Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am also astounded at those opposite and their claim to care about some of the most vulnerable people in the community and their talk of caring about the cost of living and the impact that has on Australians. The Australian people inherited a trillion dollars of debt. The Australian taxpayer inherited a trillion dollars of debt. We're now experiencing a cost-of-living crisis, and those opposite have shown their true colours. They don't care about the people who are experiencing the full brunt of the cost-of-living crisis we've got in our country. They've spent the last couple of weeks advocating for the 0.5 per cent of the population with over $3 million in their superannuation balances. They want to advocate for 17 people, I think it is, with over $300 million. But actually the people who are doing it tough are the people on the ground. It's something like around 10 nurses that would be needed to pay for somebody's superannuation balance with over $3 million in it. They think it's okay for nurses to pay for the superannuation balances that have over $3 million in them.

Then on the point about energy, it is so rich for those opposite to get up and talk about energy prices in this country. I just want to talk about a couple of legacy pieces of those opposite. They voted against a saving to household power bills. They changed the laws to hide a 20 per cent increase in the default electricity offer. In nine years, almost a decade, they had 22 energy policies and not a single one of them worked—not a single one of 22 policies. They ignored over 12 warnings from the ACCC and AEMO about domestic gas supply. They're talking about gas. How's this for a fact: no new gas basins opened up under them. Under them we saw four gigawatts of dispatchable power leave and only one gigawatt come in. There are some facts for you, but we're still continuing to have some denial in this chamber. It's okay.

We've got a responsible plan to tackle some of the challenges we've inherited as a government. It's about relief, repair and restraint: responsible cost of living relief, like cheaper child care, cheaper medicine and direct energy bill relief; repairing supply-side constraints, like fee-free TAFE, cleaner and cheaper energy, National Reconstruction Fund and more affordable housing; and a responsible budget with spending restraint, returning almost all revenue upgrades to the bottom line and keeping spending essentially flat over the next four years to not add to inflation. I just want to repeat that: spending is flat—not wages, like the policy of those opposite. Our spending is flat and we're not keeping wages flat.

Australians understand that we didn't create these challenges, but they elected us to take responsibility for them. Our actions on the cost of living are there for people to see. I just want to spell them out: we argued successfully for a Fair Work Commission minimum wage increase in line with inflation and we've introduced legislation that will drive investment in cleaner and cheaper energy, putting downward pressure on power prices. The May budget will include direct energy-bill relief for households and businesses, which the opposition tried to block. We are delivering cheaper child care and medicines. We are delivering fee-free TAFE and more university places. We are expanding paid parental leave and we're building more affordable homes, including through the new National Housing Accord. Pensions, allowances and rent assistance have increased in line with inflation. And we've brought in a new pensioner work bonus so that older Australians can keep more of what they earn without affecting their pension. We are on the side of all Australians; those opposite are on the side of 0.5 per cent of Australians.