Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader (Tasmania)) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw the word 'lie', but what I will say is that those opposite obviously feel very, very uneasy about the truth being spoken in this chamber, because it was so obvious. The scare campaign that has been waged by the Treasurer and the fact that he has been less than truthful with the Australian people are obviously quite embarrassing for those on the other side. I'm sure many who are listening to this have seen on Twitter the video where the Treasurer has displayed his lack of ability in being truthful to the Australian community.

Every time Mr Frydenberg and the Liberal Party attack Labor's reforms to trusts, negative gearing and refundable franking credits, that is them choosing to maintain tax concessions that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy over funding for better schools and hospitals—and I make no apology for that. I have a hot tip for those opposite, off the back of the Victorian election over the weekend, about trying to use old scare campaigns that didn't work in Victoria: they ought to take a good look at themselves and realise that the Australian public are much smarter than that. They're not going to succumb to the untruthful messages that the Treasurer and those on the other side speak about. Your doom-and-gloom predictions around sledgehammers and recessions are economically irresponsible.

I want to briefly touch on the Liberals' Women's Economic Security Statement, announced last week. Minister O'Dwyer's comments were too little, too late. They are a government that over the last five years have lurched further and further to the right, and now they are in panic mode after being decimated at the Victorian state election. The coalition's Women's Economic Security Statement does nothing about the gender pay gap and nothing about the retirement income gap, which is quite serious. There is no attempt to address that.

Only Labor has a plan for working Australian women, with $400 million to boost women's superannuation balances for a more secure financial future, including paying superannuation on Commonwealth paid parental leave. In our first 100 days we will restore Sunday penalty rates for up to 700,000 workers—great news for hundreds of thousands of women, particularly in my home state of Tasmania. Labor will take action to close the gender pay gap, including greater transparency and accountability for business and government, so that, if men and women are doing the same work, they get the same pay. We will introduce 10 days paid domestic violence leave to the National Employment Standards and $88 million for emergency housing—