Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be speaking on this matter of public importance because no government has delivered better for families than this Rudd Labor government. We have seen, very interestingly, that this MPI today is about the failure of the government to deliver on its election promises for Australian families but the opposition has not mentioned families once. In fact, in his contribution the Leader of the Opposition was reminiscing about the early Howard years and talking about the great achievements of those years being gun control, industrial relations and economic reform. There was nothing about families, and that is because the Howard government achieved nothing for families. We have achieved more in three years for families than the previous government did in 12 years. What I took away from the Leader of the Opposition’s contribution was that he not only finds economics boring but he also finds families boring.

A lot of this debate has been about broken promises. I certainly remember a promise by the previous government that they would keep interest rates at record lows. Instead, what we saw were 10 interest rate rises in a row putting a huge strain on families at the same time that the previous Prime Minister was telling families they had never been better off. That was a significant broken promise by the previous government. But the broken promises did not stop at the broken promises for families by the previous government; they also begin with this Leader of the Opposition. As we famously know, it depends on whether something has been written down as to whether or not it is a promise or a broken promise or the gospel truth—it is hard to know with this Leader of the Opposition. We have seen a huge backflip from him: he said he would not introduce any new taxes and then, quite soon after, we saw the Tony Abbott big new tax on everything. If he were to be elected, bread would cost more, milk would cost more, and this would have a very big impact on Australian families.

We did not hear anything about families either from the Leader of the National Party or from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. That is because they have no coherent plan for families. They are erratic and cannot be trusted to deliver for Australian families. Instead, it is the Rudd Labor government that is getting on with delivering on its election promises and making sure that it is easing the cost of living for families.

I will point first of all to the tax cuts. There have been three sets of tax cuts over three years which have had a huge impact on many families. Our education tax refund has had a big impact on reducing the cost of education. We have heard a lot about school buildings, computers and trades training centres. In my electorate of Kingston, trades training centres are being delivered on the ground. Computers are being delivered into schools. What we do know is that if the Leader of the Opposition became Prime Minister, these important programs that help families and help kids get a good education would get an asterisk: ‘discontinue’. This would have a significant impact for many families who want to give their children the best start to life. Many families in my electorate cannot necessarily afford a laptop or high-tech technology, so their children need access to that at school.

Not only have we been delivering on the education tax refund; we have also invested in the area of health. We have seen GP superclinics right around the country. I was very pleased to be with the Parliamentary Secretary for Health in my electorate turning the first sod of the $25 million GP superclinic that will provide essential health care to families living in my electorate. Again, we know that the Leader of the Opposition is not interested in health and just wants to cut this very important program, along with many other health programs that we have heard health ministers talk about.

Most importantly, we know that the opposition opposed our intervention when there was a global financial crisis. They opposed our intervention to make sure that people had jobs in our community. They would have preferred the unemployment queues to get longer and longer, with families suffering without paid employment. It was this government that was decisive in acting and making sure that families had jobs—

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