Senator LINES (Western Australia) (17:12): I, too, rise to take note of our MPI today, which is on the Prime Minister's broken promises. Certainly, we have heard, over and over again in this place—and we will keep repeating it—that Australians are entitled to have confidence in their politicians. But what the Abbott government has shown us is that you cannot have any confidence in them. You cannot believe anything they say because everything they have committed to has amounted to broken promises. We heard the pledges of no cuts to health. We heard the pledges of no cuts to education. We heard the pledge of no cuts to the SBS. We heard the pledge of no cuts to the ABC. I think that someone who puts themselves up as a future prime minister of the country should tell the truth. Yet, what we have seen, with every single one of those commitments, is a broken promise. We heard, 'No change to superannuation,' and yet one of the first things the government did, in a dirty deal with the crossbench senators, was to freeze superannuation employer contributions—somehow trying to hoodwink workers that that money would end up in their pockets. Well, nobody believes that, and even the government has stopped trying to pretend on that one. We also heard that there would be no changes to pensions, and yet we know, and Australian pensioners know, that if this government goes ahead with the cruel cuts they will be worse off—make no mistake. It does not matter how they dress it up. They can talk about savings because they do not like the word 'cuts', but whether it is cuts or savings, under the Abbott government, pensioners in this country will be worse off. Make no doubt about that. Budgets should be the centrepiece of a government's agenda. They should represent the commitments made during an election campaign. They should be forward-looking and they should deliver to all Australians. With the Abbott government, we are seeing quite the opposite—nothing but broken promises and backflips. Worse than that, their first budget was so bad, so full of broken promises and so detrimental to Australians, that Labor rejected it outright, because we stand for fairness. Fairness is not something you can buy; fairness is something you believe in, and that first Abbott government budget clearly missed on the fairness agenda. The Prime Minister said there would be no cuts to health. Despite repeated claims by the Abbott government that the GP tax is dead, research published in the highly respected Medical Journal of Australia and, more recently, in Deloitte Access Economics' Budget Monitor finds that the four-year rebate freeze, some sneaky backdoor deal of the Abbott government, will lead to even higher charges than the original GP tax. Low-income earners, pensioners and those who are unemployed will be slugged the hardest, as research tells us that the freeze on rebates will hit the hip pockets of ordinary Australians. This backdoor GP fee will hit harder than any of the GP taxes proposed by the Abbott government, as GPs will be almost $9 per patient worse off—and that cost will be passed onto patients. Australians will remember that the Prime Minister promised them 'no cuts to health', and they will remember that broken promise every time they pay more to see a doctor. They will remember that broken promise when they make the hard decision that they cannot afford to see a doctor—that they cannot afford that extra almost $9 that the Abbott government is pushing on them through some backdoor rebate freeze. We have heard today from Mr Freudenberg on higher education. It is still on their agenda. Senator Seselja: Frydenberg. Senator LINES: Remember Mr Abbott's election promise?—and those over there just parrot in with, 'Yes, that's right.' Senator Seselja: No, we said 'Frydenberg'. Senator LINES: Remember Mr Abbott's election promise that there would be no cuts to education? Then we had the bombshell in last year's mean and harsh budget that universities would be cut and students would be slugged $100,000 for degrees—a big broken promise on education. According to the Assistant Treasurer, the Abbott government still wants to hike up university fees. Despite an overwhelming rejection by Australian voters, this out-of-touch government wants to continue to push students into $100,000 degrees. The Prime Minister is not doing any of the listening he promised he would do after he almost lost his job, and we have certainly not seen the good government that he committed to again after his job was threatened. Senator O'Sullivan: I tell you what, you people are hypocrites! Senator LINES: From what has been leaked to the media, families will take a hit through cuts to family— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Williams ): Order! Senator O'Sullivan, I suggest it would be helpful for you to withdraw that comment, please. Senator O'Sullivan: I withdraw that, Mr Acting Deputy President. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you. Senator LINES: So the Prime Minister is not listening and we have certainly not seen good government. We did not see it from September 2013; we are certainly not seeing it now. The Abbott government has no idea what good government is. We had all that talking up of the childcare package and what the government was going to do, and now we know that that package will come at a cost—robbing low-income families to help other families. The Abbott government somehow thinks it is fair to take $6,000 a year from some families to pay for its childcare package. Last year's budget favoured those who needed help the least and hurt those who could least afford it. It was bad for Australian households and bad for the Australian economy. The Abbott government has continued to link spending measures that will be announced tonight to measures that were in last year's budget. The $6,000 cut to family payments remains even though it will not be in the budget papers tonight. What a dishonest, backdoor tax; what a dishonest, backdoor approach. This is what has been leaked. We hear tonight that the budget will be boring. Senator Seselja interjecting— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order on my right! Senator Seselja! Senator LINES: We know from the parroting coming from the Abbott government senators that, obviously, they do not like to hear the truth. The truth hurts them and they think, by shouting and carrying on, they can drown out the truth. But the truth is there; Australians know. They can carp and parrot all they like, but the truth is well and truly out there. Where has Mr Hockey been? He is missing in action. Fancy a Prime Minister saying that tonight's budget will be a boring budget. How can you have a forward-looking document and be an agenda-setting government if you have a boring budget? I do not know how you achieve a boring budget on the one hand and be an agenda-setting government on the other. I do not believe you can do that. I know that Australians agree that you cannot be an agenda-setting government that delivers, by the Prime Minister's own words, a boring budget. He is on the record as saying that. Really, what this budget is about is the Prime Minister saving his own job. No matter how he tries to hide Mr Hockey, no matter how he tries to put a photoshoot up—that is so awkward it is embarrassing, where the Prime Minister is touching the Treasurer on the arm, somehow trying to portray they are friends—no matter how much Mr Abbott puts Mr Morrison front and centre, the fact remains that Mr Abbott's success is linked to that of his hiding Treasurer, Mr Hockey. We all know it is Mr Hockey who has his name as Treasurer, and he is such a lame-duck Treasurer. All of the major announcements are being done by the Prime Minister and Mr Morrison. We have hardly seen Mr Hockey, and when we have he has not been able to answer the questions. On the odd occasion that he has been in the media recently, he has done nothing but blunder or look very awkward, to say the least. The Abbott government and the Prime Minister know that Mr Hockey's job is on the line with this boring budget. Let us see how it hurts ordinary Australians, once again. Let us see who the winners and losers are—because the biggest loser will be the Prime Minister.