Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak this afternoon in this matter of public importance debate about the cost of living, and it is very good to see that the opposition has decided to play catch-up in today's MPI because yesterday they certainly had no interest in the economy or budget settings and the way that it impacts on ordinary Australians. They had no interest in the way that this government is responding to the cost-of-living pressures that face Australians. They had no questions to ask and, frankly, today's efforts by the opposition in question time were not terribly much better.

This afternoon there is apparently a newfound interest in these issues from the other side of the chamber. Those of us on this side are extremely happy to talk about the way that this government is responding to the real needs of Australians through this budget and how we have responded to it since coming to office. Let us have a look at some of the practical measures that this government has been responsible for. In skills and training we have been ensuring that skills and training opportunities for young people in electorates such as mine are available to ensure that they have productive working lives and to enable them to meet living expenses. In my electorate of La Trobe the most recent commitments made in last night's budget mean that around 2,500 apprentices in my electorate alone will be able to benefit from Labor's investment in apprenticeships, which will enable more people in my electorate to ultimately get skilled jobs. Our commitments in relation to families with children have been fairly significant since coming to office and were expanded upon in yesterday's budget. We are providing families with children with the support that they need through increases to family tax benefit part A. Around 5,000 families in my electorate are affected by this commitment. They will receive an extra $4,200 per child aged between 16 and 19 years old. I am sure that those 5,000 local families will appreciate the meaningful and practical effects of our commitment to responding to their cost-of-living pressures.

During its term of office the Howard government certainly talked the talk of supporting pensioners and older Australians, but it took this government, in its first term and against the backdrop of a global financial crisis, to make a meaningful commitment to pensioners in real and financial terms. We have supported pensioners with a historic increase in the pension. Since September 2009 we have increased the age pension by $128 per fortnight for singles and $116 per fortnight for couples. We have also delivered an improved pension work bonus so that age pensioners can hold onto an extra $125 per week of their income from work. These are practical measures, real measures, things that the Howard government refused to do during more than a decade in office.

Meaningfully, since coming to office we have provided tax cuts three years in a row—$46.7 billion in cuts. We have also committed $1.25 billion in this budget to delivering up to $300 more in the low income tax offset during the year. We established a $300 billion education tax rebate and in this year's budget we have extended that rebate by $460 million to cover school uniforms. Again, this is something the Howard government, during a decade in office, had absolutely no interest in pursuing.

We have increased the childcare rebate, by $1.6 billion, from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of out-of-pocket expenses. We have made the childcare rebate more flexible to allow families to access those benefits sooner and we have implemented a historic Paid Parental Leave scheme so that parents can be supported after the birth of a child. We have also committed nearly half a billion dollars under the Teen Dental Plan. These policies and reforms run right across areas from childcare to education, taxation, pensions, superannuation and skills development. They are meaningful measures that are tangible to ordinary Australians, and certainly to members of my electorate.

With the announcements made in yesterday's budget, Australians will know that we have increased our already significant commitments to boosting employment and making sure that all Australians are given an opportunity to participate in work and take home an income. We on this side of the chamber know that these are things that respond to cost-of-living pressures. They are things which give options to working people, pensioners, families with children and to young people looking to develop skills and ensure they have a meaningful job and career. They are things which give them the opportunity to meet cost-of-living pressures. In addition to doing all of these things in the context of the financial crisis and the natural disasters around the country, which have had a significant impact on our budget measures, we understand the need to make significant and transformative economic changes. That is why our budget will ensure that there are settings in place to put downward pressure on inflation. We are investing in our workforce. We are investing in infrastructure. I notice that in this matter of public importance discussion the Leader of the Nationals declined to mention any significant means by which those on the other side of the House would contribute to our national infrastructure development and the jobs associated with any such development.

We know that the most important thing for Australian families, for all Australians and for the future of our country is ensuring that more Australians than ever have the security and dignity of work. That is why we acted swiftly to protect 200,000 jobs in the face of the global financial crisis, an event which seems to have escaped the opposition's interest and has been excised from their collective memory. Our commitment to ensuring the security and dignity of work for working Australians is reflected in our proudest achievement in government: the creation of over 750,000 jobs since coming to office. It is also why we have the settings in place for the economy to generate around 500,000 new jobs within the next couple of years. This sets the opposition in stark contrast to us. They made no effort to support our efforts to stimulate the economy in the face of the global financial crisis. Jobs were at the bottom of their list of priorities.

The opposition was asleep at the wheel during the last resources boom. We are not and we will not be. We are determined to ensure that the minerals resource rental tax will give all Australians a better share in the proceeds that come from our mineral wealth. This is something which will ensure that all Australians can profit from those mineral wealth gains, that there is a level of equity for Australians and that we can support significant programs into the future.

Despite all these things, the opposition are yet to present anything constructive or positive which would indicate how they would respond to the cost-of-living pressures which they are seemingly concerned about today—though perhaps not tomorrow, because they were certainly not interested in them yesterday during question time. On the one hand, the opposition assert that they will restore the budget to surplus by next year; on the other hand, they continue with their boundless spending commitments. I know that those spending commitments were made with gay abandon in my electorate during the last federal election campaign. There were a variety of election 'commitments' made by the former Liberal member for La Trobe which were not included in the costings of the coalition prior to the election. There were more than $80 million worth of election commitments in my electorate alone. This indicates the level of fiscal responsibility that runs right the way down from the leaders of the coalition to their individual members and candidates in local elections. Given that the opposition will make a swifter return to surplus while making these spending commitments, and not saying what their spending cuts are likely to be, presumably someone on the other side has the colour copier out, because the only way they can achieve those two ends is to start printing money. e know what happened the last time they tried to achieve spending cuts at the same time as making their election commitments. We know that there was an $11 billion black hole that was independently verified and tested. We know that the opposition has form when it comes to inaccurate representations of their economic commitments, and I certainly expect that to be the case tomorrow night.

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