knows who it wants to go after at the next election and they are zeroing in.
$65,000 - $ 928 He finishes to applause from his side of the house and a standing ovation, with supporters in the gallery once again chanting “Bill, Bill, Bill”.
$70,000 - $928 Shorten:
$75,000 - $928 Labor can put real dollars into Australian infrastructure because we are not going to give $80bn to multinationals and big corporations.
$80,000 - $928 In conclusion, my fellow Australians, here is what the fair go means under a Labor government.
$85,000 - $928 Rescuing hospitals and reinvesting in Medicare.
$90,000 - $928 Proper funding for schools, Tafe and university. And a bigger, better income tax cut for tens of millions working Australians.
$95,000 - $796 This is our plan and this is my challenge to the prime minister.
$100,000- $665 If you think that your budget is fair, if you think that your sneaky cuts can survive scrutiny, put it to the test.
$105,000 - $534 Put it to the test in Caboolture, put it to the test in Burnie, put it to the test in Fremantle and in Perth. I will put my better, fairer, bigger income tax cut against yours. I’ll put my plans to rescue hospitals and fund Medicare against your cuts.
$110,000 - $402 I’ll put my plans to properly fund schools against your cuts and I’ll put my plan to boost wages against your plan to cut penalty rates and I’ll put my plans for 100,000 Tafe places against your cuts to apprenticeships and training and I’ll fight for the ABC against your cuts.
$115,000 - $271 And house by house, street by street, suburb by suburb, my team and I will make this a referendum on your $80bn corporate tax giveaway to multinationals, big business and the big banks.
$120,000 - $140 This nation needs a leader that gets it. It needs a party with a plan for the future. And it needs a government that will deliver a fair go for all Australians.
Bill Shorten has taken to the floor to give the traditional opposition budget-in-reply speech. It’s convention for the opposition leader to give the speech, rather than the shadow treasurer That is what we deliver. That is our promise.
“My fellow Australians (bold by Labor) If I’m prime minister, tackling dementia and delivering better aged care will be a national priority, backed by real resources.
As I listened to the government’s fifth budget on Tuesday night, I knew immediately: Because we know that giving older Australians the security and dignity they deserve matters more than an $80bn corporate tax cut.
We can do better than this. The same Liberal accounting trickery is a work in infrastructure. Across the four years of this budget, commonwealth investment in infrastructure projects actually falls.
The people of Australia deserve better than this. For the Western Sydney Rail Link there is only money for a study, a report.
And a Labor Government will deliver better than this. The same goes for the train – not a single dollar for construction, apparently this government can do it for free.
Better than ten years of cuts to schools and hospitals – in exchange for $10 a week. Only Labor believes in nation building. Good public transport projects, like the cross-river rail in Brisbane or the western Sydney rail line and when we invest in tourism infrastructure in northern Australia and as the [main highway] Tasmania and when we deliver long overdue upgrades to the Bruce highway in Queensland, when we fund and build these projects, we will prioritise Australian-made steel, we will prioritise local workers and we will require that one in every 10 people employed is an Australian apprentices.
$10 a week. Shorten:
That’s all the Liberals think it will take, for you to forgive and forget. This budget falls hardest on the young and the old. The prime minister is still cutting $14 a fortnight from pensioners.
They think for $10, you’ll forget they tried to put up your taxes last year. Still telling Australians to work until they are 70. With no idea what it means to people who have spent their lives doing jobs that are hard on their bodies and tough on their backs.
For $10, you’ll forgive waiting two years for a hip replacement. I actually think one of the sneakiest tricks in this year’s budget is the fraud its perpetrated on Australians in need of aged care.
For $10, you won’t care about cuts to your child’s school. Around 105,000 older Australians are waiting for homecare packages. But despite all the hype, the government is offering only 14,000 places over the next four years. 14,000 places in four years.
That for $10, you won’t mind your internet’s no good and your local Tafe is closing and your daughter can’t find a place at uni. When 20,000 people join the waiting list in the last six months alone. But worst still in question time today we learnt there is no new funding here. They are simply taking the money away from residential care places and putting it in home care places. Nothing new. The people who raised us and cared for us and loved us deserve better than this money-go-round in aged care than cuts to their energy supplement and the world’s oldest retirement age.
They think if you get $10 a week, you won’t notice you’re losing $70 in penalty rates from your Sunday pay. By 2032 over 200,000 people will miss out. Millions of families in our region want their child to go to an Australian university.
And this prime minister is so out of touch, he thinks if you get $10 a week – you’ll be fine with the banks getting a $17 billion giveaway. They understand what it means to hold a degree from our country. And the government’s freeze won’t affect them.
The Liberals desperately want you to believe this budget is fair. No, it will simply lockout working-class kids and students from regional Australia.
But here’s what the prime minister isn’t telling you: Tonight I am pleased to announce Labor will restore funding certainty to our universities. We will uncap places providing our nation with more than 200,000 university graduates. Under Labor a university education is not a privilege you inherit, it’s an opportunity you earn.
• His $715 million cut to hospitals is still in the budget. We will always choose better university opportunities over better tax breaks for the big end of town.
• His $17 billion cut to schools is still in the budget. Labor’s plan for training is crystal clear. We will stop the slide to dodgy private providers and back public Tafe all the way.
• And his $80 billion handout to big business, banks and multinationals is still in the budget. We will renovate the campuses and rebuild the workshops. We will ensure two out of every three as a minimum of our training dollars goes to public Tafe.
This budget still cuts money from universities – and it contains a sneaky new $270 million cut to public Tafe. We will invest in programs to help older workers retrain in later life. We already know the expertise our nation will need in the next decade. More workers for the NDIS and in aged care. More construction workers for national infrastructure and housing,more programmers and technicians for the digital age. I don’t want Australia to meet these needs with skills visas. I want to train our people for these jobs.
The prime minister is still cutting $14 from pensioners every fortnight. There is no excuse for a skills vacancy to last one day longer than it takes to train an Australian to do that job.
He’s cutting dental care for veterans, he’s cutting the ABC – yet again. So tonight I am pleased to announce a Labor government will cover all upfront fees of 100,000 Tafe places in the high-priority sectors of agriculture and engineering and disability and plumbing. We would expect half of these to go to the women of Australia. We will get jobs like carpenters, cook and bricklayer off the skill shortage list. Instead of looking overseas, employers will have a skilled, local workforce ready to go.
He’s keeping Medicare frozen for specialists, he’s even keeping the GST on tampons. And we can make this happen because we put 100,000 Tafe places ahead of $80bn of corporate tax giveaways.
And he is still increasing the retirement age to 70. “The government’s cuts have hit public schools and their 2.5m students the hardest.
So tonight, ask yourself: “It is public schools that benefit the most when we invest in and restore the extra $17 approximately over the next 10 years.
If your family relies on any of these services, what kind of future is this prime minister offering you? “It is our public system, teaching 82% of our poorest kids, 84% of Indigenous kids, 74% of the children with disabilities.
My fellow Australians, I’m here tonight to outline Labor’s plan to bring the Fair Go back to the heart of our nation. “We want the very best when it comes to schools. When it comes to schools at the next election the choice is simple: Labor will put back $17bn extra into the schools and the prime minister will put $17bn back into the banks.
• A plan to properly fund health and education “Nine out of 10 new jobs created in the next four years will need either a university degree or a Tafe qualification.
• To provide real help with your family budget “It is why Labor believes in quality universities and strong public Tafes, working side by side, equal partners in our nation’s future.
• And to invest in the next generation of opportunity for Australia “Yet in this budget the Liberals are cutting more money from university and Tafe.
It’s a plan we can afford – because we’re not going to spend $80 billion of public money on big business and the big banks. “In government Labor uncapped degree places and opened the doors of university to a new generation.
And it’s a plan that will work, because Australia thrives when middle class and working class people can get ahead. “Tens of thousands of students became the first person in their family to go to university.
Tonight is about a Fair Go for everyone who wants the best for their kids and their future. “That’s the fair go in action. But the Liberal freeze on university funding means 10,000 fewer places are available next year.”
A Fair Go for every part of our nation – from the bush and the regions to our cities and growing suburbs. “Every budget should strive to deliver Australians a better deal today, but I understand so many of the sacrifices people make are about tomorrow.
And a Fair Go for the real forgotten people: working families, pensioners and Australians doing it tough. “About passing on a better set of opportunities for their children. But this budget does nothing for the next generation.
INCOME TAX “It betrays it. Young Australians always get a dud deal from the conservative government.
Mr Speaker our plan begins with a better and fairer tax system. “Young people – they volunteer, they give back to our community, they work to support their studies, pay their GST, they’re funding Medicare, they contribute to super from their first day on the job.
After years of flat wages, rising power bills and increasing health costs, it’s time for a fair-dinkum tax cut for middle class and working class Australians. “Yet, in return, the Liberals are cutting school funding. Closing off university opportunities, taking us backwards on climate change, locking first-home buyers out of the market, making it harder to get an apprenticeship or Tafe.
I’ve already said Labor will support the government’s modest tax cuts starting 1 July this year. “Young Australians deserve better. So, tonight I promise young Australians Labor will create a level playing field for first-home buyers, because I don’t want us to live in a country where your only chance of owning a home is to inherit one.
And tonight, I announce a Labor Government will go further and do better on tax cuts for working and middle income Australians. “We’re serious too about tackling climate change and helping the environment. 50% renewables by 2030. 45% cut in emissions by 2030, and zero net emissions by 2050.
We will support the government’s tax cut this year – and in our first budget, we will deliver a bigger and better tax cut for 10 million working Australians. “I promise young Australians we will not leave you a ruined reef and rivers and oceans choked with waste and we will always invest in your education – schools, Tafe and uni – because we know that when you get the opportunities Australia gets the opportunity.
Almost double. When you succeed Australia succeeds.
This is my pledge to 10 million working Australians: My twin brother Robert is here tonight. So, happy birthday for Saturday!
Under Labor, you will pay less income tax – because I think you are more important than multinationals, banks and big business. But he knows that our mother sacrificed everything for our education and it changed our lives.
In our first term of government, a teacher on $65,000 will be $2780 better off under Labor - an extra $928 a year. “If I’m elected Prime Minister, I will make it my mission to ensure every Australian child gets the life-changing opportunity of a properly funded, quality education.
A married couple - one partner in the ADF earning $90,000 and the other working in aged care on $50,000 - will be $5565 better off under Labor, $1855 a year. “Reading writing, maths and coding, science and languages, protecting from bullying, online or in the schoolyard.
Labor can afford to do more to help you and your family because we’re not giving $80 billion to big business and the big four banks. “I want children to discover and fall in love with what they are good at. I want every public school to be able to offer music and drama and sport and camps.
And because we’ve already made the hard choices for Budget repair. “This government can announce as many education reviews as they want.
• Creating a level playing field for first-home buyers, by reforming negative gearing and capital gains “Everyone knows the cutting school funding doesn’t deliver better results. That is why Labor will put back every dollar the Liberals have cut from schools.”
• Cracking down on tax avoidance by eliminating income-splitting in trusts –without affecting farmers.
• And ending unsustainable tax credits for people who pay no income tax – while protecting pensioners and charities.
Mr Speaker,
At the next election there will be a very clear choice on tax:
10 million Australians will pay less tax under Labor.
We can afford to cut your taxes, without cutting services, because unlike the Liberals, we’re not wasting $80 billion on a discredited giveaway to the top end of town.
DEBT
Mr Speaker,
Labor’s plans mean we can deliver the winning trifecta in government:
• A genuine tax cut for middle and working class Australians
• Proper funding for schools, hospitals and the safety net
• And paying back more of Australia’s national debt, faster.
There was a time, I remember, when the Liberals ran around saying a debt of $227 billion was a “budget emergency” and a national crisis.
I remember, when they were elected, they said every man, woman and child, owed $9,000
But on Tuesday night, I don’t remember hearing the Treasurer admit that debt has doubled under the Liberals.
I don’t remember him admitting that it’s now: $21,778 for every man, woman and child.
I don’t remember him admitting that next year, total interest payments on Australian debt will pass $18 billion.
$18 billion, every year.
That’s more than the commonwealth spends on the NDIS or aged care or child care – it’s twice as much as Australia spends on public schools.
And the Liberals’ only strategy is to cross their fingers and hope.
That’s not good enough in a time of trade conflict between America and China, in an age of soaring global debt and rising US bond markets.
No Australian government can prevent global bad news – but good governments do prepare for it.
This isn’t the time to blow everything because of a short-term economic upswing. That would be an act of generational folly.
It might not be fashionable, but it’s time to be responsible.
Labor’s economic reforms have put us in a much stronger position to cope with international uncertainty, over the decade.
We can pay down national debt, faster - because we’re not giving $80 billion to multinationals – and because we’ve made the tough decisions.
PROGRESSIVE TAX
Mr Speaker
On Tuesday night, we discovered the Liberals are planning to radically re-write the tax rules in this country.
And the more Australians learn about this scheme, the less they like it.
Australians have got every right to ask, how can it be fair?
How can it be fair for a carer on $40,000 to pay the same tax rate as a doctor on $200,000?
For a cleaner to pay the same tax rate as a CEO?
How can it be fair that, under this tax experiment: the doctor earns five times as much as the nurse – but his tax cut is16 times bigger?
And today, new research revealed that under this plan, 6 in every $10 will go to the wealthiest 20% of Australians.
Very quickly, this is starting to look like a mate’s rates tax plan from the Liberal Party.
And at a time of flat wages, rising inequality and a growing sense of unfairness in the community.
When too many jobseekers are stuck in poverty, when children go to school hungry, when women fleeing family violence can’t find safe accommodation …
… people are worried this plan isn’t fair or affordable.
And, frankly, Australians are also entitled to be pretty suspicious of this whole thing.
To wonder if this ‘come and talk to me after two elections’ plan, this promise on the never-never, will ever happen.
My team and I are ready to vote for tax cuts for working families.
And we will not allow the Prime Minister to threaten to block tax cuts for 10 million Aussies, unless the parliament writes a cheque for the wealthiest.
Yes they are
The bells are ringing, likely for the final time this week.
One little bit of early news – Labor plans on scrapping upfront fees for 100,000 Tafe students as part of a $470 million plan to “boost Tafe, apprenticeships and skills for Australians”.
“In the last five years, more than $3 billion has been cut from Tafe and training, and Australia has 140,000 fewer apprentices today than we did when the Liberals were first elected,” Bill Shorten said in a statement before his speech to parliament.
“... This has reduced employment opportunities for middle and working class people, including women, young people and workers retraining later in life.
“It has also limited our capacity to meet demand in growing occupations in the disability, aged care, and technology focused sectors.”
Labor has also vowed to invest $100 million in “modernising” Tafe campuses around the nation, “guarantee” at least two out of three Commonwealth training dollars goes to Tafe (this was also an election commitment).
The party has also recommitted to its election vow to ensure “one in every 10 jobs on commonwealth priority projects are filled by Australian apprentices”, provide 10,000 pre-apprentice programs and 20,000 adult apprentice programs.
The Tafe plan has been budgeted at $473 million over the next four years and $708 million over the next decade.
Bill Shorten’s speech is due in the next 30 minutes.
I am going to hand the blog over for a short while, so I can take a quick break ahead of budget-in-reply.
Play nicely. I’ll see you back here, just before 7pm.
Josh Frydenberg is fighting back against Labor’s attacks on the Coalition’s renewable energy policy.
From his statement:
Mark Butler’s latest feeble attempts to criticise the government’s record on renewable energy and jobs brings to mind the old aphorism: Better to remain silent and be thought misinformed, than to speak and remove all doubt.
Mr Butler, who hasn’t asked a question of me in the parliament for over 200 days, claims:
The government is “anti-renewables” and undermining renewable jobs.
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is reducing its investment plans in the budget papers due to the government having a “war on renewables” and the national energy guarantee.
But here are the facts:
Almost 1m jobs have been created in the economy since the Coalition was elected and 2017 was the strongest year of jobs growth on record. Our record on jobs is clear.
Jobs in the renewable energy sector increased 33% last year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Jobs in large-scale renewable energy are at their highest on record.
Renewable energy sector jobs fell under Labor by 13% or 2,500 in their last year in office.
Last year, was Australia’s biggest ever year for renewables and more than $12bn and more than 7,000 MW of investment is now underway, according the Clean Energy Regulator.
According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, in 2017, Australia was the world’s third-highest clean energy investor on a per-capita basis – four [times] the investment per capita of China, five times [of] France.
The CEFC used identical forecast figures in this year’s budget as last year’s budget – before the Neg even existed.
The CEFC has confirmed there has been no change in the CEFC’s forecast of commitments or anticipated draws from the CEFC special account as a result of the Neg.
Rather than increasingly desperate dog whistling to its left flank, Labor should be explaining to the Australian people:
Why it wants to put Australian jobs at risk with its reckless emissions reduction targets that it has no idea or plan how to reach
Why is it abandoning 900,000 jobs in Australia’s manufacturing sector with its policies to increase prices and decrease reliability
Why it wants to take South Australian Labor’s failed 50% renewable energy target experiment national
Why it joined in with the Greens in the Senate to pass a motion to “encourage” the closure of coal-fired power stations, selling out blue-collared workers in regional Australia for inner city green votes
Just a reminder – Bill Shorten will deliver the budget-in-reply speech at around 7.30pm.
We’ll be keeping the blog open to cover it, and his interview with 7.30 immediately after.
And from Mike Bowers lens to your eyeballs:
Susan Lamb’s resignation means Emma Husar has a new seat buddy.
The Greens’ Rachel Siewert moved a motion in the Senate to increase Newstart by $75 a week, which was defeated, with Labor and the government combining to vote it down.
“Despite the broad group of economists, business and social service organisations saying that the payment definitely needs to be increased, both major parties are showing cowardice,” Siewert said in a statement.
“The rate of Newstart does not need to be ‘reviewed’; it needs to increase urgently, and the ALP knows this.
“It has been well established that it is dangerously low and causing harm to jobseekers. It’s time for Bill Shorten to come off the fence.”
For anyone wondering, I put the “rolled gold” count at 30 for that question time.
And with Nemo’s stamp of approval, question time ends.