Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to echo the sentiments of the member for Bruce in terms of the planning that we have seen from this government since it came to government. As the member for Bruce said, they have had lots of plans but have not stuck to any of those plans. We will probably see a new plan. But I have sensed that there is one consistent line that is coming through from this government, and it is a line that distresses me.

Last year we had the Treasurer out there with his lifters and his leaners, showing his ignorance, showing his ability to divide this country, and today we had the member for Cook up there doing the same with rhetoric around the notion—the clear implication—that families in receipt of the family tax benefit part B are somehow not working, that to a family they are leaners. That was the implication I heard today and yesterday in question time.

That is the problem, because that plan is not going to work either. In my electorate, where 18,000 families are in receipt of the FTB, most of them are working. In fact, many of them are two-income families who are still in receipt of the FTB because they have modest incomes. I know it is not something that the Sydney North Shore frontbench over there understand, but many people work for a minimum wage—although those over there do know where they are when they want to hit them and take away their superannuation contribution. They know where to find them then.

But I do have another message, and I bring this message from home in Lalor today. This government's plans are not coming to fruition, because they are finding it difficult to stick to a plan, but that message, that attempt to divide this nation is mean, sneaky, tricky and will backfire. In my electorate many of those small business people—the small business people that the other side talk about and talk about saving this country—in my electorate are actually family tax benefit recipients. I want to drive that point home. It will not divide this nation. It will backfire as we unravel the detail of this budget and we find the people who are going to be impacted most. In my electorate you are going to find that those people are the same people—the people that the member for Cook, the minister, tried to demonise in this chamber today in question time. He tried to sell a line to the press gallery upstairs. He tried to sell a line that people who are getting support through the FTB are somehow leaners, not worthy, not contributors. In my community they contribute plenty.

Where we live—where I live—we do not have a lot of spare cash and we do not have many families who can afford to make huge personal contributions to their superannuation. That is why Labor's low-income superannuation input was so important and why it was so unfair that this government cut it out. It was incredibly unfair. Now, when Labor comes up with a plan on superannuation—a plan on superannuation that certainly meets the fairness test in my electorate, a plan that would mean that we will not lose $45 billion over the next seven years by freezing the superannuation guarantee or delay the increase in the superannuation guarantee and would help families in my electorate build superannuation so that they may not be reliant on the pension as they get older.

There seems to be an incredible unfairness at the core of this government. Families in my electorate on $65,000 stand to lose up to $6,000 on this government's changes, and yet high-income retirees with $2 million in their superannuation—don't touch them! They cannot be asked to make a contribution. It is unfair at the core.

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