Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, my question is to Senator Evans, the Minister representing the Prime Minister. Can the minister please inform the Senate how the government’s budget will help working families, pensioners and carers?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Marshall for his question. Obviously, next week on 1 July a range of budget measures come into operation. Unfortunately some of them will not, because of the intransigence of the opposition, but a number of very important budget measures will take effect. The budget delivered a $55 billion package that delivers for working families, implements our election commitments and responsibly invests in the future. These are, of course, challenging economic times and ordinary Australians are under financial strain, with increasing mortgages, rising prices and other cost-of-living pressures. The Rudd Labor government understands the stresses that these things are putting on ordinary families and people on fixed incomes. Inflation is the No. 1 enemy of ordinary Australians because it eats away at their economic livelihood. That is why this government has delivered a responsible budget that delivers to those people but also seeks to flight inflation. The $22 billion surplus that we have budgeted for, which the opposition seem to deride, is very important in setting the economic structures that allow us to fight inflation to keep downward pressure on interest rates. That is a huge assistance to those people who are trying to make ends meet.

It is a budget that delivers very much to working families through a range of important measures. Pre-eminent among them are the major tax cuts which will apply from 1 July 2008. More than $46 billion will go to taxpayers over the next four years and, unlike the previous government, those tax cuts are directed at middle and lower income earners. They are directed not at the top end of town—where the previous government directed cuts—but at those most at need. Also, we will be delivering increased childcare support by increasing the childcare tax rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent. So, again, the measures will be directly targeted at those families.

We also have the Teen Dental Plan and, of course, the education tax refund, which will assist families as their children grow and attend school. So a range of these measures are very much targeted at assisting families through the budget. These will provide relief to families who are finding it tough. The measures will go directly to their major costs and we have focused on the areas where the government can assist families with their taxation, their childcare, their education costs and their health costs. The measures also include a range of housing initiatives to assist people to meet the rising costs of housing, to help them get into homes and to provide access to more housing. For the first time in many years we have a federal government that is serious about housing issues and the stresses that people are confronting in the housing market. All of these measures delivered by the budget will be hugely beneficial to families in this country.

A range of measures that go to the benefit of carers and pensioners will also be delivered. The government is delivering $1.8 billion in bonuses to seniors. By the end of June pensioners should each receive the $500 bonus. Carers are also assisted in the budget. The government announced an extra $822 million in assistance for carers and, for the first time, carer payment recipients will receive the utilities allowance of $500. So, again, these are measures that are aimed at assisting these people dealing with economic pressures. (Time expired)

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I note that Senator Evans mentioned the budget surplus. Could he provide more information to the Senate on the role of the budget surplus in helping the government provide for working families, pensioners and carers?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Marshall for the additional question because it is important that people understand that, in addition to the direct measures contained in the budget which will directly assist families and those on fixed incomes, the overall economic strategy of the budget relies on a large surplus. The surplus is designed to provide the economic conditions to allow us to put downward pressure on inflation and interest rates. The opposition seem to have abandoned all economic responsibility and seem no longer to support a large surplus, but we have tried to ensure that our spending measures are supported by savings and increased revenue so as to maintain that large surplus. If we are allowed to get those revenue measures passed by the Senate we will be able to deliver those economic conditions for Australian families. I urge the opposition to allow this government to deliver that surplus rather than to continue to threaten it. That will enable us to provide assistance to families and people on fixed incomes.