Logie Jan: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Logie Jan: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2457. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAN LOGIE (Green) 
: 
 This is my first Budget as a new MP and I would like to take just a moment to talk about how deeply strange I am finding it. It is quite interesting that we have suspended debate on the Budget and just before 5 p.m. tonight we were told that the Government would be introducing three bills into the House relating to the Budget. The Opposition parties were given a copy of this bill the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill at 4.45 p.m. Labour at least was required to speak on this bill just after 5 p.m. and the Greens you know we had a bit more time. I know I am a political naïf but this does not seem like democracy to me. I thought you know in that idealistic view that we would have bills and we would consider them and we would debate them on the content and we would come to a common understanding. I know it is naïve but that is just how it is. I have to say I am disappointed. I am disappointed in the process of democracy that I am seeing displayed tonight.  
I would like to speak tonight briefly about a couple of points in the bill: the abolition of the transitional circumstances tax credit—also known as the income under $9880 tax credit—and the repeal of the 10 percent voluntary repayment bonus for student loans. But before I get to those specific points I would also like to take just a moment to talk about Budgets and the economy. So much of the commentary that I have heard around this Budget has been about the importance of the economy as if the economy was something in itself and something that was worth pursuing for itself whereas in actual fact although the Greens obviously have a very clear vision of how to grow our economy the point of the economy is to serve our people and our environment. The economy has no purpose in itself beyond serving our people. Part of the tragedy of traditional economics is that it has made our lives and our environment into an abstract theory that enables almost sociopathic behaviours to result from the practices. All too often people’s lives and the impacts of these decisions on people’s lives are lost.  
I would now like to talk a little bit about the experiences that people have that are related to these changes. I would like to talk a bit about a mother I met recently who when her daughter complained about getting stones and grass in her shoes because she had holes in them had to tell her: “Don’t worry it’ll make you run faster.” because she could not afford to get her kid new shoes. These are the people whom this Government is taking money from. I would like to talk about another woman I met whose abusive ex-partner took all of her furniture when he left. Work and Income refused her $15 for a chair from the Salvation Army so that an elderly aunt could visit her in her home. These are the people whom this Government is taking money from. The children who are living in cold damp houses who are getting sick and are ending up in hospital—we are paying for that because we are so abstracted from the concept of what it means to be connected to our fellow human beings that we allow these kinds of things to happen.  
Also with the student loan aspect of this bill I think there has been a picture created that students are the ones out drinking so getting just a bit tough on them and increasing the repayments of the graduates is going to be a good thing. Well actually 40 percent of those with student debts are couples aged between 18 and 24 with children and about 30 percent of those with student debts are between 25 and 34. This group is already shouldering a completely unreasonable burden and they really feel as if this is an intergenerational attack on them by this Government. It is hard to see how it is not. Most of the people in this Government managed to get the largesse of a free education and now they are pulling it away from the next generation.