Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in today's matters of public importance debate with great pleasure because there is no government which has done more to ease the cost-of-living pressures faced by Australians. In my contribution, I will highlight the significant policies and initiatives implemented by the Labor government to tackle cost-of-living pressures.

Whilst the Labor government has been steadfast in our commitment to support jobs and the Australian economy, this is not the case with those opposite. The biggest threat to jobs in Australia is the coalition. The biggest threat to the cost of living is the coalition. The biggest threat to the economy is the coalition, and it is because of their decision to refuse to tackle climate change in any real way.

The coalition policy of direct action poses a real threat to Australia by taxing Australian families. This is in stark contrast to the Labor government. We have been clear about our intention to tackle climate change and to place a price on carbon. A price on carbon is a price on pollution. The carbon price will mean Australia's 1,000 biggest polluters will be required to pay for every tonne of pollution they emit. As the government has outlined, this is the most effective and cheapest way for us to build a clean energy economy.

It is important that those opposite take note of this as it goes right to the very heart of their ill-conceived MPI motion. All of the revenue raised from the carbon price will be used to provide households with fair and generous assistance to support jobs in the most affected industries and to invest in clean energy. I will go into further detail on the household assistance package later in my contribution but I want to come back to the point that, right from the beginning of our announcement that the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee would investigate plac­ing a price on carbon, the government have consistently said that we would provide generous household assistance to offset any price increases incurred under a carbon price.

Whilst the Labor government have strongly committed to supporting households while we are taking action on climate change through our carbon price, this does stand in stark contrast to the direct action policy championed by Mr Abbott, the Liberal Party and the Nationals. The direct action policy will cost families, will hit the budget, is environmentally ineffective and is virtually friendless among economists and the business community. In fact, the Liberal Party's direct action plan will cost the average family $720 and will cost the budget over $30 billion. Figures show that the direct action policy would actually cost $30 billion, not the $10.5 billion claimed by those opposite. This means that when the direct action policy is fully implemented, the average Australian family would be $720 worse off under Mr Abbott's direct action policy—not to mention that the direct action policy is totally ineffective. Figures show that it is so environmentally ineffective it will not go anywhere near reaching the bipartisan target of minus five per cent. What we have with the direct action policy is that it will cost $30 billion, it will be the taxpayers who are left footing the bill, householders will not receive any assistance and it is totally environmentally ineffective. As highlighted by the Labor government, Mr Abbott's policy represents a climate change con job. This is hardly surprising, considering the Liberal Party is led by a man who does not believe in climate change and whose only political tactic is to oppose through dishonest scare campaigns and mindless negativity. Compare this to the Gillard Labor government. As I mentioned earlier, we have said right from our announcement that our intention is to put a price on carbon, and households will be generously assisted under our carbon price plan. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer will release further details of this assistance on the weekend.

We have already announced that all fuel, including petrol, diesel and LPG for passenger vehicles and light commercial vehicles, will not be subject to a carbon price. This is because the government is acutely aware that petrol and fuel costs are a major expense on the family budgets. Those opposite have spent months trying to convince Australians that petrol would be included as part of the carbon price. This was nothing more than fearmongering, a scare campaign of the highest order.

The government is also putting place generous household assistance to support Australian households. The Treasurer has already announced that about nine out of 10 households will receive some form of assistance through a combination of tax cuts and an increase in their pension or family payments or other forms of payments to help them with cost-of-living pressures. The vast majority of those households will not lose a cent because of the carbon price.

We are also introducing a buffer to further protect low-income earners. We will provide a safety net of 20 per cent to assist these low-income households. Over three million income earners will get a buffer of up to 20 per cent in tax cuts and payments over and above meeting the price impact of the carbon price.

We are also ensuring that self-funded retirees, who have worked hard all of their lives and provided for their own retirement, are supported through the transition to a carbon price. The government is acutely aware that a number of self-funded retirees have had a tough time in recent years with the impacts of the GFC on their retirement savings. So the government is providing financial help for around 280,000 self-funded retirees, equal to the extra payments that we are providing to pensioners, part-pensioners and carers.

We are implementing a comprehensive assistance package to support Australian families when the carbon price is imple­mented. This government has a strong track record of supporting Australians with cost-of-living pressures. Since coming to govern­ment in 2007, we have implemented a number of policy initiatives designed to reduce the cost-of-living pressures faced by Australians.

In order to support our families and ease this pressure on cost of living, the government is committed to returning the budget to surplus in 2012-13. Even as Australia experiences some devastating natural disasters, we remain committed to delivering this budget surplus, and we are on track to do so.

To ease the pressures on the cost of living for Australian families, Labor is first and foremost delivering a sound fiscal strategy. We have offset new spending to deliver savings that will hold the bottom line and combat any write-down in government revenue as a result of the high dollar. As part of this year's federal budget the Treasurer has announced that we will provide more tax assistance to Australian taxpayers on lower incomes. This will help encourage work and provide some modest help with cost-of-living pressures.

The government will increase the low-income tax offset from 50 per cent to 70 per cent. This will put something extra in the weekly pay packet—whilst it is a modest amount, we know that every little bit helps. The increase to the low-income tax offset will mean that someone with an annual income of $30,000 will get an extra $300 during the year in their regular pay.

When coming to office, we delivered the most significant pension reform since the introduction of the pension system 100 years ago. We gave over three million age pensioners, disability pensioners, carers, wife pensioners and veteran income support recipients increases in their pension payments. Since the reforms began, in September 2009, the pension has increased by $128 per fortnight for singles on the maximum rate and $116 for couples combined on the maximum rate. We have also changed the way the pension was indexed, to better keep pace with the cost-of-living pressures faced by those people on income support. Those opposite had over a decade to do something for age pensioners and they failed. They rode high on the economic boom, and failed to look after Australian pensioners.

This government has also increased the childcare rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent, to better keep in line with the rising costs of child care. As part of the budget, we announced changes to the way the childcare rebate payments are made. Parents now have the option of the rebate being paid directly to the childcare service or direct to the parent, as well as a range of options as to when the rebate is paid, whether it is fortnightly, quarterly or yearly. We recognise that Australian families need more help with their childcare costs and we have acted to support them. The latest changes provide greater flexibility to better assist Australian families with cost-of-living pressures.

Time does not allow me to continue with the list of initiatives that the government has introduced to support Australian families, but let us be clear: the Labor government is delivering significant reforms to reduce cost-of-living pressures by also providing improved public services for the Australian people.