Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I suppose the first thing to say is that this parliament passed the carbon price legislation. This is legislation carried and enacted by the parliament that will come into force on 1 July. So the arguments about why we are doing it et cetera have been canvassed at great length in this place and we have successfully argued in the parliament that a price on carbon is a necessary economic reform for this country. Part of that is a package that we have introduced which has sought to provide assistance to families, pensioners and other members of the community to protect them against a rise in the price of things like electricity caused by the carbon price. That is the housing assistance package that the opposition opposed and they threaten to wind back.

We have focused very much on Australian families and the costs that they bear, including their housing costs, as part of the climate change assistance packages that we have put in place. Those assistance packages have been directed at middle- and low-income families, and those on fixed incomes like pensioners, to meet the costs of any flow-on effect from the introduction of a carbon price. But it is also true to say that this government have been absolutely focused on the housing challenge. We are the first government to have a housing minister in many years. As we know, the opposition when in government not only did not have a housing minister but cut public housing support by $3.1 billion. (Time expired)