Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Acting Prime Minister and Treasurer. What is the government doing to spread the benefits of the mining boom to help families and working people to make ends meet?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for La Trobe for that very important question, because our economy does walk tall in the world. We have solid growth, we have low unemployment, we have contained inflation, we have rock-solid public finances and of course we have a huge investment pipeline. One of the reasons we are in such a strong position is what this government did at the height of the global financial crisis and the global recession to support employment in this country. We got the best outcomes of any developed economy in the world. Of course, those opposite, if they would have had their way, would have seen Australia go into recession, deficits and debt would have been higher, unemployment would have been higher and business closures would have been higher. But our economy is fundamentally stronger because of what we did at the height of the global financial crisis and the global recession.

Now we do expect to return to trend growth and, given the investment pipeline, we are in a position to spread the opportunities from this growth right around our country, to make sure that these opportunities go to every postcode, to make sure that these opportunities do not just go to those that are in the fast lane of the resources boom. Plenty of people out there are sitting around and saying: 'Where is this boom? Are we part of it or not?' So the important thing that we have put in place in this budget is a plan to spread the benefits of a strong economy right around our country. Of course, that is why we are delivering tax cuts to something like seven million low- and middle-income-earning Australians. This will take something like one million Australians out of the tax system.

These proposals would be ripped away by those opposite if they had their way. These very big tax reforms for people who are on some of the lowest incomes in our community would be ripped away. It is also why the budget delivers $5 billion over five years in additional support for low- and middle-income households to help with the cost of living. Here, in particular, is the schoolkids bonus, recognising how important it is to help families when the kids are back at school. Additional assistance will also be provided in additional family payments. All of these things would be ripped away by those opposite. They claim that they are concerned about the cost of living, but they are not when it comes to sending the kids to school or when it comes to actually providing some help through the family payments system.

Of course there are also the payments that are going out now in terms of the clean energy package—payments to families and payments to pensioners. All of these would be ripped away by those opposite. In addition to that, they would rip away the instant asset write-off—this fundamental tax relief for up to 2.7 million small businesses right around this country. That too would be ripped away.

What this really demonstrates is that those opposite have no plan to return our budget to surplus, no plan to provide tax relief for small businesses, no plan for the future of the country. (Time expired)