Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis has acknowledged some of her constituents will be hit hard by the federal budget but said her "instincts" told her the Coalition would deliver "a very fair" plan on Tuesday night.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The southern Illawarra Liberal representative said some reports based on budget leaks over the past few weeks were "fiction" that had been "incredibly destructive to a whole lot of people".
For example, she had heard from a number of pensioners and welfare recipients who were worried about the tightening of eligibility for family payments and the tightening of the disability support pension.
"A lot of these things won't happen and they've been given all this terribly bad news to stir up their fears ... For some of these people on disability support pensions - who in 90 per cent of the cases their case will be reviewed and they will be put back on disability support - this has been devastating," she said.
Ms Sudmalis said her government would deliver a budget "for the national betterment", and had been elected to "fix the budget problem".
She said there were two sides to every tough measure.
For instance, the forecast move to charge an extra $6 for visiting a bulk-billing doctor would be "very hard on the people of Gilmore because there are not enough doctors who bulk bill".
"For other people in the electorate, they will be able to work with it, but for a lot of people it's going to be very difficult," Ms Sudmalis said.
Similarly she said the projected deficit tax, which would impose a 2 per cent levy on those earning above $180,000, would affect constituents in different ways.
"The average income of Gilmore is $46,500, so well below the amount that would be affected [by the deficit tax]," she said.
"But there are some people who have come to see me who say 'this is not fair, I've worked hard all my life and now I'm going to be hit with an extra tax'."