Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Let's just get a couple of facts on the record in response to that contribution. As a fellow New South Welshwoman, I have great respect for Senator Kovacic and the people who elected her, but I do sense some glee when she describes concerns about housing. I'm very concerned about housing and about people getting access to housing. But one thing they need to come to terms with and tell the truth about in this place is their permanent opposition—when they team up with the Greens to prevent the advance of legislation to support the delivery and development of housing. If anybody is getting in the way of the hope of getting a house among young people in New South Wales—and the not so young—and the people whose lives have fallen apart and who are starting again on their own later in life, it's not this government. It's the whingeing opposition and the chorus of Greens who support them in blocking the movement of this government towards the delivery of a vital need of Australians, which is housing. So let's just get that one on the record.

With regard to the visas, with all the hand-wringing that goes on, let's just be clear. It doesn't matter where you come from or what visa you are on. The reality in Australian law is that everyone who applies for an Australian visa is subject to the same security standards. There's no special deal for one group over another. The reality is that the same standards apply. Those standards are not set by anybody who's in here; they're set by the agencies. The same personnel are applying those same security standards without fear or favour to everyone from everywhere and continuing exactly what happened under the former government. So let's be clear about that in response to some of the nonsense that has been put forward by those opposite today.

But I dare say that most people who might be in a car somewhere, driving and listening to this reflection on what just happened in question time, will be much more interested in the things that Labor is actually doing to help them, their fellow Australians, their family, their friends and their workmates. Let's just go through a few of the things that Senator Wong put on the record once again. Unlike the opposition, the Liberal and National parties, who are almost dying for a recession to come on, we know that we want to support Australians, and that's why we are delighted to have seen and supported 2.6 million low-paid Australian workers getting their third pay rise. That's very different from those opposite, who said that low wages are a design feature of their economic policy. There is a huge difference in the vision of what's fair for Australians from those who sit on this side to those who would be the alternative government if they could get the votes together.

You want to be very careful about thinking about giving any consideration to the Liberal and National parties, who claim to be great economic managers. Let me tell you that they're after $315 billion. I wonder if they're going to cut the $315 billion from people who are getting support from this government with regard to Medicare. There are a million Australians, some of them your friends and some of them your family, who are on low incomes. They're earning, but nine per cent of taxpayers are on low incomes. They are continuing to be exempt from having to pay a Medicare levy charge under this government, or they pay it at a reduced levy rate, and that helps them with their cost of living. I tell you who it helps the most: it helps women, because 57 per cent of the beneficiaries who get that assistance so they don't have to pay that Medicare levy are Australian women. That's $640 million. Is that part of the $315 billion that they want to cut?

What about the energy rebates that 10 million Australians are going to get? The government is investing $3.5 billion to assist Australians in this time when there is a struggle. A $300 rebate is nothing, according to those who spoke this morning here. The reality is that we want to help 10 million Australians, not take away from them.