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

I thank the member for his question. First and foremost, on construction costs: construction predominantly relies on things that have the maximum assistance rate—things like cement, for example. So I would refer the member to that. There have been some very exaggerated figures in the public domain about impacts on construction costs. Should the member have read any of those figures and be inclined to believe them, I would point the member to the fact that the inputs for construction tend to be things that have the maximum rates of assistance.

Secondly, people with disabilities will see an increase in their disability support pension. They are amongst the pensioner households who will, on average, come out $210 in front when you take into account all of the effects of carbon pricing. Thirdly, in terms of the way in which the government works, for example, with state governments on disability services, payments under those intergovernmental agreements are indexed. Normally an element of that indexation is what has happened in CPI movements. It is weighed in the index and—

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