Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

In answer to the Leader of the Opposition’s question, I understand, and the government understands, that Australian families are struggling with cost-of-living pressures. We do understand that and we understand that a contributor to those cost-of living-pressures is electricity prices. When the Leader of the Opposition asked me a similar question yesterday, I did explain to him and to the House that pressure on electricity prices arises in part from underinvestment in electricity generation capacity and that, in order to get certainty into the market to facilitate investment, particularly in long-term baseload power, businesses and the electricity sector are asking us for certainty about carbon pricing.

On the general cost-of-living issues I reiterate the points that I made yesterday. I understand that it is a struggle for families. The government understands that and that is why we have done things like introduce the Fair Work Act so that people have security as to their pay packets and living standards—something they did not enjoy under Work Choices when, on any day, they could have had an Australian workplace agreement shoved into their hand and had their pay and conditions reduced.

We have acted to assist families with cost-of-living pressures when it comes to education. We understand that there are costs involved in getting the kids back to school, which is why we introduced the education tax rebate and will add to it by enabling the deductibility of costs related to school uniforms. We understand that for families with young children, particularly in circumstances where the partner providing the care—usually the mother—wants to return to work, that occasions childcare costs. Consequently, we increased the child care tax rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent and we will move to fortnightly payments.

We also understand that families with teenagers have particular pressures. Teenagers are not cheaper to support than younger children, and that is why we will move in this parliament to increase the family tax benefit arrangements for families with teenagers. For families on the maximum range, that will be a benefit of more than $4,000 a year. Indeed, to assist families with cost-of-living pressures, that is why we have also been pleased and proud to provide tax cuts for three years in a row to assist families with those pressures. As I said to the Leader of the Opposition yesterday, and I am happy to repeat it today, we want to make sure we are working with families for their long-term security. Doing that does require us to work through the difficult question of carbon pricing to give certainty to the electricity generation sector to facilitate long-term investments.

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