Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. This government recognises the cost-of-living pressures facing Australians across the country and across the community. In my own electorate I met every day throughout the last three years with families, pensioners and people on disability support pensions who are facing cost-of-living pressures. But we have addressed this through tax cuts, stimulus payments, emergency relief assistance, financial management services and pension reform. We have supported and we will continue to support Australians dealing with financial pressure, whether they are families, singles, pensioners or carers.

We understand the financial pressures that families face: balancing the budget, having to deal with the cost of groceries, petrol, car maintenance, energy costs and utilities costs amongst a raft of other expenses. Then there are the increased costs of mortgages and rent. Obviously housing costs are an issue. But to help them through the global financial crisis we have provided stimulus payments to families, pensioners, carers and self-funded retirees. During the global financial crisis we also made substantial increases in our investments in the emergency relief funding and financial management programs.

But there really is no greater pressure on the cost of living than unemployment. Jobs are important, and it was the Labor government’s economic stimulus plan that protected the jobs of 200,000 Australians and saved the Australian economy from the worst global recession since the Great Depression. The response to this of those opposite was to sack public servants.

The Gillard government has also delivered tax cuts every year for the past three years for all taxpayers. Compared with when we came to government in 2007, someone now on $20,000 is paying $750 less tax each year. That is 50 per cent less tax for someone on $20,000. A person on $50,000 is now paying $1,750 less tax each year, which is 18 per cent less tax. If you are on $80,000 a year, you are paying $1,550 less tax, which is eight per cent less tax. Also, to make the taxation system simpler, we are introducing a standard tax deduction for work related expenses. A standard deduction of $500 will be available to taxpayers from 1 July 2012, and we will increase it to $1,000 from 1 July 2013. For those taxpayers, it will mean less time doing taxes and more time with families. Also, for 6.4 million Australians, it could mean a larger tax return. That is money back in the pockets of Australian families.

As we heard today in question time, the Gillard government is also delivering the first national paid parental leave scheme, giving parents more time at home with their babies and reducing the financial pressure on new families. The scheme will be operational from 1 January 2011 and will provide around 148,000 new parents each year with 18 weeks of parental leave pay at the federal minimum wage, which is currently around $570 per week. That is a total of over $10,000 for families.

I am pleased to remind the House and those opposite that, as the minister for families said today in question time, applications for the first national paid parental leave scheme will be accepted from tomorrow so people can start applying for that paid parental leave. We also know that those opposite sat on their hands for 11 long years in government and did absolutely nothing about introducing a paid parental leave scheme. It was interesting indeed to hear in the last few months that they suddenly changed their view on paid parental leave and decided to pay for it with their great new tax on everything.

We do understand the cost of raising a family, but we also understand that it extends well beyond the first few months of parenthood. That is why we are also helping families with the cost of child care. Federal Labor increased the childcare rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent. We have increased the maximum annual rebate by almost 72 per cent, from $4,350 per year to $7,500 per year. We are also paying the rebate more frequently so it arrives as parents pay their bills. We also announced that we would increase that frequency so that people can have that money on a more regular basis.

I am very proud to be part of a government that has delivered for more than three million Australian pensioners as part of our historic pension reform. In my electorate of Franklin there are more than 16,500 pensioners and I understand the financial pressures they face. We reformed the pension system for the first time in its 100-year history to provide better support for pensioners, carers and disability support pensioners now and into the future as they deal with the costs of living. This government, as we have heard, is delivering increases in pension payments of around $115 per fortnight for singles and $97 per fortnight for couples combined since we came to government. That is around 2.1 million age pensioners, 764,000 disability support pensioners and over 167,000 carer recipients who have benefited from this pension increase.

Our new indexation arrangements have also ensured that they will keep pace with the cost of living. Our new pensioner living cost index and our pension reforms have ensured that the pension has increased by more than it would have otherwise because every indexation since September last year has occurred under the new indexation arrangements. By contrast, we know that the coalition ignored the inadequacy of the pension and the needs of pensioners for 11 long years whilst they were in government. In fact, worse than that, we know that Tony Abbott and the cabinet of the former coalition government actually—

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