Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Page for her very important question, because I think the government absolutely understands what life is like for many families and many people on fixed incomes who are grappling with a very tight household budget. We understand that. As the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs was saying before, that was one of the reasons that we moved to put in place the historic increase in the age pension and disability support pension—something that had not been changed for a long, long time. This was a historic and very significant increase in the base rate of the age pension and disability support pension, because we recognised that many of those people were doing it tough. That is something that we did in very difficult budget circumstances last year but not something that those opposite could find the political will to do in almost 12 years. We moved to do that because we understand what life is like when people are on tight budgets.

We understand the importance of employment when people are trying to pay the bills. That is the fundamental reason why the government put in place the substantial, powerful and temporary stimulus into the system—to support employment, because if you do not have a job it is pretty hard to put food on the table and to meet the family costs. So we moved with the stimulus to protect households, to protect their employment and to keep the doors of small business open because we understand how difficult it can be for some people to make ends meet. That is why we are also delivering a third round of tax cuts, which will be coming through this Thursday.

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