Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to government plans to cut much-needed support for Australian families—to abolish the Schoolkids bonus, the income support bonus and the low-income super contribution. Can the Prime Minister explain why on one hand it is the government's priority to cut the benefits to families, to low-income retirees and Newstart recipients, but on the other hand it is their priority to give further tax breaks to some of the richest corporations in the world?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The best thing that that we can do for the families of Australia is to precisely honour the commitments that we made to them at the election. They know our country is in a mess. They know that Labor has created a mess. That is why they changed the government and now, having got our country into a mess, members opposite are obstructing the clean-up. Shame on them, Madam Speaker. The best thing we can do for the people of Australia is get rid of the carbon tax and members opposite should not be standing in the way of that.