Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to rise today and wish everybody a very happy 1 July, for Monday. We are at the beginning of the financial year. As much as we didn't see a countdown on the television on Sunday night to midnight and we didn't see fireworks on Sydney Harbour Bridge, it is a momentous point in time when we deserve to have a celebration by talking about exactly what happened on 1 July to make the lives of all Australians better.

We know we've got a significant financial crisis that has been brewing around the world for a number of years, and people are really, really feeling the pinch. Monday 1 July marked the day that every single working Australian got a tax cut. That's 13.6 million Australians who, from Monday, get to keep, on average, $1,900 more of what they earn each year. That's 84 per cent of taxpayers who are better off under Labor's plan. The previous tax plan by the previous government, those opposite—the Liberal and National parties—was targeted just for those people who have so much more. Under Labor, we are delivering for people who are low and middle incomes.

From Monday, we not only saw 13.6 million Australian taxpayers receive a tax cut but also saw Australian households receive $300 off their energy bills. We saw 2.6 million workers get their third consecutive pay rise. We saw the maximum cost of PBS medicine frozen and many more new medicines added to the PBS. That's before we start talking about the significant improvements we've seen for people doing it tough through things like our fee-free TAFE to help people study and learn and get into those jobs they dream of and before we start looking at the cheaper child care moves we've made, which are having a significant impact on the economic circumstances of women, in particular, across our country in being able to put their children into child care and afford to work more if they wish and to go back to work if they wish.

Two extra weeks of paid parental leave also come into play this week. These are significant changes that are going to make a difference in people's lives. They're going to make a difference to those families and to those people out there we know are struggling and making challenging decisions every single day with their household budgets. Of course, it's not just that. Over here, on the Labor side, we understand that cost-of-living pressures are many and varied. Therefore, we know that we need to do a range of different things. This isn't just about a sugar hit to the economy of putting money in people's bank accounts for a one-off scenario, as much as it sounds attractive. What we're doing is fundamentally restructuring our economy. We are doing structural things that will make a difference long into the future, not just a one-off. It will be an ongoing advantage to people out there to help them cope with the challenges we know that are front and centre.

But we're also putting downward pressure on inflation. Again, I'm coming to that structural piece. We have much lower gross debt now, which results in—funnily enough!—lower interest payments. People understand that. When interest payments go up, you pay more and more. We have gross debt down to the point where we're paying $80 billion less than at the peak of those interest payments under the coalition government. That goes to being able to rechannel things and make a difference to those people who are struggling.

We have a vision. We are looking at a sustainable future for Australia where low- and middle-income people are cared for as much as anyone. (Time expired)