Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. The whole premise of this matter of public importance is ridiculous. It is ridiculous for those opposite to suggest that this government has in any way failed to respect Australian families who are dealing with the cost-of-living crisis. The Albanese government is rolling out billions of dollars of cost-of-living measures which are going to precisely help regional families—measures like cheaper medicines, increasing Medicare bulk billing, cheaper child care, expanding paid parental leave, boosting income support payments, fee-free TAFE and getting wages moving again, not to mention that from 1 July we are delivering a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer and a bigger tax cut for more workers.

Frankly, the member for Gippsland, in moving this matter of public importance—the vast majority of taxpayers in the member for Gippsland's electorate will be getting a bigger tax cut because of Labor's changes to stage 3, the stage 3 plan that the government he was part of put forward to this parliament.

What I would suggest shows a failure to respect Australian families is, in fact, the opposition leader's scare campaign about the new vehicle efficiency standard. It's a policy that those opposite embraced and promoted when in government, just a few short years ago. This is a policy that will bring down fuel costs and give Australians more choice of cars that are cleaner and cheaper to run.

As the member for a regional electorate, I've got news for those opposite and for members opposite who represent regional electorates. We have people in our electorates who drive a lot of kilometres every year. We're talking about tens of thousands of kilometres—that's a lot of fuel. Getting cheaper fuel is good news for those consumers. But it's the same tactic we see again and again from those opposite: spread the fear, spread the smear and deliver nothing.

It's a similar story in Tasmania. The Liberal government in Tasmania has spent 10 years making promises to Tasmanian families but not keeping them, failing to respect them by consistently overpromising and then failing to deliver. Whether it's housing or whether it's health—no matter what it is—the Liberal government in my state is simply failing to respect regional families, which, of course, is the matter of public importance before us today.

I talk about the long-promised Elizabeth Street bus mall—it never happened, but now the Liberals are promising a Launceston bus mall. The four-lane Midland Highway, which runs through my electorate—it never happened. As to the telecommunications upgrades, long promised, along the Great Eastern Drive: the signs promoting the extra communication, apparently on its way, have rusted out and have been replaced, but there are still no communications from the state government that promised that program. Much-needed drought relief funding for Tasmanian farmers was announced four days before this Saturday's election, not when it was needed.

The fact is that the people of Tasmania have a choice this Saturday: they can either have four more years of a failed Liberal government, or they can elect Rebecca White and the Labor team in Tasmania, who have the right priorities, including housing, health and cost-of-living measures. They are precisely what this Labor government in Canberra is also all about—bringing the cost of living down for Australian families.

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