Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, they are doing such a good job, as another of my honourable friends behind me says. The reality is that this is a government under which families are actually being treated worse. At the same time, cost-of-living pressures are on families right across Australia. Electricity prices have increased in the last four years on average across this country by 61 per cent. Gas prices have increased on average by 37 per cent. What we know is that on 1 July this year this government will introduce a carbon tax which will further push up those prices. The great lie in this policy debate is that somehow the carbon tax is only going to be implemented for 500 companies. First of all, we cannot be told who the 500 companies are. That is a major secret. Maybe the government does not know itself. But the implication of what is being said here is that somehow the tax will be totally absorbed by these companies and that will be that. The lie to that was given this week by Virgin, who said that they are going to increase the cost of their domestic airfares by $6 because of the carbon tax, following what Qantas had already announced in relation to their airfares. And do you think that the top 500 companies across Australia are not going to follow Qantas and Virgin in relation to this and push up their prices? Of course they will. I said that electricity went up by 61 per cent over the last four years and that gas has gone up by 37 per cent. We are told by the energy producers that electricity prices and gas prices will go up by nine to 10 per cent, in addition to what they might have gone up otherwise, simply because of the carbon tax. And here we have a government talking about its care for families. That is just bunkum when you see what is happening.

But it is not just electricity and gas prices that will be affected. Water and sewerage rates have increased by an average of 58 per cent across this nation in the last four years. Health costs have gone up by an average of 20 per cent, and that is even before the Labor Party has hit on the private health insurance scheme. Education costs have gone up by an average of 24 per cent. So with just health and education—two major items of expenditure for any family in this country—one has gone up by 20 per cent and the other has gone up by 24 per cent, and they are going to continue to rise. If you do not think that a carbon tax is going to flow through into all goods and services in Australia then you must be living in fantasy land, like I suspect some of the members opposite are.

The cost of food has gone up by 13 per cent on average in Australia. Food requires energy to produce. Food requires energy to process. Food requires energy to transport from one place to another, from where it was manufactured to where it is stored and onto the supermarket shelves of shops all over this country. That is going to go up as well. And who is going to pay for that? The families of Australia. So I would say to members opposite: do not come in here and try to pretend that somehow you are doing something which is great for the families of Australia when you are ripping out the costs in terms of what they are going to pay for in the coming years. Also, rent has increased by 25 per cent for families who are renting across Australia. All of these costs have gone up under this Labor government—costs that have been hitting families over the last four years—and we know that they are going to go up even further into the future.

There is a paid parental scheme in place. We acknowledge that. We concede that. The government has put one in place. But we are saying that they can do better than that. They can put a better paid parental leave scheme in place and they do not need to be ripping down the amount paid under the baby bonus at the same time. The reality is that what we have got is a better proposition than what the government is offering at the present time, and it does not need people to come in here and defame that policy.

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