Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. With the cost of living skyrocketing for Australian families and electricity prices tipped to double in just four years, why is the Prime Minister planning three new taxes—a carbon tax, a mining tax and now a flood tax? Shouldn’t the Prime Minister be putting her hand into the government’s pockets to fund flood reconstruction, not putting her hands even deeper into the pockets of Australian families?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question because it enables me to explain something he clearly does not seem to understand. First and foremost, the government’s budget is composed of money that has been given to the government by taxpayers, and we take that trust very seriously. Because we take that trust very seriously, when we make decisions about the use of government funds, we make them properly and appropriately, having considered all of the needs. That is how we have approached the flood package to rebuild Queensland and rebuild the nation; that is, for every $1 we are asking Australian taxpayers to pay to the government through the levy we have identified $2 in savings.

It is no mystery to me that the Leader of the Opposition misunderstands these things, because every time he comes to look at budget questions it ends in disaster. It ended in an $11 billion black hole last year and this week it has ended up in a profound division on his frontbench, with even his most senior colleagues, including the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, believing he has got it wrong in terms of the choice of the cutbacks that he announced earlier this week.

I understand that Australians are under cost-of-living pressures—I do understand that. The government tries to work with Australian families to help with those pressures. That is why we provided the family tax payments system and why we can add to it to provide additional assistance for teenagers. That is why we provided the childcare tax rebate arrangements—and why it remains true that every user of child care is better off under this government than they were when the Leader of the Opposition sat on the government benches. That is why we created the education tax rebate and why we will add to it to enable people to deal with the cost of school uniforms. It is why we engaged in a historically large rise in our pensions—because we knew that pensioners were doing it tough. And the list goes on. But, understanding those cost-of-living pressures, we also believe it is right, at a time that the nation faces the kinds of challenges we see from the summer of disaster that we have just lived through, to ask Australians to make a contribution too. We believe it is right to do that.

I say to the Leader of the Opposition that I am still waiting for an answer to my question: why is it that he could support levies in the past, that he designed his election policies based on a $6 billion levy, that it was good enough for him to seek to levy $6 billion for his election policies, but it is not good enough for him to support a levy to rebuild Queensland and rebuild the nation? The Leader of the Opposition has no philosophical objections to levies. We know that. He has supported them in the past and he has designed them himself. Now is the time to step forward and to show some leadership. I am still calling on the Leader of the Opposition to find it within himself to look beyond political interest at the national interest, and that requires supporting the package the government has outlined for a $5.6 billion expenditure on rebuilding.