David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer ) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Capricornia for her question. I am proud to be a part of a government that is supporting hardworking Australian families, and I know the member for Capricornia feels the same way. One of the best things we can do to support families is to have a strong economy. The unemployment figures today, showing that unemployment in Australia is at 4.9 per cent, are further evidence of how strong the Australian economy is.

But of course we understand that there are some families who are doing it tough. That is why in the budget that we have handed down we have provided assistance to working families. We have provided that assistance in the form of the schoolkids bonus but also in the form of additional payments to families. In addition to that, by returning the budget to surplus we know that we are giving the Reserve Bank the room that it needs to cut interest rates if that is what it thinks is appropriate—and, of course, that is important for Australian families. That is what this government believes managing the economy is about. It is about low unemployment, low interest rates and providing assistance to hardworking Australian families.

But of course the opposition do not care about Australian families. We saw that last night when we came forward with a plan to provide assistance to hardworking Australian families and they opposed it. They opposed it not once, not twice, but six times. Six times they opposed our plan, and they opposed it on the basis that the Leader of the Opposition said that families could not be trusted to manage their own budgets. Well, if Australian families cannot be trusted to manage their own budgets, why should Australian families trust the Leader of the Opposition to manage the nation's budget—and why should they do that when he has got a $70 billion budget crater and he has no plans to fill it? That is why he has no economic credibility.

Those on the other side are very concerned about the lack of credibility of the Leader of the Opposition. That is why I was not surprised to see reports in the papers today that there is a cunning and devious plan to parachute Peter Costello back into parliament. They figure that is about the only way they might be able to give their economic leadership a little bit of credibility.

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