Steve Gibbons (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Leader of the House. Will the minister outline to the House why it is important for the House of Representatives to pass government legislation relating to the budget during this sitting week?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to get a question from the member for Bendigo. The government was elected to fix 11 years of neglect and we have been very busy getting on with the job of fixing infrastructure and the skills crisis, getting on with the job of dealing with health and hospitals, getting on with the job of the education revolution and getting on with the job of the greatest challenge of our generation—the challenge of climate change.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Urban Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Hunt interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Flinders is warned.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is why there is so much legislation put forward in this House. We make no apologies for the fact that we have a big legislative agenda and for the fact that we have 22 bills which we will be pursuing through this House this week in order for them to get to the Senate so that the Senate can give them proper deliberation. There has been some opposition and questioning of this and there is some doubt over whether those opposite want to block $22 billion of measures—and blow a $22 billion hole in the budget.

Let us have a look at some of these measures that will be before the House this week. There is the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Budget and Other Measures) Bill 2008. That will increase the childcare tax rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent on 1 July. The Dental Benefits (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2008 is needed by 1 July because it will start Labor’s Teen Dental Plan, worth $484 million. The Health Care (Appropriation) Amendment Bill 2008 is needed to inject half a billion dollars into public hospitals by 1 July. The Wheat Export Marketing Bill 2008 is required so that farmers can have certainty over whom they can sell this year’s harvest to. They have already planted it. The same-sex relationships bills are necessary in order to provide justice in terms of death benefits for same-sex couples by 1 July. The tax laws amendment bills are necessary so that those who are recipients of carer adjustment payments or Austudy rent assistance will not be taxed. If the bills are not carried by both houses by 1 July and come into law then they could open those people up to taxation. This bill fixes previous government omissions.

We think this is consistent with the government’s overall economic position of putting downward pressure on inflation and downward pressure on interest rates. We have a long-term plan for the nation that is embodied in our budget and in the bills that are before this House. We will not be lectured about putting too much legislation through the House by an opposition that guillotined some 36 bills during their period in office and that rammed through legislation during their last term in office. This is an opposition that, when it was in government, rammed through the Work Choices legislation. They briefed the advertising company before they actually got the legislation right when it came to Work Choices—we remember that.

This was a government that rammed through legislation relating to kids overboard and to the intervention in the Northern Territory and, most significantly, did not have proper debate before this chamber on the most important decision that a government can take—taking us to war in Iraq. Despite the opportunism of those opposite, this government will not be deterred from our big agenda to provide a lift in living standards for the long term with economic, social and environmental policy. That is why we say to the opposition: we are determined to have these bills carried in accordance with our program and our mandate that we received last November.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.