STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr KENNEDY (Cook) (13:54): The Prime Minister reckons he wants to hear from young people on housing, but does he really? Andrew in my electorate wrote: Life has been hard for someone in his late 20s—my wife's a Nurse and I'm a teacher, we should be able to have a roof over our head and not worry about money...my wife and I have been saving, investing and working hard to try and build a home. …The Labor government without asking it citizens has decided to change the Capital Gains Tax discount…the investments we've worked so hard to build (for a deposit) and risked so much money on will now only give us half the profit we would have.

Simon, please please please help with rectifying this and (make them take to an election) as to whether the capital gains discount should be changed, because it's not fair on hard working people trying to get ahead. Prime Minister, this is a nurse and a teacher—people you pretend to care about. Do you know how much CGT a nurse and a teacher pay in New Zealand?

Zero per cent. Do you know what the nurses and teachers in Singapore pay, Treasurer? Zero per cent.

Do you know what a nurse and a teacher in communist China pay? The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): Direct your comments through the chair, Member for Cook. Mr KENNEDY: They pay 20 per cent.

You beat communist China by 10 per cent. We've got nurses and teachers in communist China paying lower CGT than you and the rest of your comrades have put in place. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Cook, I won't remind you again about the need to direct your comments through the chair.

Depersonalising this debate is important for the House.