Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I find myself somewhat bemused by the quality of the questions that were brought into the Senate today. I note that this morning the first meeting that I had was with representatives of Taiwan, talking about real challenges in our region that have a massive impact on our nation and our economy. We got no questions about that. We got no questions on this, the week that is the beginning of the third year of the war in Ukraine. We got no questions on anything of substance like that. We certainly didn't get anything on Israel and Palestine. If it's not going to be of an international frame, you'd think that they could at least maybe mount something of profound national interest.

I note that the Minister for Finance, who's the acting leader here in the Senate here this week, doing a great job, my colleague Senator Gallagher, did indicate in her response to one of the questions that in fact there were some figures out about inflation today. I reckon that matters to the Australian people. We might have got some questions about that. We might have got some questions about taxation, after the big whingefest that's gone on for weeks and months from the Liberal and National parties about taxation and their disgust at the fact that 13.6 million people in Australia are going to get a bigger tax cut. We could have got questions on that, but, no, we didn't.

But I am going to attempt to respond with integrity to what was a ridiculous question but did focus on an important issue, and that is what's happening in the seat of Dunkley. I want to take the opportunity to acknowledge that in this place we are still grieving the loss of a beautiful woman, a fine Australian by the name of Peta Murphy, who was the member for Dunkley. Like so many Australians, particularly Australian women, sadly she had an encounter with breast cancer. She had successful treatment, and then it became metastatic. In the course of the time that she was a member, she was fighting that the whole time. She didn't take her eye off that community and what it needed in terms of advocacy, though, and she engaged with the candidate who is now running in her place by the name of Jodie Belyea. As a Frankston mum with a mortgage, we know that she actually understands the cost-of-living pressures. I am sure she would never have thought that the questions we got here in the Senate today deal with anything that is real for the people of Dunkley.

Jodie is fighting for the people of Dunkley to make sure they get more of what the Albanese government can give them, which is relief, a real response, not hand-wringing nonsense—'yes, we see you are having a bit of a bad time but we can't possibly help'. We can see Australians are having some really serious challenges and because, responsibly, we agreed to a package of tax cuts and gave our word that we would honour the tax cuts that were already in the budget, the Labor government decided that the suffering of 13.6 million hard-working Australians should not go ignored, that it deserved a response. This is the government that has Jodie standing for us in the seat of Dunkley, the government focused on the real things that impact people's lives, not the nonsense that we have seen from the opposition today, and that is why we were making sure last night, when we put the legislation through here, that Australians will be able to earn more and keep more of what they earn.

The reality is for the people in Dunkley to remember when they are casting their vote on Saturday that the cost-of-living tax cuts that passed the Senate are going to mean that more than 70,000 taxpayers in that seat of Dunkley are going to get a tax cut. A retail worker who, hopefully, has joined the great union with which I am associated, the SDA, earning $73,000 a year, is going to get a tax cut of $1,504.

The people in Dunkley need a government that is focused on their real needs. They also need an opposition that is going to come in here and do a fair day's work and ask decent questions that have material impact to the people of Australia, instead of the games that we have seen played in the Senate today. There is a big win for the people of Dunkley on Saturday when they support Labor's candidate, Jodie Belyea.