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

I was asked a lengthy question including references to cost-of-living pressures in Western Sydney, and I am addressing that part of the question. Important for families in Western Sydney is the flow-through of lower interest rates to the burden that paying the household mortgage is for families in Western Sydney, with the average mortgage now costing them $5,000 less per year than it did when the Leader of the Opposition was a minister in government. So, for cost-of-living pressures for people in Western Sydney, we are very concerned.

We understand that, though our nation has a resilient economy, for many families it can be very difficult to make ends meet, which is why we will keep working with families in Western Sydney and indeed around the nation: working to provide benefits like the schoolkids bonus; working to better support their childcare costs than they have ever been supported before; working to ensure that they continue to enjoy the benefit of tax cuts, with more than half a million people in Western Sydney having their tax cuts at risk as a result of the policies of the Leader of the Opposition; making sure that we help them at the time that a new baby is born, through paid parental leave both for mums and for dads, making sure that that special support is available; and, for those older citizens in Western Sydney, continuing to provide pensions at an increased level—indeed, having delivered a historic increase and then adding to it. So cost-of-living pressures for people in Western Sydney and around the nation are at the forefront of the government's policies and plans to work with modern families as they work their way through the stresses and strains of modern living.

On government budget matters: the budget will be unveiled in May. I trust that, on the Thursday when the Leader of the Opposition replies, he will stop running for cover and hiding—

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