Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

That was quite a magical mystery tour from the member for Swan, who is a very popular member across both sides of the aisle. I think someone must have written that for him and held his arm behind his back and forced him to read it, except for the last bit which was a nice bit of history. As my colleagues have pointed out, and as those opposite appear intent on denying, 1 July is firming as a nightmare for ordinary Australians. There is a series of measures, driven by this Prime Minister and this government, that are going to hurt ordinary Australians. As my colleague the shadow minister for employment pointed out, it is going to be a day of joy for the big end of town. Those earning $1 million are going to receive a tax cut of $16,400 on 1 July, but ordinary Australians are going to take hit after hit, blow after blow, as a direct result of decisions by this government.

The shadow minister referred particularly to the penalty rates decision by the industrial commission—an unprecedented decision to cut the take-home pay of hundreds of thousands of Australian workers with no offset. There has been legislation in this parliament that we pleaded with the government to support to prevent 700,000 workers from receiving a pay cut. We gave them opportunity after opportunity to do the right thing by some of the lowest paid workers in Australia, and they have just shunned us; importantly, not only shunning us but shunning those 700,000 workers. Households across Australia, many of which will be dealing with the impact of penalty rate cuts for those who work on Sundays in retail, hospitality and pharmacy are also receiving notice from their power companies—AGL, Origin Energy and Energy Australia—that they will receive price hikes of up to 20 per cent.

Mr Craig Kelly interjecting—

The member for Hughes is from New South Wales, and I am sure we will hear something about renewable energy from him. New South Wales—a state governed for six years by a Liberal government—under four years of this federal government is facing a power price increase of 16 per cent from AGL, 16.1 per cent from Energy Australia and 19 per cent from Origin Energy.

Mr Craig Kelly interjecting—

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