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

Over summer, I held a number of mobile offices around my electorate and I wanted to report to the House today there was one issue that came up again and again when I spoke to families and the people that visited me. That was the rising cost of living. There are many people in my community and around the country who are struggling today to pay the basics. I spoke to older Australians who are unable to put on the air-conditioning in the absolute searing Melbourne summer we've just experienced. I spoke to lots of families, mums and dads, who talked to me about the difficulties they are facing just making ends meet with rising childcare costs, rising medical costs and the rest of it.

Late last year I was contacted by a local school about one of the families in this situation. I wanted to share their story. The mum is a volunteer at the school council and has two kids who are working incredibly hard in class—great kids, who are volunteering their own time running lunchtime activities for their classmates. The two students had been excited all year to go to school camp with their friends. What kid wouldn't be? A great adventure with all their buddies? But what happened was the mum's car broke down and the money that had been put aside for school camp had to get spent on that. I don't want to think about the position that the mum was in, having to talk to her kids about the fact they were not going to be able to go to school camp. In this instance the local community was able to band together and support that family so the kids could realise that exciting experience.

But what I feel is just not understood on the other side of the House is that there are many families in our country right now who are in this situation and who have a story like this. Yet we see no action from the Turnbull government on this, because, unless you're a big business, the Prime Minister doesn't care about your rising costs. He wants to cut $65 billion in taxes to big business while he gives a $44 billion tax hike to lower- and middle-income families. It is abundantly clear to me and to those of us on this side of the House that it's not business that needs the help right now. It is working Australian families. The people in my community have experienced some of the following issues over the life of this Turnbull government. There has been an $8 rise in the cost of every GP visit, on average. There are 700,000 people around the country who face penalty rate cuts, which will mean their wages go down. We have seen an average increase of $134 per year on electricity bills. We have seen wage growth at two per cent while business profits are growing at 20 per cent. We have seen a tax hike that will cost average families $400. We put people first on this side of the House. We believe that it's families that need help right now, not big business. That's reflected in our policy positions.