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

I thank the member for his question, and I would ask him to pass on my congratulations to the volunteer that he mentions. This House, of course, congratulated, through the contributions that people made on the condolence motion, the many thousands—the tens of thousands; indeed, the hundreds of thousands—of people who went to the assistance of others to deal with these natural disasters and to clean up from them. It has been a fantastic display of Australian mateship. It has been a fantastic display of the Australian way.

As we look at that fantastic display, we would also remember the people who could not physically be there but who sent donations to the Premier’s disaster relief fund—the mums and dads who put some money in. Now that disaster relief fund is at $200 million. But I would say to the member: I applaud those efforts, but I also understand, as I believe Australians do generally understand, that the $200 million that they raised and the efforts they went to as volunteers go to help another human being. But I think they also understand the nation needs to rebuild from this. We are not talking about something that can be paid for by voluntary donations. Two hundred million dollars is an incredible amount of money for people to raise, but we are talking about needing a sum of at least $5.6 billion to rebuild, and that is before we get to the damage that has been caused by the cyclone—and we have all seen that devastation on our TV screens.

So as a nation, in the national interest, we have to ask ourselves: how do we best do this? I have said to the nation that we best do this by making savings on the Commonwealth budget that stand up to rigorous scrutiny. That is the difference between the savings that I have outlined and the savings the Leader of the Opposition has outlined. And I have said to the nation that we should ask those Australians with capacity to contribute to contribute in the interests of their fellow Australians. That is what the levy is, and that is why 60 per cent of Australian taxpayers will pay less than $1 a week.

I say to the member who has asked the question, who is new to this place: levies have happened before. They happened before when the nation needed to buy back guns following the dreadful incident we saw at Port Arthur. The nation has levied before; levied to support the milk industry and the sugar industry in their adaptation to change. We have levied before to support Ansett workers when that airline collapsed. The former Prime Minister, supported by the Leader of the Opposition, asked the nation to contribute through a levy to the costs of assisting East Timor. These things have happened at times in our history when it has been right to say to Australians, ‘Can you give a hand to help?’ That is what I am saying to Australians now; that is what I will continue to say to Australians—that is the national interest.

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