Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

None from nine! Fair dinkum, they left the statisticians having a cup of tea because they didn't deliver a thing except for debt and deficit. And they still try to claim they're the great economic managers. This budget will provide essential cost-of-living relief: more homes for Australians, reforms to universities, a strengthened Medicare and the care economy, and broader opportunities for our society. That's how we're delivering cost-of-living relief. Our government has a plan. We're enacting positive policies that help every Australian. What do those opposite have? Nothing except rubbish about nuclear reactors and cutting the Public Service. When they talk about the Public Service they should think about our veterans. They love to wrap their flags around themselves and say they love veterans, but they want to slash support for veterans, keeping them in pain longer while they wait to have their claims heard.

The only word that consistently comes from those opposite is 'no'. They've already said no to cheaper medicines, no to energy bill relief and no to cost-of-living tax cuts. They like to talk about Australians doing it tough, but they're shedding crocodile tears. How can they sit there and do that when they present no viable alternatives. Senator Hume let the cat out of the bag: 'We're the Liberal Party; we don't have policies.'

The continued disingenuity of the coalition is ridiculous. They've backflipped on things like the new vehicle efficiency standard to try to make political points. Let's remember the energy price hikes when they were in power. They went to the election with the good old member for Hume, Angus Taylor, signing off on a 20 per cent increase in power prices but changing the law so that no-one knew about it till after the election. That was their great policy. Of their 23 energy policies, they delivered none. They have the audacity to complain about energy prices when they in fact deliberately—willingly and knowingly—hid these price rises from the Australian public. As Angus Taylor would say to himself: 'Fantastic! Good job! Well done, Angus!' But the Australian people are suffering because of that terrible, deliberately deceitful action.

Their continued negativity is no substitute for economic and policy credibility. We're getting on with the job of rolling out billions of dollars in cost-of-living relief that will take the edge off some of the pressures. The member for Petrie sits in here each and every day and cries because he's not getting a $10,000 tax cut. He's upset because he's getting a tax cut on his $250,000, but he doesn't want anyone who's on under $60,000 getting a tax cut. That's the mindset those over there have. You've got to wonder what goes through their heads when they sit down and think about these policies. No wonder the good ones are leaving! From 1 July, 76,000 taxpayers in the electorate of McEwen, every single one of them, will receive a tax cut: $1,583, on average, a year. There will be cost-of-living relief for 13.6 million Australians. Under the coalition, only the top end would have received a tax cut this year.

We are providing energy relief, and we're doing that directly to make sure that we do not put pressure on inflation. This is relief that those opposite previously voted against—the electricity prices, as I said. We understand family budgets are tight and the impacts are being felt around the kitchen table. That's why we're doing the things we're doing. There will be $6.5 billion going to veterans over the next five years. The government is fixing up claims processing through increased staffing levels, resulting in our veterans having their claims heard and paid out a lot quicker. You would have thought the member for Riverina, who has in his electorate Kapooka, our biggest Army base, would have supported that, but he comes in here and says that, no, he doesn't support it. It's absolutely amazing! The legacy of the Morrison government is so many people left behind. We won't do that.

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