Question Time - $300 Energy Rebate
Transcript
Date: 16 May 2024
TRANSCRIPT
Ms WARE (Hughes): My question is to the Prime Minister. Who will receive the $300 energy rebate announced in the budget? Is it (a) someone who earns over $500,000 a year, (b) someone who owns three properties, (c) the Prime Minister of Australia, or (d) all of the above?
Mr O'Connor: You don't want to vote for it? You're not going to support it?
Opposition members interjecting—
The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my left will cease interjecting. The Minister for Skills and Training will cease interjecting. When the House comes to order, the—
Opposition members interjecting—
The SPEAKER: The member for Hughes was heard in silence. The Prime Minister is going to be given the same courtesy.
Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister): I thank the member for Hughes for her question. Tonight there'll be an opportunity to hear from the Leader of the Opposition over whether he supports the $300 going to every household. From the question from the member for Hughes, it sounds like they don't. That wouldn't be surprising, because they opposed it when it was targeted. And now they're opposing it when it goes to every household. This is at a time where earlier on this year they expressed outrage that people who were going to get nine— The
SPEAKER: Order!
Ms Plibersek: It's completely relevant to the question.
The SPEAKER: The Minister for the Environment and Water will cease interjecting. The member for Hughes will state her point of order.
Ms Ware: Point of order on relevance: the question was quite targeted. It went to who will receive the $300 rebate. It went to the government's policies, not ours.
The SPEAKER: Resume your seat. I know there were a number of subsets to the question, but the Prime Minister said it very early in the answer. He did confirm every household. Honourable members interjecting—
The SPEAKER: Order! The Prime Minister is going to be heard in silence for the remainder.
Mr ALBANESE: It was targeted at every household, because they're the people who are going to benefit from our $300 for every household. It was targeted at every small business. As well, of course, earlier this year we had outrage expressed that we needed to go to an election from those suggesting that everyone in this chamber should get $9,000 tax cuts rather than $4½ thousand tax cuts at the same time that workers earning under $45,000 should get exactly zero. They can't work out where they are when it comes to class warfare, whether they're attacking the top—
The SPEAKER: The Prime Minister will pause. The deputy leader knows the standing orders backwards. She knows that there won't be a point of order on relevance, because that's already been taken, but she is entitled— Mr Bowen interjecting—
The SPEAKER: Order, Minister for Climate Change! It's got to be a real point of order, not a statement or a throwaway line. The deputy leader on a point of order.
Ms Ley: I simply seek your ruling based on your earlier response to the point on relevance. This was a tight question about eligibility criteria.
The SPEAKER: Resume your seat. The time to ask me that question was when I made the ruling. I made the ruling. If you were unhappy with it, you could have taken action then. To go back in time is not possible under the standing orders. The Prime Minister has the call.
Mr ALBANESE: The fact is that they are all over the shop over there. They can't decide whether they want more or they want less, whether they want more spending or no spending, or whether they want to support aspiration or attack aspiration. What we know is that the one thing that is consistent about them is that they have no plan for the future. They have nothing positive to say, just nuclear negativity over and over again from this Leader of the Opposition and his merry band, who hand out questions but aren't capable of standing up and having the courage of asking it themselves.