Bill Shorten's call to arms

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten slams
the government's cuts to health, welfare and education in his budget
reply speech and says Labor is ready for an election.






Key elements of the Abbott government’s economic strategy
have been thrown into chaos after Bill Shorten declared its first budget
a document based on lies and committed the Labor opposition to combine
with the Greens in the Senate to block them.




The move signals Labor’s intent to replicate the Abbott
opposition style of no compromises in an approach that could force the
government into grinding line-by-line negotiations in the Senate both
now and beyond July when the new senators alter the balance of power.






"The government forgot a lot of people on budget night": Bill Shorten.
"The government forgot a lot of people on budget night": Bill Shorten. Photo: Andrew Meares






Making his first post-budget address-in-reply speech as
Opposition Leader, Mr Shorten rounded on Prime Minister Tony Abbott for
breaking promises. He vowed  to block punitive changes to Newstart that
would force some young unemployed people to exist without the dole,
along with a shift in the pension age to 70, tightening of Family Tax
Benefit Part B eligibility relating to children aged over six, and the
move to restore twice yearly indexation to fuel excise.




The planned $7 per visit charge for seeing a  GP will also be
blocked, with Mr Shorten slamming it as “ideological” and more akin to
the hardline right-wing policies of the Tea Party in the US. However Mr
Shorten declined to propose alternative savings.



In a hard-hitting speech emphasising what the opposition says
were “wilful” lies told to the Australian people, Mr Shorten told
Parliament Australians were both shocked and angry “at a prime minister
who pretended he was on their side”.






Opposition Leader Bill Shorten acknowledges applause from the public gallery after delivering the budget reply.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten acknowledges applause from the public gallery after delivering the budget reply. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen






He also challenged the government over suggestions it could
go to a double dissolution election, saying: "If you want an election,
try us. If you think Labor is too weak, try us."



Mr Shorten said the government had produced a “tax it or cut
it budget” where people would pay more for medicines, GP visits and
petrol, while if they were young and unemployed or relied on a pension,
they would be left behind.



“On Tuesday, the Treasurer quoted from Robert Menzies’
“Forgotten People,” he said. “But the government forgot a lot people on
budget night.”



“This is a budget of broken promises built on lies, and not just lies, systematic and wilful ones.”



Citing economic modelling conducted by the Canberra-based
National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM), he said
Labor could not pass measures that  would strip $1700 from the household
budget of a family with an income of $65,000 and two children  in
school.



“Add in health costs and the Prime Minister is cutting nearly $40 from their weekly budget,” he said.



But the opposition said the cuts would become harder as time
goes on, citing  modelling which takes the 2014 household cost of budget
decisions from $1733 to well over triple that by 2016 at $5830.



The unusually strong action on budget legislation represents a
political risk for the opposition and could even push the government
into seeking a fresh election – something Prime Minister Tony Abbott
toyed with in an interview on Wednesday but stepped back from on
Thursday, adopting a more conciliatory tone.



“I’m not going to be absolutely unreasonable. I’m going to be respectful towards the Parliament and the Senate,” he said.



Earlier in the day, politicians from all sides were out
arguing their respective cases over the budget, which has divided
opinion like few in recent years.



Treasurer Joe Hockey hit back at critics of the proposed $7
per visit GP payment, likening it to the daily costs met by smokers and
drinkers.



‘‘Some people are screaming about a $7 co-payment,” he said.
“One packet of cigarettes costs $22. That gives you three visits to the
doctor. You can spend just over $3 on a middy of beer, so that’s two
middies of beer to go to the doctor.



‘‘Let’s have some perspective about the cost of taking care of our health.



‘‘Is a parent really going to deny their sick child a visit
to the doctor, which would be the equivalent payment of a couple of
beers or one third of a packet of cigarettes?’’



That brought derision from the opposition with critics lining
up to argue the Treasurer was out of touch if he thought $7 could buy
two glasses of beer, and worse, that he had failed to understand the
importance of $7 per visit to many low income families – especially with
 multiple children.



Labor’s shadow treasurer Chris Bowen challenged Mr Hockey to a
live debate at the National Press Club next Wednesday in a fiery
question time.



Mr Hockey declined the invitation, declaring instead: “If I turned up at the National Press Club, it’d double the audience”.



The government now faces stiff opposition from all sides
 with states and territories angry over projected cuts to schools and
hospitals worth $80 billion over 10 years, and seemingly no support for
its measures from anywhere in the Parliament. That has increased the
prospect of an early election, although that remains an unlikely outcome
at this stage. 



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