Budget Reply Speech Mark Latham - Leader of the Opposition

Speech

Transcript - Parliament House, Canberra - 13 May 2004

For the past five months I've been travelling around this great country of ours as Labor Leader, talking to the Australian people about their concerns. It's been the experience of a lifetime.

I've been holding community forums: old-town-hall-style meetings, open to all comers.

Thousands have come along to have their say – community leaders, school teachers, small businesspeople, mums, dads and students.

I call these meetings "democracy in the raw" – a chance to listen and learn, a chance to talk to people face-to-face.

It's an important process, because as parliamentarians we need to be honest with ourselves. The Australian people have become disillusioned with the political process.

We have lost their trust and confidence. And we need to regain it.

Listening to people and addressing their concerns. Staying in-touch with the real-life circumstances of the Australian people.

Tonight I'm bringing those concerns and circumstances to Canberra. This is what the people have been telling me.

On the Central Coast of New South Wales they told me about the need to create new training and employment opportunities for the youth of the district. Plus put them in contact with mentors – role models who can point troubled teenagers in the right direction.

At Gladstone in Central Queensland they told me about the need for more apprenticeships and group training opportunities – workforce skills for the next generation.

In Brisbane, I heard about the need for bulk-billing doctors and a national dental program – something positive to help our senior citizens get their teeth fixed up.

In Adelaide, I heard about the problems in the social security system: family debts and disincentives for people who want to move from welfare to work.

In the La Trobe Valley and Gippsland, they told me about the loss of basic services, particularly in higher education and Medicare.

At the community forum in Bairnsdale, one man summarised what I've been hearing all over the country. He said that people were coming forward with "cries for help".

Cries for increased social investment and better services.

Cries for stronger communities and more lasting relationships.

Cries for a fairer society – where by working hard and pulling together, we can give all Australians a fair go.

Australia needs a government that answers this cry for help – a government that invests in its people and builds the services of a civilised society.

After 20 years of economic reform – some of it Labor, some of it Liberal – our wealth and prosperity have grown.

But surely as a nation, we can make better use of our wealth. We can give it a stronger social purpose.

We can use it to restore our services and rebuild our communities. We can answer the cry for help.

This is what the Australian people are saying: it must be prosperity with a purpose.

Surely in a prosperous nation we shouldn't have 370,000 Australians on unemployment benefits for more than 12 months – many of them young people, without hope and direction in their lives.

Surely in a prosperous nation we shouldn't be losing bulk-billing doctors and Medicare services – the universality of our health system.

Surely in a country like Australia we shouldn't have children falling ill with serious diseases because their parents can't afford the vaccines.

Surely in a prosperous nation we shouldn't have 500,000 Australians, most of them elderly, waiting to get their teeth fixed.

That's the problem with the current government. It's a waiting list government that's turned us into a waiting list nation.

It's got the wrong set of priorities. It's wasting our prosperity instead of turning it into opportunity for all Australians.

Just look at Tuesday's budget. It's a political patch-up job, a short term fix for the next election. It doesn't look to the long term, the sort of future we want for our nation a decade from now.

The Government always spends up big before an election. But then it claws the money back in the years that follow – through higher taxes and family debts, higher Telstra line charges and user pays in education and health. It gives and then it takes. It never lasts.

Tonight I want to outline Labor's alternative approach, the policies and priorities we believe are important for our country – the things we didn't hear about in the Budget.

Labor has been listening to the Australian people, absolutely. But not just listening. We have been responding to their concerns with a new plan for the nation, a new program of social investment.

Investing in early childhood development, in our schools, universities and TAFE colleges. Investing in our doctors and dental services. Investing in families and newborn babies.

And not just social investment. Labor believes in investing in the environment, passing on our natural assets and heritage to the next generation. Taking climate change seriously – ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and establishing an emissions trading system. New national policies to save the Murray/Darling, to protect our native forests, our beaches, our coastline.

And when it comes to national security, Labor will never neglect the homefront. Always, Australia first. We'll establish a Department of Homeland Security, upgrade our port and regional airport security and create an Australian Coastguard – maritime policing for our 37,000kms of coastline.

This is the future for our nation: services, conservation, security. Opening up new opportunities – not just now, but for the next 10 years.

When I became Leader of the Opposition, I said that I wanted to be positive. I said that I didn't believe in Opposition for Opposition's sake. So let me outline Labor's positive alternative, our plan for Australia's future.

Economic Management

Our starting point is better Budget management. The Howard-Costello Government is the highest taxing government in Australia's history. There is no shortage of funds pouring into Canberra. Our task is to make better use of this money: to cut waste and mismanagement, to reorder priorities.

While the Government has gone on a spending spree, Labor has taken a different approach. For every dollar of extra social investment, we've been making a dollar of budget savings – cutting back on government waste. So far, we have identified more than $8 billion in savings, with more to come.

In this Budget, the Government is spending more than $100 million on taxpayer-funded political advertising – spending for the Liberal Party, not the Australian people.

It also plans to sell Telstra, wasting $650 million on consultants and financial advisers. Under Labor, we'll be saving the taxpayer money. We'll be keeping Telstra where it belongs: in majority public ownership.

A Labor Government will reduce bureaucracy, abolishing seven government agencies and cutting a further 13 government programs. And as we examine this Budget, more cuts will be made.

Not all of these decisions will be popular. Some interest groups will inevitably complain.

But the decisions need to be made. Budgets are about choices. And Labor's choice is to cut bureaucracy and wasteful spending to make way for our investments in education and health.

This is also responsible economic policy. A Labor Government will produce budget surpluses in each year of the next Parliament – cutting net debt and holding down interest rates.

We also believe in limiting the size of government. Too much spending, too much bureaucracy is bad for the Australian economy. This is why we will reduce Commonwealth expenditure and Commonwealth taxation as a proportion of GDP.

This is our Budget Pledge to the Australian people. Social investment, Yes, but also an attack on waste and mismanagement.

We also want to grow the Australian economy through more assistance for small business – backing their hard work and enterprise.

We need to reduce red-tape and paperwork, starting with the Business Activity Statement. This involves huge compliance costs - small businesspeople filling out forms for the government, instead of spending time with their families or actually running their businesses.

This is why Labor will simplify the Business Activity Statement. Our Simpler BAS Option will allow small businesses to use a Tax Office ratio to calculate their quarterly GST payments, with no annual or quarterly reconciliations.

This method couldn't be simpler, with just one calculation and just two boxes on the BAS form. It is estimated that our policy will reduce compliance costs by 80 to 90 percent.

Labor will also ensure that small businesses are not smothered by the market power of big business. We want a fair trading environment - strengthening the Trade Practices Act and the ACCC to protect small business against anti-competitive practices.

Labor will outlaw predatory pricing and introduce gaol terms and divestiture powers to deal with hard-core cartels. The ACCC will be authorised to issue "cease and desist" orders to provide immediate relief against market abuse. It will also be given new powers to deal with creeping acquisitions and the exploitation of franchisees.

The Trade Practices Act is now 30 years old. It urgently needs an overhaul – new powers to protect small business against the

anti-competitive conduct of big business. It's time to give the small business sector a fair go in the Australian marketplace.

Ladder of Opportunity

I've always believed in governments helping people – providing opportunity for all Australians. But I also know that people should be willing to help themselves – to work hard, to exercise responsibility. There is no way out of poverty and disadvantage without having a go, without effort.

This is what I call the ladder of opportunity: the importance of hard work, strong communities and the civilising role of government.

I want all Australians climbing the ladder – getting stuck in and working hard, supported by decent community services. The Howard-Costello Government has been taking the rungs out of the ladder. I want to put them back in.

The first rung is education – investing in the skills and ability of the Australian people. Under the current Government, this has been an area of big budget cuts. Under Labor, it will be our most important area of social investment.

Our national reading program will help parents give their infant children the greatest gift of all: reading books aloud, building literacy in the early years.

The parents of each newborn child will receive a series of storybooks. And for parents who lack the skills to read them, Labor will provide new adult literacy services to overcome this problem.

We want to invest early in education. Learning doesn't start the first day of school. It starts the first day of life.

And when our children go to school – with a love of reading and the ability to recognise numbers – their schools must be high-achieving schools.

It doesn't matter whether they are government or non-government schools. That's a tired, old debate. I want quality and opportunity for all our students.

Under Labor's new funding system, all schools will be funded on the basis of need. We will bring every school up to a high national standard of resources and achievement.

The overall funding level for non-government schools will be maintained, but with a different pattern of funding distribution. Under-resourced Catholic, Christian and Independent schools will receive more, at the expense of wealthy schools like Kings and Geelong Grammar.

We will also provide additional funds for government schools – lifting them up to our national standard of resources and results. For the most disadvantaged parts of our society, they have one great hope in life: the neighbourhood government school at the end of their street. It's their passport out of poverty.

As Prime Minister, I won't rest until that hope is fulfilled. Until every school in this country is a good school.

A Labor Government will provide incentives for the best teachers to teach in our struggling schools.

We will also improve school discipline through mentoring, community justice and ‘time out' programs. Parents have got the right to have their children taught in an orderly school environment. Discipline isn't an optional extra. It's an essential part of a good education.

And at the end of the school years, I don't want any talented child who has worked hard and studied hard to have to pause for a moment to consider whether they can afford a higher education. It goes against the great Australian principle that rewards in life should flow from talent and hard work, not your bank balance.

That's why we'll implement Labor's $2.3 billion Aim Higher policy: 20,000 extra university places and 20,000 extra TAFE places, without the need for slugging students. We'll reverse the Government's 25 per cent HECS hike and abolish its full fee system.

We don't want $100,000 university degrees. We want opportunity for all – a pathway to excellence in education.

Youth Guarantee

But still, not every young Australian will take advantage of these opportunities. We need to reduce the school drop-out rate and tackle the crisis in youth unemployment.

Each year in Australia we waste the skills of 45,000 young people who leave school early and don't go on to full-time work or study. They're at risk of becoming a lost generation – dropping out of the system, dropping out of society.

In some communities, the problem is critical: youth unemployment rates of more than 30 per cent in placeslike Wollongong, the northern suburbs of Adelaide and Wide Bay in Queensland.

As a society, we cannot afford to waste the potential of so many young Australians. We must give them new opportunities to work and to develop their skills.

But so too, we need to demand from them a new level of responsibility – making good use of the education and employment services of government. Working hard and having a go.

Tonight I can announce that a Labor Government will create a Youth Guarantee: young Australians either in employment or education and training.

Under our policy, young people will have just two options: they can be either learning or earning. No third option of sitting around doing nothing.

We'll provide additional work and training opportunities. And young people will be obliged to participate, to do something good for themselves, their families and the community. Learning or earning – no third option.

A Labor Government will abolish TAFE fees for all secondary school students – a financial benefit for these students and their families. This policy will also encourage an extra 15,000 students to stay on and undertake vocational education and training while still at school.

We'll also create 7,500 new apprenticeships. Plus 7,500 TAFE places for 15 to 18 year old students.

For those who want to move into work, we'll create a Jobs Gateway – wage and training subsidies to give 10,000 early school leavers opportunities in the workforce.

And we'll also support 5,000 homeless and disadvantaged youth, with life skills and training opportunities.

So I say to young Australians: if you fall, we will pick you up. We will help you, but we also expect you to help yourself: to respond to our Youth Guarantee, to be hungry for new skills and employment.

The Youth Guarantee is a $700 million investment in solving one of our most pressing social problems: the youth problem. It's a long term investment in Australia's future, a chance to give our prosperity a true social purpose.

Our policy involves the employment of 1,100 Training Mentors, working directly with young people at risk of dropping out. The mentors will help with education and employment, but also social skills.

We should never forget this social dimension in helping young Australians – giving them a sense of belonging and purpose in their lives. We need mentors right across the community – role models who can teach troubled teenagers the difference between right and wrong.

This is why a Labor Government will establish a National Mentoring Foundation, providing training support and other resources for 10,000 new mentors. We will also bring thousands of extra men into our schools – male teachers and community leaders to assist with the development of boys.

Health Care

Another rung on the ladder of opportunity is health care. Medicare must be a universal system, with good public hospitals and bulk-billing doctors available across the country. If it's not universal, it's not Medicare.

The Government talks about a safety net. But you don't need a safety net unless you've turned the health system into a highwire act and families are in danger of falling off.

Labor doesn't believe in a safety net. We believe in Medicare. And we'll never give up on increasing the rate of bulk-billing. We want it at 80 per cent:

• Increasing the patient rebate by $5 for every bulk-billed consultation.
• Providing incentive payments of up to $22,500 for doctors who reach bulk-billing targets;
• And making more doctors and nurses available in regional Australia.

In areas where bulk-billing has collapsed, a Labor Government will provide Medicare Teams – salaried doctors and nurses to deliver bulk-billing through public hospitals and community health services.

There's another responsibility we'll meet in the health system: the provision of dental services. It's not just a moral responsibility, it's part of the Australian Constitution. If the current government won't carry out its duty to the Australian people, Labor will.

We'll create a national dental program: a $300 million investment with an extra 1.3 million dental procedures for aged pensioners and health card holders. This will clear away the existing backlog and give our senior citizens what they deserve: the care of a civilised society in getting their teeth fixed up.

The Government says this is a Budget for families. But without a decent health system, what guarantees do we have for the future of our families?

Every year in Australia 1,800 children contract the deadly pneumococcal disease. Today I met one of the affected families – the Brooks family from Canberra.

On Anzac Day, their 15-month-old daughter, Bella, was diagnosed with pneumococcal, and began a fortnight-long battle for her life. Fortunately, young Bella is now out of danger and recovering well. But that's not always the case. Every year in Australia, 50 babies don't survive this disease.

In an attempt to save lives, the Government's expert advisory group has recommended that a new vaccine against pneumococcal be made available to every baby free of charge. Yet this Government, in all its meanness, has refused.

Why can't it see the compassion and commonsense of this policy - saving the lives of children like Bella Brooks? The vaccine costs $500 and many families simply can't afford it. They're having to make a choice between their limited finances and the health of their children.

Nothing could better illustrate why our health system must never become a two-tiered system. Why Medicare has to be saved. A universal system, not a welfare system.

Nothing could be more important in the creation of a good society than funding this essential vaccine. That's what Labor will do in government, making it available to every Australian child free of charge. Our babies can't afford to wait any longer.

Family Policy