Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Christmas is such a busy time for families around this country. I know that many of my constituents in Hotham, like my family, are focused on thinking about Christmas presents for our kids and what we are going to serve at Christmas lunch. It is also a time when I know that lots of families are struggling with pressures on their household budget. I want my constituents in Hotham to know that there are two proposals that are currently under consideration that could mean that next Christmas is a much tougher ask for your family than it has been this year. I want you to know that I am standing up these two proposals.

The first is a proposed cut to the family tax benefits. I want my constituents to know that this is not a figment of Labor's imagination. This is currently before the parliament and it is something that Labor is currently opposing. If these cuts to family tax benefits get across the line, more than 9,000 families in my electorate of Hotham will lose $725 a year and more than 8,000 families will lose $354 a year, and this is on top of cuts to the school kids bonus, the low-income super contribution, the proposals for $100,000 degrees, the pension cuts, the GP tax and $80 billion of cuts to schools and hospitals.

But there is more, and that is the proposal to increase the rate of the GST to 15 per cent and to broaden the base of that GST to cover off things like public transport, like food, like utilities—things that are currently exempt from the GST. Labor are opposed to these increases because we care about families in our electorates. (Time expired)