Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Of course it's right that, in taking note of answers given after question time every day, we should debate the pressures of the cost of living on so many Australians right now. Our No. 1 priority as a government is delivering cost-of-living relief. But it is completely disingenuous the way the opposition seeks to debate this issue day after day after question time. Why? Because Australians, had a coalition government continued, would have been demonstrably worse off.

So let's take a look at the facts. Under the coalition government, we had a set of income tax thresholds that would have kicked off a month ago with just the very highest of Australian income earners getting a tax cut. They backflipped on that. They never really said that our change was a good idea; they essentially said, 'Look, we can't stand in the way of a big tax cut for Australians just to give it to the very highest income earners.' At that point in time, they didn't oppose the desperate need to change that very malapportioned tax cut legislated by the previous government; they just kind of waved it through. But make no mistake: had the coalition been in government, would they have sought to reset our tax thresholds to make them more fair and equitable for the cost-of-living crisis faced by so many Australians? There is no sign or evidence that they would have.

Every Australian household is getting $300 in energy bill relief. In states like WA, that adds up to about $700 in energy bill relief. But do you know what? Not only did those opposite oppose that but the very fundamentals of power increases in Australia over a long time now have been very much driven by the lack of an energy policy and energy framework under the last government. For a long time now it has been self-evident through economic modelling and through pricing in the market right now and over the last decade or so that renewable energy is cheaper than coal and that renewable energy will continue to be cheaper than nuclear. But, of course, those opposite, who are so motivated by denying climate change that they also want to deny the most efficient forms of energy provision in our country, went on to continue to completely destabilise Australia's electricity market year after year. It was the kind of instability that absolutely deprived it of investment in new generation—that being generation which would have, with more supply, pulled down electricity prices.

Under our government we see 2.6 million low-paid workers getting their third consecutive pay rise. These are pay rises they were deprived of under the last government. We've also delivered stronger Medicare and cheaper medicines in every community around Australia.