Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister advise the House on how the government is standing with Australian families to keep Australians safe and to keep Australians together?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his question. Our government is standing with the families of Australia to ensure that the essential services that they rely on are guaranteed—not by words, but by running a strong economy—to ensure that the economy continues to grow and Australians are in work and can support and provide the services, whether they're Medicare, whether they're affordable medicine or whether they're record schools and hospitals funding. These are supported by a government that knows how to run a strong economy and knows how to keep the financials of this country under control.

We believe that Australians should keep more of what they earn, and we believe that Australian families should keep more of what they earn. That's why we have legislated, opposed by those opposite, personal income tax relief right across the board: $144 billion worth of personal tax relief to Australians right across the board, which the Labor Party wants to cut in half, by $70 billion. We are focused and have legislated that tax relief, which has already commenced. We're backing family businesses, with lower taxes for small and family businesses. We're getting Australians into work, particularly young Australians. More than 100,000 jobs were created in the last financial year for young people getting into work. Australian families celebrate those successes for their young people, and that's been achieved by the hard work of Australian businesses who have been giving young people a go under our policies.

Our plans to get electricity prices down will be supporting families across Australia. The Labor Party's plan on electricity prices is to put them up by $1,400 per household by increasing the emissions reduction target from 26 per cent to 45 per cent—and, more than that, they'll make it law. They will legislate for higher electricity prices if they ever come to government.

And record schools funding, protecting children online—today we have taken strong action, and I will welcome the strong support from the opposition, which I know will be forthcoming, to take action on the concerns of Australian families about the contamination of food, in particular strawberries, in what is basically an act of absolute idiocy on the Australian people, on Australian families. We're taking action on that by increasing the penalties for those engaged in this food tampering. We're taking action on that by introducing a new provision on recklessness that means that any idiot who wants to go into a grocery store or a fruit and veg store and stick pins in fruit will face penalties of up to 10 years in prison. We want that bill done and out of this parliament before we rise and go from this place, and I thank the opposition for their support for achieving that. We're taking action with $1 million extra, supporting what has been done in Queensland, and I commend the Queensland government for doing that through its support for the industry and food standards. This weekend, support our strawberry farmers: make a pav.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition, on indulgence.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence, I seek to associate Labor with the last 45 seconds of the Prime Minister's answer with reference to the strawberry situation. Labor hasn't been fully briefed on the complete detail, but I can assure Australians that we will work with the government in supporting farmers and deterring and stopping these despicable acts. The broader message to the Australian community's also important. Strawberry growers in Queensland have already been hard hit. And in Victoria, in the Yarra Valley—the Speaker's area and others—we're coming into the season for strawberries from the beginning of October. I want to quote and echo the comments of the president of Strawberries Australia, John Calle, a grower in the Yarra Valley. He said: 'Strawberries are so easy to eat. Just cut them up before eating. We want to say to Australians that a few isolated cases is no reason to stop buying strawberries. Keep having them with your breakfast. Keep supporting our growers. Just cut the berries up; don't cut the farmers out.'