Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about this government, this out-of-touch Prime Minister, tax and families. This Prime Minister has in front of this chamber changes to the family tax benefit that will impact on 21,000 families in my electorate. That is a third of my electorate who are set to lose up to $4,700 a year. There are only 3,000 families in the member for Wentworth's own electorate that would have this fate put upon them. On top of this, he wants to increase the GST to 15 per cent. That is a 50 per cent increase. He also wants to broaden the base of what already attracts the GST to schools, fresh food and health. This is a 15 per cent increase for families. NATSEM says that that would cost $5,000 a year for a typical family.

So in my electorate we are looking at a third of our families who are now down $9,700. Everything will cost more under this plan. The disposable income of families in my electorate will actually decrease by nearly $10,000. Think about the cumulative impacts of that. It all spells bad news for Lalor, bad news for small business and bad news for the building industry. If the building industry slows down in my electorate, the cycle continues. This government and this Prime Minister need to take a look around Australia and the people they plan to hurt.