Page 3479 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 22 August 2018
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I believe in markets, and the Labor Party believes in markets, but we also believe in functioning markets, equality of opportunity and ensuring that the most vulnerable are assisted. That assistance comes through free public health, free public education and a range of community and municipal services that are provided to this community regardless of people’s incomes. And we seek to raise revenue in the simplest, fairest and most efficient manner.
Not every territory revenue line can be perfectly matched to people’s incomes, but it can be matched to wealth. Wealth is inequitably distributed in our country, but I am pleased to say that in this city it is more equitably distributed. That is a result of decades of good, progressive public policy. That good, progressive public policy has resulted in less inequality in Canberra than in other Australian cities, and certainly less inequality in this city than in other parts of the world. That is something that we are proud of. Is there more work to do? Of course. And we need to do that work in partnership with a progressive federal government who will prioritise support for low and middle income earners over tax cuts for the big banks.
That is what his side of politics stands for. That is what they believe in: shuffling as much money as they can to the big end of town and to the richest quarter of Australians, and doing less and less by way of government service delivery for the rest. They want to drive down people’s wages; they want to cut penalty rates. They are proudly in support of driving down people’s wages. They claim to speak about cost-of-living issues and yet they champion a reduction in the wages and salaries of low and middle income Australians and Canberrans. That is their core philosophical belief. They have an entire society within their party, the HR Nicholls Society, aimed at driving down wages.
That is what they believe in; that is why they are in politics, Madam Speaker. We see this manifested in this amendment from this Leader of the Opposition today. There is no-one he will not attack on his way to the leadership of his party and no-one he will not squeeze out within the Liberal Party in relation to getting to that seat. We know ultimately where he stands on almost every issue before this community: on the hard right. On same-sex marriage, he was the only political leader in this country to oppose it, the only Leader of the Opposition, Premier, Chief Minister or Prime Minister in this country who opposed that reform. He is standing out there against a massive tide of public opinion on end-of-life issues in this city and in this nation. He proudly rejected territory rights on that question.
Today he comes into the chamber and moves yet another amendment objecting to this simple and fair reform of taxation in this city, reform designed to ensure that we have sufficient revenue to provide for the health, education, community, emergency and municipal service needs of this growing community.
I am very, very clear on this point, Madam Speaker. There are very fundamental points of difference between the Leader of the Opposition and me and between our respective parties. He has taken his party—as if this was possible—even further to the right on social and economic policy. That is just so far out of touch with this community and so far out of touch with the direction Australia is headed.
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