Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I remind the Prime Minister of her promise, 'I am a Prime Minister that has tried to provide a little bit of help with the cost-of-living pressures'. Since that promise, Labor has cut the private health insurance rebate, cut the baby bonus, introduced a carbon tax, cut family payments and dumped the tax cuts. Why should Australians believe anything promised in this year's budget when they could not believe anything promised in last year's budget?

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

In answer to the Leader of the National Party's question: I am very concerned to be working with Australian families on their cost-of-living pressures, which is why we provided the Schoolkids Bonus, a benefit provided by Labor to help with the costs of getting the kids to school. If you have two kids going to school, across their schooling careers it will make a difference of $15,000 for a family. And who wants to take that away? None other than the Leader of the Opposition.

Then, of course, we are working with Australian families on cost-of-living pressures that they face—for example, the historic increase in the pension that this government has delivered because we understand that for Australian pensioners it is hard to make ends meet. And who wants to take a pension increase away? None other than the Leader of the Opposition.

Then, of course, there are the supports that this government has put in place for child care: moving from the system of the former government, that the Leader of the National Party was involved in, and increasing the childcare rebate so that there is more support for childcare expenses for Australian families than there has ever been before. And there is the Leader of the Opposition saying that he is going to have a scheme for nannies that he is going to fund from that money that currently goes to families. All that means is that there are going to be cutbacks for families that are getting childcare benefit and childcare tax rebate now.

Then, of course, we work with families too on cost-of-living pressures by ensuring that families get the benefits of tax cuts through increasing the tax-free threshold to $18,200, taking a million Australians out of the tax system and giving millions more tax relief. Because of the structure of this tax-free threshold, this is a benefit that makes a difference particularly for working women; particularly for women, for second-income earners, who are seeking to combine part-time work with caring for children. And who wants to take that benefit away, and ensure that those low-income Australians—those working women, predominantly—pay more tax? None other than the Leader of the Opposition. Then on my statements about support for—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Prime Minister was asked about the cuts to the private health insurance rebate, the cuts to the baby bonus, the family payments and the dumped tax cuts, and all she can do is talk about the opposition. I would ask you to ask the Prime Minister to answer the question.

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! There is no point of order. The Prime Minister has the call.

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

The question put to me a quote of mine and I am referring to that part of the question, so the member for Sturt might want to see the questions drawn more tightly if he is not liking the answer.

Then last, of course, in terms of support for families: I am very proud that we are standing alongside more than three million low-income earners to increase their superannuation—something that the Leader of the Opposition would take away. So if the Leader of the National Party is truly concerned about cost-of-living questions in Australian families, have a chat with him: he is the one who wants to cut to the bone. (Time expired)