Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

their overtime rates ripped off them and their hours of work changed. He did not care one bit then what it meant for them in meeting their family’s cost of living, what it meant for them in paying their mortgage or rent, what it meant for them in keeping food on the table for their children. So, honestly, I do find it somewhat strange that the shadow Treasurer—having made the journey from the frontbench of the Howard government to being the shadow Treasurer of the opposition—has somehow found out that there are cost-of-living pressures for Australian working families.

What is the record of the government and what are our future plans on the cost of living? We abolished Work Choices. That was very important for people’s pay packets and people’s ability to meet their cost-of-living challenges. Then we provided tax cuts three years in a row. So someone on $50,000 a year is paying $1,750 less tax than they were in 2007-08. That is 18 per cent less tax. Then, of course, because of the hard work particularly of the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, we provided a historically large increase in the pension, understanding that people on fixed incomes are often those that bear the principal brunt of the cost of living. We increased the pension by around $115 a fortnight for single pensioners and around $97 a fortnight for pensioner couples.

Then we created the education tax refund. Across the long years of the Howard government, no-one ever turned their mind to how to assist families with the costs of getting kids to school. We created the education tax refund to do that, and we will extend it to school uniforms. Then we increased support for child care. When we came to office, the Howard government was providing a rebate of 30 per cent. We lifted it to 50 per cent.

We have also provided the Teen Dental Plan, because we know dental bills do press on people. More than 200,000 teenagers have received more than one dental check under the scheme and almost a million have received preventative dental checks in total. But we want to do more and we will. We will increase the family tax rebate for parents of teenage children because we understand teenagers do not reduce costs for families—if anything they increase costs. We are moving to pay the childcare rebate fortnightly. We are providing paid parental leave—something not thought of across the long years of the Howard government other than to be opposed. We understand that Australian families do face cost-of-living pressures. That is why we are providing these measures of relief. I wait to hear just one idea from the opposition—just one idea. They are long on complaints, short on solutions, know everything they are opposed to. They have no ideas for change—not one policy that they can come into this place and put forward as their own.

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