Today in Parliament, Abigail slammed the Coalition’s motion to introduce school vouchers as the only solution for families grappling with the current cost of living crisis.
Abigail said:
This is genuinely extraordinary. The people across New South Wales do not want help with the little things. They want help with the big things. The conservatives who were in power for the past 12 years in New South Wales and in Federal Government absolutely screwed the economy. They sold off everything and we ended up with all of the tolls and all of the privatised entities that have led to people having to pay more and more for the basic things that government was supposed to provide. The previous Government had one program—lousy school vouchers and some other things that were really hard to access. I know because I tried.
I tried, and it was so hard because I had to do it in certain multiples. I had to apply and make sure all sorts of things happened. That is not what people want. They want lower mortgages. They want accessible, free public transport. They want a school system where they do not have to fork out thousands of dollars all the time. The previous Government screwed over the economy so badly that people were then a bit grateful for having been given crumbs in the form of vouchers.
The Hon. Sam Farraway: Did you use the vouchers?
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: I will answer that, if you like, in a moment. To lose the election so resoundingly and then to come along and still, over a year after they lost that election, be trying to push the silly ideas they had previously is just extraordinary. Cost-of-living pressures have come from the past 12 years of really faulty economic policy from the previous Coalition Government. Get over the vouchers idea. That was tiny crumbs that barely scratched the surface of the problem. Put up some good ideas. I agree that the Labor Government is not doing everything great, but Opposition members need to come up with some new things. I move:
That the question be amended by inserting after paragraph (1):
(2)That this Houses further notes that from 2014 to 2023, while the Coalition was in government, the average out-of-pocket costs for public school families going towards voluntary school contributions and subject contributions increased by 57 per cent.
(3)That this House notes that, according to a report from the University of Sydney Business School, as a result of the wage suppression from the Coalition's public sector wage cap, real wages for teachers, nurses and other government workers in New South Wales have gone backwards, with real wages for nurses and midwives now lower than before 2011, and it continues to have a direct impact on cost-of-living pressures.
Amendment of Ms Abigail Boyd agreed to.