Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The member for North Sydney just interjected and said it is ridiculous that we have increased the childcare tax rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent. They are the people who are out of touch with the basic needs of working families, including the need for us to make sure the childcare tax rebate keeps pace with the extraordinary costs which those families are bearing, with higher interest payments off the back of the rises I described before, higher childcare costs and other costs which families face. The government, in response to these challenges, has sought to do at least three or four sets of things, one of which is to deal with the extraordinary pressure on inflation and interest rates which has existed in the economy over a long period.

The absolutely killing effects which those 10 interest rate rises have had on working families seeking to balance their family budgets have been huge. That is why we have taken this agenda as the absolute core priority of the government—so that we could create a set of policy circumstances to make room for the Reserve Bank to start moving in the other direction. That is point 1. Point 2—

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