Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

would object to this piece of public information. I am merely showing the difference between what people say and what they do. What people say goes to their character if they do not do it.

The reality is the Australian economy is in sound shape. We borrowed responsibly during a tough economic time. We protected jobs. We are talking about cost of living. As I said, a job is one of the most essential things for people to be able to manage cost of living. Education costs are another one. People are able to borrow money to pay off school fees. If they make a decision to borrow money to do that, that is up to them. I think it is appropriate that we give people money to pay for education costs, because education is a sound investment. It also makes sense to invest in educational and business infrastructure like the NBN.

However, we have a policy from those opposite—the fraudband plan—that will see people paying up to $5,000 to have internet connected to their home. If you are in a block of units, heaven help you, because in Queensland that means you have to get 75 per cent of the people in the unit to agree to have that connection. All you need is someone who is a bit of a Luddite, who thinks broadband is only about sending emails, and if they say no, that means you will not be able to get the NBN connected and will not get all those cost-of-living savings that come with the NBN such as being able to pay your bills from home rather than going to the bank or the post office to pay them, being able to study from home rather than going in to university and all the savings that come to small business when they connect to the NBN.

Let us look at some of the other cost-of-living pressures. CPI is well and truly under control. Health has bulk billing rates at 81.7 per cent. Under the Leader of the Opposition it was at 67 per cent when he was the health minister. I have already touched on taxes, but let us mention those three consecutive rounds of tax cuts taking one million Australians out of the tax system. Those people earning about $50,000 are paying $2,000 less in tax. Let us contrast that with the opposition's plan to hike up the GST, rip away the Schoolkids Bonus and hike superannuation by 15 per cent for low-paid people. We have seen what happens with the Costello stealth approach. You soften up people by talking about budget emergencies and then outsource decision making to the Smirk. We saw it in Queensland. They said, 'Oh, we've got a crisis.' You bring in Peter Costello and then you sell off assets and hike taxes. That is what would happen under those opposite, so do not talk about cost-of-living increases. You have no credibility whatsoever. (Time expired)

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