| SUBJECTS: Dutton’s cuts to health, education and child care. |
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JASON CLARE MP MINISTER FOR EDUCATION
LABOR CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON
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E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
SYDNEYÂ
SUBJECTS: Dutton’s refusal to visit his proposed nuclear sites; Dutton’s cuts to health, education and child care.
(See translation in Arabic section)
Sydney-Middle East Times Int'l: JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, LABOR CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: Thanks very much for coming along. There's 10 days to go, there's seven places that Peter Dutton won't go, and there are 600 billion reasons not to vote for him.
There are seven places that Peter Dutton hasn't been on this election campaign, and they're the seven locations of where he wants to build nuclear reactors. In fact, he hasn't been within 50 kilometres of the site of these seven nuclear reactors. In fact, the earthquake in the Hunter this morning was closer to the site of one of these nuclear reactors than Peter Dutton has even been to them.
Whether you live within 50 kilometres of one of these nuclear reactors, or 500 kilometres, you will have to pay for them. They'll cost $600 billion, they won't turn on a light bulb for 15 years, they'll only provide a fraction of the energy that Australia is going to need in the decades to come. But you're going to have to pay for them, and that'll involve cuts to health and cuts to education.
Peter Dutton was asked last night whether he would cut if he won the election, and he said ‘yes’, but he wouldn't tell us where he would cut until after the election. Now just think about that. How arrogant is that? That's like a used car salesman who won't let you look under the hood until after you've bought the car.
But Australians aren't silly. They know what the Liberal Party is about. They know what the Liberal Party is always about. And still fresh in their memory, is what the Liberal Party did in 2014 when they cut $50 billion out of hospitals and $30 billion out of our schools. Peter Dutton had the hide last night to suggest that he had not cut $50 billion out of hospitals or $30 billion out of schools. But here it is. Here's the smoking gun. Here is all of the evidence you need that the Liberal Party ripped the guts out of schools and ripped the guts out of hospitals, and if they win the election, then you can bet that they will do it again.
In fact, this morning we see more evidence of this. This morning, we see that if the Liberals win the election on May 3, they'll take a chainsaw to child care. I seriously wonder whether Peter Dutton really understands modern families. First, he attacks people working from home, and now he wants to take a chainsaw to child care.
They've announced today that they will cut half a billion dollars out of child care and early education. This is all about helping to make sure that more kids start school ready to learn. Child care is an essential service for mums and dads, and it's also a critical part of helping to make sure that children are ready to start school, ready to learn. That's what the three-day guarantee is all about, making sure that little kids get all of the support and assistance that they need when they're little, so that they start school ready to go and ready to learn. And we know at the moment that it's kids from some of the poorest, most disadvantaged backgrounds that are the least likely to get access to child care at the moment, and that's what that three day guarantee is all about, and Peter Dutton has said today that he's going to take the chainsaw to that.
We know from the words that the former US President has said, that if a child goes to child care, they're 50 per cent more likely to go on to college or to university. That's why this investment is so important, and that's why this announcement by Peter Dutton today that he's going to take the chainsaw to child care shows just how out of touch this bloke is with modern families. He thinks that child care is a way to make money. We think that child care is a way to make sure that our kids are ready to learn and ready to start school.
Thanks very much. |
