Ms :

BELYEA () (): My question is to the Prime Minister. How is the Albanese Labor government working to help Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn?

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

I thank the member for Dunkley for her question and once again congratulate her on the fine honour of following the late, great Peta Murphy into this chamber, and I wish her all the best. She knows, because the member for Dunkley has been talking to her constituents about the cost of living. In amongst a by-election campaign with trucks, with scare campaigns and with hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on advertising promoting fear, the member for Dunkley went out there and talked to people about the issues that really matter to them. She spoke to them about the cost of living and about how every taxpayer in Dunkley, and indeed every taxpayer right across Australia, will get a tax cut on 1 July. And, of course, with our tax cuts—

An opposition member: We're still waiting for it.

Those opposite wonder why—when the legislation was carried after they said they'd oppose it, then that they'd fight it and then that they'd roll it back, and then they voted for it—it hasn't happened yet. Well, it'll be in the May budget, and it will be in people's pockets every single week from 1 July, for all 13.6 million of them.

Opposition members interjecting—

They continue to disparage it across the chamber. To help those at home who can't hear the remarks going across the chamber: the average working woman in Dunkley will receive a $2,000-a-year tax cut, something disparaged and dismissed by those opposite—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fisher will cease interjecting.

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

instead of getting precisely zero, which is what those opposite wanted for those workers in Dunkley earning under $45,000. Those workers will now get a tax cut too.

But it's not just that, because this morning we passed through the Senate the biggest boost to paid parental leave since it was created by the former Labor government back in 2011: increasing it to 26 weeks by 2026 and making it more flexible and more easily shared between mums and dads so families can make the choices that are best for them and their kids. This will increase workforce participation. It's good for families, good for children and good for the economy.

Those are the sorts of measures we are putting in place each and every day because we want people to earn more and we want people to keep more of what they earn. We know those opposite want people to work longer for less. Well, that's not the Labor way, that's not what people in Dunkley voted for on 2 March, and that's not what we will make sure we work for, each and every day. (Time expired)