STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator WHITEAKER (Western Australia) (13:49): I would like to wish the Liberal Party a very happy one-year anniversary today, although I think it's an unhappy anniversary. One year ago today, the now opposition leader, Angus Taylor, said that the Liberal Party would not be supporting the tax cuts proposed by our government. What does that mean for Australians?

Well, it means that if the Leader of the Opposition were the Prime Minister, if the Liberal Party were in government, then Australians would be $50 per week worse off. Isn't that disappointing. Doesn't that tell you everything you need to know about the Liberal Party.

The Leader of the Opposition said that they were a cruel hoax. I'm not sure Australians, when they're looking at their payslip after 1 July, when the next round of our tax cuts comes into effect, would say that it's a cruel hoax. I think they would say that it's genuine cost-of-living relief.

At a time when Australians are looking to government to help with the cost of living, the Liberal Party want to rip it away. It's not the only thing that they oppose. They have opposed every cost-of-living measure that we have brought before this place, whether it's five per cent home deposits and saving young people on lenders mortgage insurance, whether it's cheaper medicines, whether it's cheaper child care or whether it's more bulk-billing GPs.

The Liberal Party don't want Australians to earn more and keep more of what they earn. But this Labor government—the Albanese Labor government—does, and we will continue to deliver responsible cost-of-living relief for every Australian household when the Liberals can't be trusted to do it.