Dr THEOPHANOUS(10.18 p.m.) —This is a very serious matter that the House is considering tonight. We are talking here about very fundamental principles of social justice. However, the honourable member for Longman (Mr Brough) in his comments was talking typical redneck nonsense—and you ought to be ashamed of yourself with the kind of talk you put out. You may think it is electorally popular, Sir, but the reality is that all Australian citizens and all Australian—

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Nehl) —Order! The honourable member for Calwell, like other members, will please address his remarks through the chair.

Dr THEOPHANOUS —Yes. The honourable member for Longman ought to be ashamed of himself for his comments. If he thinks those sorts of redneck comments are going to win elections for those opposite, then he underestimates the Australian people and their sense of social justice.

The fundamental points about the deception in this legislation have already been made by the shadow minister. But I want to ask the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (Mr Ruddock) this: given his long-term commitment to principles of social justice, which he had when he was in opposition, how can he justify not allowing a person to have access to a health card; that is, not allowing any person who comes to Australia—

Mr Kerr —Pays Medicare.

Dr THEOPHANOUS —Pays Medicare, pays taxes not to get a health card? What sort of a situation is that?

Mr Mossfield —Appalling.

Dr THEOPHANOUS —An appalling situation. What about this example? A person comes in. He works and pays taxes for a time, never gets sick—and then he cannot access the relevant benefits. What sort of a sense of justice is that?

You might say, `Oh well, they had a mandate.' But the mandate extended very clearly to those sorts of income benefits that concern unemployment and the like. It did not extend to those features of Australian life which make for civilised society—things to do with health, things to do with special benefits, things to do with carer pensions. What happens if somebody arrives and an unpredictable situation arises within two years and they need to care for somebody? `Bad luck; you're within the two-year period; you can't get the carer allowance.' What about disability?

These proposals are absolutely outrageous when it comes to consideration from the point of view of social justice. Let us not hear any of this nonsense that we have heard from the minister. We know that he is in a desperate situation trying to justify this, given his own philosophical background. But he does not have to agree with the rednecks, like the member for Longman and others in this chamber, one-termers, who are only here in this chamber for a short period—those who manage to just get elected because of their extreme right-wing views.

The situation is that these measures are outrageous. They should not be accepted from the point of view of social justice and the government certainly does not have a mandate for them. But one has to wonder about all the threats that have been made as a result of the actions of the Senate. We have heard everything from `We're going to force a double dissolution' over a measure which, as somebody said, is worth about $70 million a year at the most, in rough terms. It is probably less than that. An election would cost you $90 million.

Are you going to force an election over a measure like this? Do you think the Australian people are not going to be able to differentiate between what they have approved in terms of the mandate and these other outrageous attacks on the fundamental services that constitute Australian civilised life—considerations such as the family payment, the partner allowance and the special benefit? What about the special benefit? Are you going to allow people to starve? Is that what you are going to do? Are you going to allow people without a special benefit—

Mr Entsch —You're an ideological dinosaur.

Dr THEOPHANOUS —Here is another redneck talking now, another extreme right- winger coming up with their Thatcherite ideas. These people want to reduce Australia, and especially the situation of migrants, to the sort of life which Britain has been reduced to, the kind of society with an underclass. If these provisions go through, these migrants—and there are many of them—will be effectively reduced to an underclass and we will have a lot of poverty. (Time expired)