Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Single mum Kylie has told the West Australian of the impact of Labor's cost-of-living crisis:

I had no money and was behind in my rent and couldn't even provide a birthday cake for my kids to have.

…   …   …

The cost of even a small shop at supermarkets is ridiculous.

Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spent $17,295 on a luxury party boat in Sydney Harbour. Prime Minister, when Australians are tightening their belts, why can't this Labor government?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Durack for her question. Indeed, when it comes to Kylie's circumstances, we on this side empathise with everyone in Australia who is doing it tough. Many people are doing it tough in Australia, and that's why we seek to do something about it. Now, I'm not aware of the circumstances around the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, but we host people. We hosted someone over the last couple of days, and I assure you the cost was a lot more than that for the President of Israel to visit here. That is what governments do through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. We host people. Certainly I have hosted international leaders and delegations here.

When it comes to Kylie's circumstances, though, if Kylie is in work, Kylie would have got a tax cut. Given those circumstances that Kylie speaks about, chances are she wouldn't have got anything under the government of which the member for Durack was a part. The member for Durack doesn't have the same excuse as the member for Monash; she was here when she implemented tax cuts at the high end and voted against a tax cut for Kylie. She voted against Kylie getting energy bill relief. She voted against Kylie getting support with cheaper medicines, if she has it. If Kylie has kids at school—the member for Durack opposes and regards as waste the fair funding that we have for every public school in Australia for the first time. If Kylie in Western Australia visits an urgent care clinic—I was in Ellenbrook on the weekend with the member for Hasluck, and we went to the new urgent care clinic there, and already thousands of people have gone through that clinic in that growing area of Western Australia.

We on this side of the chamber don't just empathise; we do something about it. Those on that side of the chamber opposed every cost-of-living measure that we put forward, regarded it all as waste, whether it was the record women's health program that we've established, the support for Medicare or the support for education—be it school funding, free TAFE or university hubs. They opposed real wages and minimum wages being increased, and they opposed tax cuts for every Australian.