Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Last Sunday the Prime Minister went on live television and said that a household income of $185,000 a year is not especially high. This comment goes a long way to showing Australians just how out of touch this Prime Minister is. A study by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling studies finds that those with an income of $185,000 a year were in the top six per cent of all family incomes, including singles, this financial year. If the Prime Minister thinks that that income, which only applies to six per cent of the Australian population, is not especially high, it just goes to show how out of touch this Prime Minister is and how completely out of touch this government is. That comment is underscored by the Treasurer's comment last year that poor people do not drive cars. Here we have a Prime Minister saying that $185,000 a year is not an especially high income and Treasurer who believes that poor people do not drive cars. It just goes to show that this government does not understand how tough Australians are doing it—how tough low-to-middle income earners, pensioners and those on fixed incomes are doing it. Go to a mobile office or hold a community forum, but go out and speak to the people.

Some backbenchers got a very good sense of what was happening when they went to their electorates last Christmas. They got a very, very good sense of how out of touch this government is, particularly with the struggles that low- and middle-income earners are facing, the struggles that pensioners are facing, the struggles that vets are facing—and not just the struggles in terms of cuts to every part of their lifestyle but also all the confused messaging. There are pensioners who are terrified. I remember my mother going to the supermarket last year and she had a friend of hers come up to her and say, 'Faye, with these changes that they're making, does this mean I can't get the pension until I'm 70?' There have been how many positions on the pension? There are been how many positions on the GP tax? There have been how many positions on veterans pensions?

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