Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I was very interested in the parliamentary secretary's answer to Senator Nash. Parliamentary Secretary, what I cannot understand is that you say half the increase will be paid by the government. To me, that reinforces the view the coalition has had that this is just another cost increase on families. I have to declare that I do not have an interest in child care. It is something I am very concerned about for other Australians but I personally do not have an interest in child care and it is not a subject I have followed closely. In the last couple of weeks, as this bill coming forward became known, some of my young friends, members of the LNP up in the north, have approached me concerning this. Their concern is that this is simply another increase in costs on ordinary Australian families which they can ill afford in this cycle.

Parliamentary Secretary, even your government is aware of the huge increases in costs of living on ordinary Australians. Power prices have been going up in my state of Queensland under the mismanagement of the Bligh Labor government for years now. When the carbon tax comes in, costs of living in Queensland will skyrocket. That will be very hard on ordinary Australian families. It is particularly difficult today if you happen to be a worker in Wollongong, where you are looking in the face of losing your job, along with 999 of your fellow workers. Through various circumstances underlying everything that is happening in Wollongong and in employment right throughout Australia, people with the money to invest in companies like BlueScope Steel simply have no confidence under this government. They have no confidence because they cannot believe anything our Prime Minister says. I am even embarrassed to say 'our Prime Minister'. I prefer to refer to Ms Gillard as the Leader of the Labor Party because she really has not given—

Senator Lundy interjecting—

I'm a disgrace? If I went to an election, Senator Lundy, and promised with my hand on my heart that I would not do something and then a couple of months later, when I won the election on the basis of that promise, I did the exact opposite from what I had promised, I would think I would be described as a disgrace, but I have not done that. It is your leader, the Leader of the Labor Party, who one year ago—

Senator Lundy interjecting—