Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Acting Prime Minister. Acting Prime Minister, Australians are suffering under your government in relation to rising cost-of-living pressures, at the supermarket, in their electricity bills, in their gas bills, at the bowser, when they renovate their homes and certainly in relation to the increasing mortgage payments that they have to make under your government. With these increasing pressures on Australian households, will the government rule out tax increases, which would further increase cost-of-living pressures, in the upcoming budget?

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. Our position on tax, as we took it to the election, is well known, and there have been no changes to that position since the election.

It's ironic, though, that we get this question from the opposition, because one of the great myths of Australian politics is that the Liberals will always tax less, when in fact the truth of the matter is that the highest-taxing government in Australia's history was the Howard government and the second-highest-taxing government in Australia's history was the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government. Those opposite are the ones who go for higher taxes. In fact, when you think about it, over the last 10 years, if you'd been a Menzian Liberal and you'd imagined that you were going to support a party which was about low taxes and small government and small spending, and you looked at this lot—it says everything about why Kooyong is no longer in their pile.

Now, we are absolutely committed to—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I'll just ask the Acting Prime Minister to resume his seat.

Opposition members interjecting—

Order! Members on my right! The leader will be heard in silence. I give the call to the Leader of the Opposition.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, it's on relevance: the Acting Prime Minister is saying nothing to the hurting households across the country in this arrogant contribution that he's making, which is based on fiction not fact.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The leader will resume his seat. The Leader of the House.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just a point of order: you've previously made rulings about the Leader of the Opposition misusing points of order in that way. He raised a point of order at the beginning and then went on to just a general rant, which should not be allowed.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I call the Acting Prime Minister to remain relevant to the question. He is talking about taxation rates, and I ask him to return to the question.

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We do understand the pressure that many households are facing with their budgets with increasing interest rates, and easing the pressure on the cost of living is one of the first priorities of this government. It's why we've increased the minimum wage. It's why, this week, we have two bills in the parliament which are about making medicines cheaper and child care more affordable.

But let me make this point. In terms of the pressures that people are facing in managing their household budgets, a critical pressure is in relation to energy prices, and that is in no small part due to a lost decade of economic reform when it comes to dealing with the question of energy, where they had 22 different energy policies and failed to land one of them.

Now, dealing with the cost of living is core business for this government. Our position on tax is very clear; it hasn't changed. But what Australians know is that, in this government, they have a government which is going to fight for their household budget.