Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Flinders realises that the point I am making cannot be debated, because he understands that Australians, by virtue of having a physical impairment, an intellectual disability or a mental illness, have fewer chances of getting a job, of owning a house, of getting an education, of getting access to buildings and of receiving equal treatment. Please spare us the hypocrisy of the debate about the one-off bonuses, when the Prime Minister has made it perfectly clear what will happen.

Peter Martin, the economics editor of the Canberra Times, says it more eloquently in his article today than I suspect I can. It is worth reading into the record what he said today. He said:

Carers themselves, while grateful for the Coalition’s last-minute budget-balancing exercises, were never happy about the way in which they were being treated. The head of Carers ACT, Dee McGrath, told The Canberra Times last week that “the problem with the bonus payments was they were nonrecurrent and this was setting up false expectations and that is always a very dangerous thing.”

He goes on:

It is the Coalition that should be condemned for the way in which it treated carers, not the Rudd Government. Had it recompensed them properly, it would have cost it a lot more ... it would have been a permanent part of the budget ...

The Prime Minister and the minister for family and community services made it clear—(Time expired)

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