Senate debates
Monday, 7 November 2011
Bills
Clean Energy Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Income Tax Rates Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Household Assistance Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Tax Laws Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Fuel Tax Legislation Amendment) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Customs Tariff Amendment) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Excise Tariff Legislation Amendment) Bill 2011, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment Bill 2011, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Unit Shortfall Charge — General) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge — Auctions) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge — Fixed Charge) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (International Unit Surrender Charge) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Charges — Customs) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Charges — Excise) Bill 2011, Clean Energy Regulator Bill 2011, Climate Change Authority Bill 2011; In Committee
10:34 am
Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source
Yes, hear, hear! I will take that interjection from Senator Bernardi. They do not like working Australians, low-income Australians, getting more. We have given them more of the share of assistance than we have given high-income Australians. Let us have a look at what we are providing: an additional $510 per annum for couples combined on pensions; up to $110 per child under FTBA; up to $69 for FTBB; and additional funding, as I said, for pensions and also for self-funded retirees who held the Commonwealth seniors health card.
We have also put in place as part of this assistance package, tax reform. We will triple the tax-free threshold. That will give a benefit not only to low-income Australians but also to secondary-income earners. This is a very important part of the government's package. It will increase participation and it will give a tax cut to every Australian earning under $80,000 a year. We have unashamedly skewed this assistance to low-income Australia—and the opposition hate that.
Senator Mason interjecting—
They have, Mr Temporary Chairman—if I could shout over Senator Mason shouting at me—consistently said things such as, 'We object to the redistribution.' Do you know what they are actually saying? They do not like low-income Australians—pensioners and people earning under 80 grand—getting more of the assistance than high-income Australians. That is what they are actually saying.
So do not come into this chamber and lecture us about low-income Australians. You are the party that in government never provided the sorts of assistance—paid parental leave, increased childcare rebate, increased pensions and ripping away Work Choices—that we have provided. You have never put in place the funding for health and education and the investment in Australian families that we have put in place. We put in place these things because we understand that our job is to manage the economy for the benefit of working families.
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