Federal Government

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton) (15:32): I want to talk briefly today about some of the backflips and broken promises of the federal government. Numerous speakers have spoken about these backflips, for example, the Gonski funding that was our unity ticket in the lead up to the federal election. They were at one with the then Labor government with respect to their commitment to this particular promise, as was the case with other aspects of the National Partnership Agreement as it related to health and, of course, the voting public of Australia believed that they were going to deliver on those promises.

Clearly they were broken promises, and much to the disappointment of many of the people within Australia was their attack on pensioners, Medicare co-payment, and the issues that they put forward to address what they say is a budget crisis and a budget emergency which, of course, was proven not to be the case, and there was no crisis. As I have said, and others before, remedial work needed to be done, certainly on the revenue side, and that could have been done without the breaking of those numerous promises as occurred.

What I want to particularly focus on today is a promise that was made before the federal election that I certainly was not happy about. Some might call it an ideological indulgence to feed those people on free speech, that is, the promise that was made before the last election that the incoming Abbott government, if they were elected, would rewrite section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

That was not very well received by a lot of our communities around Australia particularly Australians of the Muslim faith but also our Australians from a Chinese, Vietnamese or any ethnic background, who viewed this rewriting as, more importantly, the opportunity for people to be able to be bigots and racists and for that to be permitted. The Abbott government has necked George Brandis and decided not to do it. I am very pleased that they have done this particular backflip.

I heard the member for Sturt this morning on the wireless; he was on his usual program with Mark Butler. When speaking about this he reinforced the words of the Prime Minister that $600,000 million is being contributed to address matters of national security—which I think all of us would support—although in the context of the budget, when you are taking money off people like the pensioners and not fulfilling commitments, you do wonder how they are going to find that money.

Christopher Pyne talked about how, 'At this point in time of national cohesion we don't think it's right to go forward with this matter with the rewrite of section 18C.' As I said I think that is how I heard it this morning on the radio and I hope that to be the case. By saying that he did not believe that 'at this point in time' he was telling the listeners what it was that the Prime Minister said in exactly the same terms, and I wonder if that is the Prime Minister's point of view too: that after they have established 'Team Australia'—whatever that means—they will then revisit the matter of a rewrite of 18C. I hope that is not the case; I hope they do not revisit this ideological indulgence that they promised before the last federal election because, quite frankly, Australia is not a country that needs to have racial discrimination legislation that promotes a virulent form of bigotry which would only get more enshrined if that legislation was rewritten.

Deputy Speaker, we have seen a backflip from the Prime Minister, and as I said, I support this particular backflip. I am just hoping that what will occur now is that he will do a backflip and revisit those decisions that have been made with respect to national partnerships agreements as they relate to health; also the funding that relates to Gonski; the Medicare co-payment (which I am sure still has some time to travel in the Senate); the impost that they are going to put on older Australians; and all those other things that they are putting in place as a result of the federal budget that are going to make the lives of many Australians a lot worse than otherwise would be the case.

So, Madam Deputy Speaker, I say: keep backflipping, please revisit those things that are creating a problem for many Australians, just as you have done with respect to the rewrite of 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. That was said to be a matter of national cohesion, so let's do these other things in the interests of national cohesion as well.