Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Disability Services) Share this | Hansard source

It is a concern. The people of Australia are under threat. They are under threat from an opposition with no plan. They under threat from an opposition and a Leader of the Opposition who use scare tactics on the most vulnerable people in our community. They stop at nothing to play politics with those in need.

The Leader of the Opposition is an expert at spruiking the spin, but he never has a plan. He never has a real solution and he never has the support, whilst we come up with actions to deliver for families, for working Australians and for those with disability in our community. If the Leader of the Opposition had any true reason to support the people who need it most he would support the current legislation in this parliament. He would support our plan for child-care reforms which will assist more than one million Australian families and make child care more affordable, more flexible and more accessible for people who need it most. These reforms will provide better futures for our children and positive relief where it hits families the most: the back pocket.

That is the point: if we want to support families in Australia today, we need to help them with the rising cost of power, and yet those on the other side support reintroducing a carbon tax. They support 50 per cent renewables. They do not care about the cost of power, about the cost of energy for the people who need to pay it—the families.

Ms Keay interjecting—

I take that interjection. You are saying, 'Give them a supplement.' Where from? Where are you going to find the supplements to supplement and compensate people for another spectacular carbon tax like your last one?

Ms Keay interjecting—

Yes, bring up more taxes. That is the way to solve your problems. That is because you support the Greens who want to introduce taxes or do you have a magic pudding where you just keep spending money three times over? That is the problem with those opposite: they really do not understand basic economics. They do not understand that you cannot use the same money three times over. They do not understand that, when Wayne Swan says he has delivered a surplus, he has not.

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