Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition, walking both sides of the street, know no limit. Last week, in an exercise in small ‘b’ bipartisanship, they supported the package. Ever since then what we have had is the housing spokesman over there, the Leader of the National Party in the Senate and various others, including the honourable member who has just asked the question, trying to unpick it, undermine it, in an attempt to walk both sides of the street. Of course, the ultimate bottom line here is the government’s determination to provide support to those families who need assistance out there right now. There is a limit on what the budget can do. What we have done is taken an age-old definition, and that is use the family tax benefit A definition, as the best means of providing that support. It provides 75 per cent of families with this $1,000 one-off payment for each child, just as we have taken action to provide support to pensioners, carers, those on the disability support pension, those who are widows and those who are in receipt of veterans’ entitlements.

Going to the actual core of this, in terms of walking both sides of the street, the statement by the Liberal Party leader that the government is hyping the global financial crisis means that he does not understand how serious the global financial crisis is and its impact on families, pensioners, carers and those on superannuation payments. Therefore, if the Leader of the Liberal Party is out there saying that the global financial crisis is being hyped, it demonstrates that he does not understand how serious this crisis is and its implications for such basic things as the 10 million Australians on superannuation payments, which he seems to regard as a trivial matter. We do not regard these things as trivial matters. We will support Australian families and the Australian economy.

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