Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I do thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. We have made our priority clear, and so has the Leader of the Opposition. Our priority is dealing with the trillion dollars of Liberal debt that we inherited from those opposite. We are making a very modest change that will impact one half of one per cent—one half of one per cent! Seventeen of those people have over $100 million in their accounts; one has over $400 million. I do note that a majority of Australians, including a majority of Liberal voters, say that they agree with this change.

But I'll tell you what we won't do. We see an issue of a trillion dollars of Liberal debt, and we got advice from Treasury saying that there were these 17 people who have over $100 million in their accounts. We said, 'Well, we should do something about that.' Those opposite saw the most vulnerable people in our community and introduced the robodebt scheme. This is what they had to say: 'We'll find you; we'll track you down. You will have to repay those debts and you may end up in prison.' That said it all about those opposite and their attitude towards this. We're a government for all Australians; they've been reduced to a government of one half of one per cent.

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