Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

The people of Australia have returned us to this parliament to deal with the nation's problems. They expect us to attack the issues, but we are not a rubber stamp for every bad idea that was put forward in the election campaign. If you are a well-paid parliamentarian it may be very difficult to understand what it is like to live on $263 a week. But we on this side of the House understand. That is why we oppose the proposition to cut the Newstart allowance for a single mum by up to $4.40 a week, pensioner couples by $10 a week and somebody on the disability allowance by $8 a week. And we oppose the proposition to shut down the Child Dental Benefits Scheme.

We are willing to meet with the government and come up with sensible, sustainable savings. But, when we do it, we will not be putting the most wealthy people in Australia ahead of the queue. We think it is a bad idea to give the wealthiest people in this country an $80 billion tax cut while hacking into the benefits of the lowest—

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