Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I draw the Prime Minister’s attention to the fact that petrol has gone through the roof, to $1.60 a litre, having risen more than 23c on average since his election to government. After only six months in office, why is the Prime Minister more focused on a plan for an Asian union and nuclear disarmament than on dealing with a decisive plan for petrol for Australian families?

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

It is quite plain that working families, working Australians, pensioners and carers are under cost-of-living pressures. That is why the government, through the budget, has introduced a $55 billion family support package. When that starts to flow, from 1 January 2009, its impact for a typical young family will be to deliver some $51.54 per week, as a result of the budget. That contrasts with a proposal from those opposite which represents $2.50 a week if you are filling up with 50 litres—$2.50 a week versus $51.54 a week. I would suggest there is a clear-cut contrast in this.

But there is another measure to which I will draw the honourable member’s attention, and that is the impact of industrial relations. The industrial relations system implemented by those opposite, called Work Choices, enabled working families struggling with cost-of-living pressures to have their penalty rates stripped away with no compensation and their overtime to be stripped away with no compensation and set up an industrial relations system which compounded the cost-of-living pressures for families and individuals struggling with mortgages, rents, petrol, groceries and the standard impacts on the average family budget.

For these reasons, we have acted through the budget in the measures that we have put forward. We are acting in respect of fuel-efficient cars. We are acting in relation to a long-term energy and fuel strategy for Australia, which had not been developed by our predecessors despite the fact that petrol prices had gone up considerably. We have acted through the budget with support measures for the family budget and we have also acted in relation to the industrial relations system—all of these actions impact on the ability of an average family to deal with the challenges which go to handling cost-of-living pressures on the family budget.