Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. One year ago, the Prime Minister promised a $275 cut to electricity bills, but power prices have increased. One year ago, the Prime Minister promised cheaper mortgages, but since then interest rates have risen 10 times. One year ago, the Prime Minister promised no new taxes, but he has already hit the resources sector with a gas tax, the agriculture sector with a farm tax and Aussie truckies with a truck tax. Why do Australians always pay more when Labor breaks its promises?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the deputy leader for her question. The government of which she was a part, of course, knew all about introducing new taxes and new revenue measures. They introduced the changes to HECS thresholds and indexation. There was the introduction of the temporary budget repair levy, the reintroduction of fuel excise indexation, increased application charges for partner visas, increased depreciation life for computers and increased charges for visa applications. They introduced a cap on salary sacrificed meals and entertainment, changes to managed investment trusts, changes to the offshore banking unit regime, changes to FIFO workers, changes to tax rules for working holiday-makers, changes to the calculation of work related car expenses and changes to foreign investment fees for real estate and farming. There was the removal of the FTB part A large family supplement, the introduction of no jab, no pay for payments, the cessation of double dipping for paid parental leave.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Prime Minister—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They increased passport fees, tobacco taxes.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Prime Minister will pause—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They applied the GST on low-value goods. They introduced—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

so I can hear from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

Honourable members interjecting—

The Prime Minister will pause for a moment. Order! There is far too much noise in the House. I'd like to hear from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition on a point of order.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, the point of order is relevance. The Prime Minister's long list of previous measures by this government is not remotely relevant to the detailed question that he was asked.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question was about the promise of commitments by the government and also why Australians do worse. I think the Prime Minister is doing a compare and contrast regarding that part of the question, but I'll ask him to return to the other part of the question for the remaining two minutes.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indeed, Mr Speaker, you could drive a truck through that question. What we had—

Opposition members interjecting—

What we had—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is the mob that wanted a tax on every single time that you went to the doctor.

But I'm asked by the deputy leader about our budget. My attention was drawn towards a quite extraordinary comment by the deputy Liberal leader. She said this about the RBA minutes: 'It sounds to me as if they are sounding alarm bells on this budget.' There's only one problem with that: the meeting was the week before the budget. So the RBA governor, apparently, is Nostradamus. It says everything about their catastrophic nonsense, where they carry on with: 'Everything is a catastrophe. Everything's a disaster. Everything's going to go wrong on their watch.' They have nothing constructive to add. But the only person who was more pleased and chuckling about that comment by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was the bloke who's sitting there.