Ms HALL (8:50 PM) —Each year governments present their vision to the Australian people, and a strategy as to how they will implement that vision. The vision is the broad-brush approach—the government's opportunity to let the Australian people know what they have planned for our nation and its people. The strategy is transmitted through the allocation of various amounts of money to different programs—programs that will determine the direction in which our economy goes and the type of society we will live in. Allocations of money in the budget determine whether we are a society that invests in the future of all Australians through education or whether education of different standards is available to different students depending on their ability to pay. The allocation of the health dollar is determined by the government—whether we are going to put money into public health or into private health, whether we are going to foster our public health system to enable all people to access quality health care or whether we are going to have a two-tier system similar to that of the United States where if you have money you can afford health care and if you do not you are in a difficult situation. Financial security, jobs, skills and the types of safety nets that you have in place are all determined by the budget. It is an opportunity for the government to show the Australian people just what type of government they want to be and what type of future we in Australia should have.

I have a vision and, of course, my vision is somewhat different from the government's. My vision is for an inclusive society where everyone has the opportunity to enjoy a good standard of living, a society where there is fairness and justice for all—not for just a few and not for just those who can afford to pay. My vision is not for a society where some Australians are marginalised while others enjoy great wealth but rather for a society where everyone who lives in that society shares the cake, a society where people who live in residential and caravan parks pay the same GST on their rental as a person who rents a luxury apartment at Double Bay, a society that does not marginalise people who receive a lower income. This is achieved through a visionary budget, not a budget like this one. This budget is a budget that lacks real vision. It is a budget that has only one vision: to see that the government gets re-elected at the next election. It is a vote buying budget—one that does not set a direction for a strong, sound future in which all Australians can share. It is a budget that spends six times more on advertising private health insurance than on anti-smoking campaigns. Here we have a government that makes a commitment to advertising and re-election at the expense of the health of our Australian community.

While I am talking about health, I want to say that it is one area where I feel the government could have really shown some leadership. In regional areas like my own, and in outer metropolitan areas, there has been a problem with doctors bulk-billing. I know the AMA lobbied the government quite strongly about putting in place a better system whereby doctors would be more inclined to bulk-bill so the people of Australia could afford to get free medical service of the type that Medicare is supposed to provide.

Unfortunately, that did not happen and the people of my area are continuing to have to pay when they go to the doctor. If a pensioner does not have the money to present to the doctor when they attend that doctor's surgery, they are unable to access that service. Similarly, if they cannot get that refund very quickly they are unable to buy the medication. I do not think that is the sort of society we should have here in Australia. I think it should be an inclusive society where if a person is sick they can go to the doctor and know that their bill will be covered. They should know that they can then go off and buy their prescription—and not find that rules have been changed so that, if they go along to get a cholesterol lowering prescription that their doctor has prescribed for them, they then find out that instead of getting it through the PBS they are having to pay somewhere between $39 and $114. It is just not good enough.

We need a system in place whereby we start to invest in our hospitals and we start to ensure that all Australians can access quality care in our hospitals. We need the Medicare after hours program, as has been outlined by Kim Beazley. Very importantly, we need a return to the dental health system. I have people come to see me on a regular basis in my office who have been waiting between four and five years to access dental care. That is not good enough. It becomes a primary health care problem and can even be life threatening if a person's dental care is allowed to deteriorate to a point where it affects their general health.

This government's record on education is appalling. Instead of investing in government schools and education for all Australian students it has chosen to invest more to shift the balance between government schools and private schools. This is impacting on the 70 per cent of children who attend government schools. The majority of children attend government schools. In my area there are no category 1 private schools. There are none in the whole of the Newcastle or Central Coast areas. The students attending the public schools in my area really object very strongly to money being invested in the wealthy private schools in Sydney and Melbourne. Education is the keystone of the future of Australia. We need to have an education system that ensures that all children have the opportunity to share in the wealth of our country in the future. We need our education to be looking towards the future and able to predict the kind of skills that will be needed in the future and the knowledge that will be needed. It is only those countries that educate their children and their young people to be able to embrace the challenges of the future that will succeed. Unfortunately, under this government funds have actually been reduced in that area. The opportunity is there but the opportunity is only there for a very few people, those people who can afford it.

We need to ensure that all Australians can have a better standard of living. Under this government there has developed a great divide between those that have and those that have not. As I mentioned earlier, there is no group where this is more apparent than the people who live in residential caravan parks. This government has imposed a GST on those people, people who are generally on a fixed income, people who are pensioners and people who really struggle. This government is allowing park owners to charge a 5½ per cent GST on their rental while somebody who lives in a luxury apartment pays no GST on their rental.

The GST has created great hardship for people in the community and in the electorate that I represent. Pensioners are struggling. They are finding it very hard to exist under this government's draconian policies. In this budget there was an attempt to buy back those pensioners and to buy back the votes of those people that have been disadvantaged by the policies of this government. This government has missed the opportunity to set a vision for the future and create a society where everybody can share in the benefits and the wealth of this country. This is a budget that is a failure—a budget that is designed only to get the government re-elected by buying votes. It is a very cynical budget and one that is a great disappointment to all Australians.