Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is the Albanese Labor government helping ease the pressure on Australians? What approaches has the government rejected because they push up prices?

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

I thank the member for her question and for the work that she has done in being an outstanding representative for Chisholm. I, at the last election, repeated a theme that would run through all of our policies, which is 'no-one held back and no-one left behind', and that's what drives this government in providing responsible cost-of-living relief whilst also looking towards the future and aspiration of where our country can go with a future made in Australia. And both of those have received major advances this week.

On Monday: a tax cut for every single taxpayer not just some; and, indeed, as well, a pay rise for 2.6 million workers on award wages. You put those two things together and you get people earning more and keeping more of what they earn. In addition to that: $300 in power bill relief for every household, two weeks additional government funded paid parental leave and the freezing of the costs of PBS medicines. This will make a real difference. I had a text message from someone before whose pay packet, this week, has gone up by $200 as a result of what we've done—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! Members on my left will cease interjecting immediately.

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

Apparently that's something that's a terrible thing for those opposite. Susannah, an aged-care worker in South Australia, has also said, 'This will help me out with the cost of living.' Tanya, a 66-year-old disability support worker who doesn't want to retire till she pays off her mortgage and gets set says she's happy because now she will be able to pay it off faster.

The Leader of the Opposition, of course, has opposed all of these measures. They have had a couple of ideas lately, like pushing up power prices with nuclear reactors, and, this week, their plan to nationalise—one would think—the supermarkets, pushing up grocery prices. They are already trying to bury their nuclear idea like burying nuclear waste, like burying radioactive waste. The party of Menzies is promising to build their own power stations and take over the supermarkets.

The Leader of the Opposition's answer to everything seems to be 'make the taxpayer buy them'. In January, the Leader of the Opposition was calling for a boycott of Woolies; now he wants to nationalise them. From boycott from buyout, that's what we've seen from in this period of months—from bagging out Woolworths to unexpected item in the bagging area. (Time expired)