Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is again to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware that the Salvation Army’s submission to the Senate inquiry into the cost of living pressures on senior Australians stated:

The increased cost of food, fuel and utilities has caused significant strain on the budgets of older Australians living on low incomes, causing many to seek Emergency Relief assistance for the first time.

How can the Prime Minister say, given that the Treasurer now refuses to say, that working families have never been better off, when senior Australians are now turning to the Salvos for help with food, bills and petrol?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have not read that particular submission, but I am certainly aware of the views of the Salvation Army, an organisation for which I have an almost unlimited regard because of the work that it has done. One of the great things about the Salvation Army is that it is a very practical organisation. It does not hold out false hope to people, the way some other people I know do, including the Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition is now embarking on this tactic: every time there is a price rise—be it petrol, a grocery item, rent or a mortgage payment—he says, ‘Isn’t this absolutely outrageous,’ and when he is asked, ‘What’s your solution?’ he says, ‘I don’t have one.’ There is more to public life than that kind of cheap opportunism. Of course, I regret the fact that there are many people in the Australian community—

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Community Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Macklin interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Jagajaga is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

who are not doing as well as others. Let me tell the Leader of the Opposition one of the reasons why we have been able to do a lot of things in the last budget that we might not otherwise have been able to do if we had not built up a budget surplus: we have run a strong economic policy. We have a budget surplus and a strong budget position, no thanks to the Leader of the Opposition.

The Leader of the Opposition’s party left us with a huge debt. They then set about stopping us from trying to pay that off. They have opposed every single reform that this government has introduced and now they have the nerve to run around and hold out the false hope that a Labor government would be able to stop every price rise in the Australian community. That, effectively, is what the Leader of the Opposition is doing.

I remind the Leader of the Opposition that in the last budget we were able to provide a $500 payment to every retired person in the Australian community. We would not have been able to do that if we had not been in such a strong financial position. I remind the Leader of the Opposition that we are the first government in Australian history to have tied pensions not only to the half-yearly indexation through the CPI but also to being not less than 25 per cent of male total average weekly earnings.

Of course I am conscious that some older sections of the Australian community are doing it tough. And, where we have had the budget capacity to do so, we have tried to assist those people. But I say to the Leader of the Opposition that the greatest gift you can give any working family is a job, and this government has a proud record of providing that gift to the Australian community. We have a 33-year low in unemployment in this country, and the only side of politics which is a threat to that is the side of politics led by the opportunistic man who just asked me that question.