LABOR leader Bill Shorten has dared Tony Abbott to call an election over the Budget, after vowing to block key measures worth billions of dollars.
In a spirited budget reply speech Mr Shorten confirmed he would block reforms to the dole, welfare, higher education and pension indexation when they come before Parliament.
Calling the Government’s bluff on suggestions a double dissolution called be called if supply is blocked in the Senate, Mr Shorten said: “If you want an election try us…if you think we are too weak, bring it on.”
He also accused Mr Abbott of dividing the nation with a budget that would rip almost $120 a week from the average family budget within two years.
In a surprisingly hard-hitting class war budget reply speech, Mr Shorten tonight claimed the Government was striking at the heart of the family unit, dividing the nation and threatening to create a new US style underclass of Australians.
And he has ensured that a bitter budget battle will be waged in the Senate, revealing he would now also block any moves by the Government to cut welfare payments and the dole.
“This budget divides our Parliament,” Mr Shorten said.
“More importantly, it divides our nation.”
Claiming the so called budget emergency was based on a “myth”, Mr Shorten revealed three new budget measures it would oppose, confirming Labor would block the Government’s budget bills to cut access to the dole for under 30s, vote against the deregulation of universities, and oppose new indexation measures for pensions.
However, his speech said nothing of the deficit levy on high income earners, suggesting his shadow cabinet was still divided over whether it would support the two per cent tax on earnings of more than $180,000 a year.
Mr Shorten attacked the Government’s plans to lift the freeze on petrol excise indexation — estimated to cost 40 cents a week for the average motorist — but would not reveal whether Labor would also block this measure in the Senate.
Mr Shorten used his speech to reveal modelling to claim that an average family on $65,000 a year with a single income and two school aged children would be almost $120 a week worse off within two years under the Government’s budget measures to scale back family tax payments.
The modelling, commissioned by National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM), measured the budget impacts for the average family, suggesting they would stand to lose $2003 a year in 2014 or $38.54 a week.
This included Labor’s own estimates of the cost of the $7 Medicare co-payment for the average family.
However, by 2016, as the family payment cuts bite deeper, this would rise to $117.59 a week worse off — or $5,830 a year, it claimed.
Despite the midyear economic forecast from December revealing a deficit of around $50 billion for this year and a perilous path to debt, the Opposition leader continued to deny that Labor had left an economic and fiscal crisis.
Ignoring warnings from the Commission of Audit that spending was spiralling out of control, Mr Shorten described the Government’s claims of a budget emergency and Treasury forecasts of a decade of deficits into the future if spending was not brought under control, as based on a myth.
“This is a budget based on a myth. The budget papers reveal the economic truth. Australia is fundamentally strong and so is the legacy Labor left behind,” he said.
But he also appeared to acknowledge that tough budget decisions had to be made for the future.
“Australians are up for hard decisions. But pay them respect, sit down and talk to them, listen to them,” he said.
He continued his attack on the prime Minister’s broken promise of no new taxes.
“Say what you like Prime Minister,” Mr Shorten said.
“Spin as hard as you can.
“Australians know a lie when they see one.”
The speech revealed no new policy for Labor but a flourish of strong rhetoric around claims that Mr Abbott was on an ideological mission to divide the nation into two classes of the privileged and those who worked for a living.
source: theaustralian.com.au
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