Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Throsby for the question because the fact of the matter is that the carbon price will have only a modest impact on the cost of living—that is, 0.7 per cent increase in the CPI—less than one cent in the dollar.

The government is assisting pensioners, it is assisting families eligible for tax benefits, it is assisting many self-funded retirees and it is assisting many veterans and others in receipt of Commonwealth payments. In the Illawarra region, more than 20,000 families have already received extra cash in their bank accounts over the past month. More than 53,000 Illawarra pensioners have received $250, if they are single, or $380 for couples combined—that is 53,000 pensioners who have received an advance payment already. And 4,300 students have received up to $190. That is very important in the Illawarra with the University of Wollongong and the many students there. But over on that side, the Leader of the Opposition has opposed all of those things. He has opposed it all and he continues to go out into the community and claim that these are not permanent increases and that they are not indexed. It is completely misleading. It is a complete untruth. It is totally wrong. Regular payments are going to be increased, they will be indexed in the future, and a lot of the assistance is being delivered by tax cuts. (Time expired)

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