House debates

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

Questions without Notice

Economy

2:13 pm

Photo of Joe HockeyJoe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, in October 2007 you promised the Australian people that you had ‘a set of policies’ to ‘lift the pressure off working families’. Since then, electricity prices are up 42 per cent, water and sewerage prices are up 45 per cent, mortgage interest rates have risen seven times in the past year and power prices are set to rise on the back of not just the new mining tax but also a coming carbon tax. Given all of this, how can the Australian people trust the Prime Minister to finally get it right and ease the cost-of-living pressures on Australian families? (Time expired)

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

I thank the shadow Treasurer for his question, though it always seems to me a little odd that the shadow Treasurer would evidence any interest in the cost of living, given he was the principal spokesperson for slashing wages under Work Choices under the Howard government. I well remember the days when he would walk into this parliament and defend rip-off after rip-off after rip-off as hardworking Australians had their penalty rates ripped off them—

Photo of Peter DuttonPeter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr Dutton interjecting

Photo of Christopher PyneChristopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr Pyne interjecting

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The member for Dickson is warned. And the member for Sturt is warned.

Photo of Julia GillardJulia 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.

Photo of Tony AbbottTony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

I have a supplementary question to the Prime Minister. It is designed to elucidate the idea that you do not make a bad situation worse with big new taxes.

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Order! The Leader of the Opposition will not debate his question.

Photo of Tony AbbottTony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

I ask the Prime Minister: why is she determined to make cost-of-living pressures even worse with two great big new taxes on everything? And why does she want two cost-of-living taxes to be her unhappy Christmas present to struggling Australian families this year?

Photo of Anthony AlbaneseAnthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: there is a limit to the breach of standing order 100 and that just crossed it. It was clearly just hyperbole and argument from the Leader of the Opposition rather than a supplementary question.

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The Leader of the House would understand that, over many parliaments, both the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister of the day have been given a degree of leniency. I just indicate, as I have indicated over the past few weeks, that when we have a question couched in the terms that this one has been couched in it opens the door very wide on direct relevance.

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

I do thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. We know that he is completely bored by economics and that his colleagues who served in government with him thought he was such a hopeless joke that he should not even be tolerated as a deputy leader, let alone a leader of a political party. Now we find that the Leader of the Opposition is so hopeless that he is starting to just make things up—absolutely make things up. He is in this parliament spruiking tax increases. He, of course, has made the whole thing up. The tax increase that working families would have faced before this Christmas, had the election result gone differently and had the Leader of the Opposition become Prime Minister, was his paid parental leave tax on companies which would have flowed through to everyday prices, delivered by the Leader of the Opposition almost immediately after he had pledged to the Australian people that he did not believe in increasing taxes.

The person who went to the last election campaign determined to increase tax was the Leader of the Opposition. The person who would have visited a tax increase on Australian working families before Christmas, if he had become Prime Minister, was the Leader of the Opposition. The person who showed that disregard for the circumstances of working families and their cost of living was the Leader of the Opposition. No amount of making up figmentary tax increases from this government, pretending that somehow taxes are being increased and raising fears for families at Christmas time—so no amount of that imagination and delusion from the Leader of the Opposition—is going to change those uncomfortable facts. Then, of course, had the Leader of the Opposition become Prime Minister, we would have seen an $11 billion budget black hole, and the only thing we are yet to determine about that budget black hole is if it is the responsibility of the member for Goldstein, or the responsibility of the shadow Treasurer or the responsibility of the Leader of the Opposition because they all blame each other about where the $11 billion black hole came from—a party that simply cannot add up. Then we have the Leader of the Opposition coming into this place each and every day with his culture of complaint, with his slogans about stopping, ending, wrecking, demolishing. Well, who said these words on 21 September, ‘We are determined to be the party of ideas and of policy innovation’? Believe it or not, it was the Leader of the Opposition. So when you have had an idea let us know, because we have not seen one yet.

2:23 pm

Photo of Darren CheesemanDarren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on the current standing of the Australian economy and what action the government is taking to modernise our economy to create opportunities for all Australians?

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

I thank the member for Corangamite for his question. I know that he is concerned about cost-of-living pressures, about jobs, about the economic circumstances of working families and he understands that his constituents need a strong economy whereby they can have a job so that they can prosper. Yesterday in this House I explained the work that had happened in Afghanistan whilst I was at the Lisbon summit. But being at the Lisbon summit also provided me with an opportunity to talk to a number of world leaders including leaders of European countries—and that builds on the opportunities I had at G20 and APEC particularly. When I had those discussions, let me assure you, one of the first things that were said in those discussions was: how has the Australian economy come through the GFC, the global financial crisis, in such strong shape? How is it that you have created 650,000 jobs in circumstances where around the world the world has gone into recession and many economies are struggling with high unemployment rates that look like they will persist, recession and large amounts of budget debt and deficit which will lead to budget cutbacks, putting burdens on the same families who are struggling with unemployment? And they look at the Australian economy and they want to know how we have done it.

We did it because as a nation we worked together. Employers played their part, unions played their part and the government played their part by their quick and decisive action to keep our economy growing and particularly to ensure that people had the benefits and the dignity of work. During the global financial crisis we acted to keep people in work, we acted to keep apprenticeships being created, we acted to help those who were made redundant get the best-quality employment services to maximise their ability to get another opportunity. We acted to support families with household assistance, we acted to keep credit flowing so businesses could have the opportunity to keep their businesses going and to have that credit. We acted to protect customers of banks and guarantee their deposits. But all of that work now means that, whilst our economy is coming out of the global financial crisis strong, we cannot sit on our laurels; we need to build the next waves of reform. Not for us the lazy ideas-free path of those opposite, not for us the lazy indulgence of the Howard years whereby the economy grew and the money generated was not invested in long-term growth. We will be investing in long-term growth—in skills, in productivity, in participation, in infrastructure. We have a reform agenda for our taxation system. We need to make sure that these reforms are delivered so that prosperity is sustained for the long term. It takes ideas, it takes policy innovation, it takes method, it takes patience and I would recommend to those opposite trying to exhibit some of those traits in their desperate and relentless search for at least one policy idea. We have not seen any of them yet.