Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It's 326 days too late! Look it up on the internet, Stewie, you might learn something! It's 326 days too late and they still get it wrong! They still get it wrong because they've forgotten some other Australians as well: the more than two million Australians earning $40,000 or less who are better off under our plan.

There's a theme. I detect a theme emerging. I'm just a simple boy from Smithfield, but I detect a theme. The theme is that those Australians who need the support most miss out. Those Australians earning less than $40,000 miss out on the double tax cuts. They get some tax relief, but not as much as those who earn more.

And what of the Australians who earn less than $40,000 a year, many of whom work on Sundays and who have had their penalty rates cut and many of whom are female workers? Many of them are the gender pay gap in daily operation. They're doing their jobs, working hard on Sundays, but are earning low pay and dealing with low wages growth and their penalty rate cuts. And what do they get from this government? An insult of a tax cut! It's an insult because the tax cut is not double what Labor offered last year—nowhere near it.

And then you get the insult that Newstart recipients and Austudy and Abstudy recipients and living allowance recipients are an afterthought. 'Oops!' said the Treasurer this morning. The Labor Party has pointed out that they don't receive the payment. We received advice that we could not move an amendment to put them in. Constitutionally we did not have the power, but we moved a second reading amendment to point out the error of their ways. The government got the second reading amendment and said: 'Oh, dear. That's embarrassing. Whoopsie! We forgot Newstart recipients.' Well, here's a tip for the Treasurer: get your work right in the first place and your budget might not disappear on day 2.

The Prime Minister and Treasurer went out today talking about the budget. What was their line on their budget, their big vision for the country? It was, 'Labor, Shorten, Bowen, Labor, Shorten, Labor.' That was their big defence of their budget! It's no wonder, because their budget is a piece of nonsense.

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