Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on how the government is getting on with its policies and plans to help build Australia's future?

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

I thank the member for Fraser for his question, which is the last question of 2012. As we move from 2012 into 2013, I want to say to my Labor colleagues and I want say to members of the public listening to these parliamentary proceedings: we are proud of what our nation has achieved during 2012. We are proud of our nation and its achievements during the course of this year. As a government, we are proud that we have played our part, working alongside the Australian people. We are proud that our economic stewardship has meant that people have the benefit of jobs, unlike those in so many advanced economies around the world. We are proud that through the Asian century white paper we have delivered a plan for our nation's future.

We are proud that our budget discipline has meant that there is room for the Reserve Bank to move on monetary policy and that Australians are paying lower interest rates. We are proud that Australian families with a typical mortgage of $300,000 are now paying $4,500 less a year on their mortgage than they did when we came to government. We are proud that we have worked with Australian families on their cost-of-living challenges through benefits like the Schoolkids Bonus. We are proud we have changed our tax system so you do not pay a cent of tax on the first $18,200 that you earn. We are proud that we are readying our economy so we will be winners in this century of growth and change—with the NBN, with skills, with traditional infrastructure. We are proud that we are getting ready to seize the future.

We are proud of what we have done in health too—making sure that people get benefits in dental care and rolling out GP superclinics and integrated cancer care. We are proud of our mental health reform agenda to help Australians who need mental health support at some time during their lives. We are proud of those changes, which are Labor changes. And we are proud that we have set a program of work for 2013 which will be about making sure that every child gets a great education and a genuine opportunity in life and making sure that we develop and deliver the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We are proud of these great Labor reforms and we are proud that we have stared down, on carbon pricing, the most reckless, negative campaign ever run in Australia's history. We are proud we are a government of change and building. We are ashamed to sit in a parliament with a man of negativity and sleaze and smear. We are ashamed that the opposition has not one plan for the nation's future. In 2013 we will come back ready to win the contest of ideas. You will not even be in the contest.

With those words, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper. (Time expired)