Mr BURNS (Macnamara) (16:01): I'm very pleased to rise on this matter of public importance raised by the Leader of the Opposition. It is clear that this government do not represent the interests of all Australians, but they are good at some things. They are very, very good at cutting services to Australians. A zebra doesn't change its stripes. From the very moment these people have been in government, they have been looking for things to cut. So, I thought we'd go back on a bit of a journey through the cuts, the best cuts— Mr Howarth interjecting— Mr BURNS: Thanks, member for Petrie, we'll put some positive spin on your cuts. Here we go. In 2014—the budget where Joe Hockey and Senator Cormann, from other place, sat around and patted themselves on the back on a job well done, with cigars in hand—they had cut after cut for senior Australians. Let's go through a few of them. From 2017, asset and income test thresholds will be frozen. From 2017, the deeming thresholds for income tests will be reset. The qualifying age for the pension will be increased, as foreshadowed, to 70 by 2035—remember that one. The seniors supplement will be abolished by 1 July. The Seniors Health Card will be harder to qualify for. The Commonwealth will dramatically cut its support for various state and territory based seniors concessions. The dependent spouse tax offset, which was available for people with dependent spouses over 60, will be discontinued. The mature age worker tax offset will also be abolished. The government also abolished the pensioner education supplement. I note Deputy Speaker Kevin Andrews, the architect of many of these cuts, is in the chair. This is not to reflect on the chair, but they were policies of the former government. In 2015, the government did a deal with the Greens to cut the pension for thousands and thousands of Australians, and in 2016 there was a $1.2 billion cut by the then Treasurer. Of course, the then Treasurer is now the Prime Minister. And what does the Prime Minister do after the $1.2 billion cut? He doesn't return the funding; he calls a royal commission into aged care. It is the government that provide the care for our older Australians. The government, through their funding, provide the services to make sure staff are adequately resourced and that there are enough staff and that the staff have everything they need so that they're not overworked. I join the member for Lyons in recognising the outstanding work that our Australian aged-care workers do in really trying conditions. And what do the government do? They cut funding and they call a royal commission. I'm no prophet, but I can guarantee you that the royal commission will be looking at this and will be saying that the government need to return funding to the services that they cut. You can't cut your way to better services. So that was in 2016. Then what happened in 2018? Well, the coalition was considering a review of the Aged Care Funding Instrument to save between $3.3 billion and $5.4 billion over four years on top of the $2 billion shaved off in 2015 and 2016 when the Prime Minister was the Treasurer. Every single day they come into this place and they look for things to cut. They don't look for things to invest in. They look for things to cut. The latest thing they want to cut is Newstart. They want to look at ways to rip away the very, very basic support that people receive, to make it just a bit harder for people to get by. Instead of the punitive measures the government is bringing in, the government could simply take a big, deep breath and stop looking for things to cut. They could return funding to our aged-care services, they could lift the rate of Newstart—because it is overdue in this country—and they could provide the support that Australians so desperately need.