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

It is nearly time for us all to go home and it is nearly time for Christmas. I have been thinking about families and what they are going to find in their Christmas stocking from our Christmas Grinch. We know what is not in the Christmas stocking. Transparency around tax is not in the Christmas stocking. Multinationals paying their fair share is not in the Christmas stocking. So what is in the Christmas stocking? There are family tax benefit cuts to 1.3 million families and family tax benefit cuts to 21,000 families in my electorate. What else is in this stocking? GST increased by 50 per cent on the things already attracting a GST, and 15 per cent GST on education, fresh food and health. For the first time in our history that is on the list. What else is in this stocking? Families are going to open up this stocking and find that they have had six consecutive falls in income per person. So I wish all of the families in Lalor a safe Christmas. I wish I could give them a Christmas without the $80 billion cuts to health and education, but we will keep fighting on this side and maybe by next Christmas we will have a new government, a Shorten-led Labor government, and families will get some presents, finally.

See this speech in context