Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. I'm getting there; I'm getting there. I was thanking Senator Pocock for advocating for people who really need help from the government—unlike the hill that those opposite are going to die on for 0.5 per cent of the population who have over $3 million in their super balances. It is an absolute disgrace. This is the hill they want to die on—but sure. There are some sensible questions coming from over here, but over there is absolutely ludicrous. We know what side they've chosen, and it is not the side of the Australian people.

We know that the tax changes they made to superannuation affect one in three people—four per cent of the population, but it will affect one in three people in 30 years time. But sure: have a crack at us. They don't want to support things that will actually ease cost-of-living pressures for Australians, like cheaper child care, cheaper medicine, skills, housing. They're focused on 0.5 per cent of the population. The people they're advocating for wouldn't necessarily care a whole lot about these things. They don't care about secure jobs. They don't care about Australian manufacturing. They don't care about affordable housing, power bill relief or wage increases for the lowest-paid workers across our economy, or veterans at risk of homelessness, women fleeing family violence or businesses looking for energy security. They don't care about any of these things, but they're advocating so, so hard for 0.5 per cent of the population.

It wasn't just Labor who inherited $1 trillion of debt from the absolutely derelict management of the budget. It's the Australian people who inherited that debt. Australian taxpayers are having to pay for the trillion dollars of debt they left them. So, I just want to make sure that we understand the problem that we are facing as a country and that Australian taxpayers are having to pay the bill for. It is an absolute neglect of responsibility on their side.

What's been really clear over the past couple of weeks is whose side they are really on. They're on the side of 17 people who have over $100 million of super. That's whose side they're on—not the side of the average Australian person. And they're on the side of the one person who has $400 million of super. But they want to absolutely try to deny a $1-an-hour wage increase for our lowest-paid workers—$1 an hour is all those workers were asking for. Those opposite want to absolutely say that that's off the table, but they want to go in hard and die on a hill for people who have over $3 million in super balances. What an absolute disgrace. They want to be on the side of 0.5 per cent of the population. It's worth saying that Labor built super. We will always protect it. We know that those opposite have a whole lot of things that they want to say no to: secure jobs, Australian manufacturing, affordable housing, power bill relief and wage increases. But what they want to say yes to is borrowing billions of dollars to give 0.5 per cent of Australians a tax break.

This measure will give the budget $2 billion in its first year. Those opposite have no solutions, no ideas and no alternatives—just 'no'. Their idea for trying to repair some of the damage done to the budget is to go after some of our most vulnerable Australians. Of course I'm talking about robodebt. Alan Tudge said:

We'll find you, we'll track you down, you will have to repay those debts and you may end up in prison.

They try to track down some of our most vulnerable Australians but they advocate hard for those with over $3 million in their superannuation.