News

13 December

The Government’s MYEFO is a missed opportunity to speed up targeted help to Australians doing it tough whilst ensuring not to add to inflationary pressures.  

More support is needed to provide relief for small businesses whilst keeping spending in check to ensure inflation continues to come down and that those under mortgage stress have relief in the near future. 

Over this holiday season, many Australians are in serious cost-of-living crisis, impacting their ability to buy food, pay their mortgage or rent and run their small business.  

Warringah constituents should know that there is ongoing relief that they can take advantage of – including an increase in childcare subsidies, cheaper medicines, more support for mental health and suicide, and upcoming legislation will bring a higher instant asset write off threshold and support for energy efficiency and electrification upgrades to reduce power bills. 

The support for electrification from the May 2023 Budget is in response to consistent calls from the crossbench and I’d encourage constituents to take advantage of it. 

I support such initiatives, but the government needs to speed up cost-of-living support without putting fuel on the inflationary fire. 

The government’s changes to the luxury car tax are welcome and will encourage a greater uptake of more fuel-efficient vehicles in the coming years. Under the changes, the new definition for tax purposes reduces the maximum fuel consumption from 7 litres to 3.5 litres for every 100km. 

The ACCC and the government needs to do more to investigate and take action on the major supermarkets and banks, making record profits at a time of cost-of-living crisis with disproportionate price increases.  

More support is needed for the most vulnerable in our communities on JobSeeker – the recent boost of $56 per fortnight is not enough according to experts and even Treasury’s own analysis. 

It was a missed opportunity that MYEFO didn’t include a response to the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States. We urgently need a proportionate, clear response to the massive investment in clean energy technology that has been unleashed through the Inflation Reduction Act or we risk falling behind in grabbing the opportunities for our own clean energy transition to a Net Zero economy.