Transcript
Ms LE (Fowler) (14:49): My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, the government’s one-off $300 rebate that you claim will help all Australians with their energy bills starts today. CPI is still around four per cent, according to the ABS. We know the rebate in tax cuts your government announced will not be enough to pay for the increases in food, energy, petrol prices, rents and housing needs which many families in Fowler are facing. Will you guarantee struggling families in Western Sydney won’t go backwards with the cost of living from today due to your government’s announcements?
Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister) (14:50): I thank the member for Fowler for her question. I’m sure that she would welcome the support for the 62,000 taxpayers in her electorate who’ll get a tax cut today. Now, I’m asked whether that will make them go forward or back. That’s extra cash in the pockets of 62,000 taxpayers, and for an electorate like Fowler, which has far fewer taxpayers than the national average—than my electorate, for example—on the top tax rate and far more who earn less than $45,000 a year—
Ms Ley interjecting—
The SPEAKER: The Deputy Leader of the Opposition does not need to interject with those sorts of comments. The Prime Minister is being directly relevant in mentioning the member’s electorate.
Ms Ley interjecting—
The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is warned, and the Prime Minister will continue.
Mr ALBANESE: The decision that we made to change the tax cuts and their direction from the Liberals’ tax cuts, which would have seen people miss out, will directly impact, in a positive way, members of the Fowler electorate. Every single household will benefit from the $300 reduction, every small business in her electorate will benefit from the $325 reduction, and anyone who has a child on way will benefit from the additional two weeks of paid parental leave. The elderly people in her electorate who rely upon PBS medicines will benefit directly from what we’re doing with the five-year freeze for people on pensions and fixed incomes, while everyone will benefit from the one-year freeze.
In addition to that, every single worker will benefit from the increase in superannuation. All of that—higher wages and lower taxes—will benefit people in her electorate, and all of them were opposed by those opposite. I’m sure the member for Fowler will support the other changes that we have in mind, which are stuck in the Senate—like the additional money for housing, which remains there, and like the plan that we have which will only impact those people who have $3 million in super, who are more likely to be in my electorate or the electorate of Wentworth than in the electorate of Fowler. I’m sure that the member for Fowler will support the government’s initiatives because they are delivering for her electorate. (Time expired)