Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased that the shadow Treasurer has raised the baby bonus, because this was actually a subject on the Alan Jones program today. I am so pleased that the shadow Treasurer has introduced the whole question of the baby bonus, because not only are those opposite making policy on the run on paid parental leave; they are also making policy on the run on the baby bonus—the other form of support for mothers who have new babies. Alan Jones said:

You’re removing the ceiling that the Rudd government put, a ceiling of $150,000, so the baby bonus is available to all women who have babies.

Tony Abbott: Well, well, what I’m talking about at the moment is paid parental leave. I’m not revisiting, at this point in time, the government’s decision to put a means test on the baby bonus.

Alan Jones: I thought you said you’d scrapped that yesterday.

Well, so did we, but of course that was last week’s policy. Now we are into a new week and a new policy from those opposite—once again, policy on the run, just endless thought bubbles coming out of those opposite. They certainly cannot be trusted when it comes to paid parental leave. They cannot be trusted with other family tax benefit policy. They cannot be trusted with the baby bonus—all of these issues, different positions, different policies, different places. Australian families deserve so much better than that.

Of course, it is a Rudd Labor government that is going to deliver the first paid parental leave scheme to this country. You had the opportunity when you were in government to introduce paid parental leave, but you did not want to do it. In fact, the current Leader of the Opposition said he was dead against it. He said it would be over his dead body. Now, somehow, parents are supposed to believe what he says—that he somehow has had a complete transformation and that somehow he is actually supporting paid parental leave. Australian parents are not going to be conned. They are not going to be conned by this latest thought bubble from the Leader of the Opposition.

Not one business group supports it. Plainly they were not consulted. Not one business group was consulted. We have had the Business Council of Australia, ACCI, the Australian Industry Group—all of these people—out there making absolutely clear that they think that this latest thought bubble from the Leader of the Opposition just is not serious. They know that the truth about this is that it just is not serious. It cannot be believed. It has a massive new tax at the centre of it. It has absolutely no detail and no timing. We have no idea when this is going to be put in place. We have no idea whatsoever when the tax will apply. Some people in the opposition call it a tax and some do not call it a tax. Some people—they include, of course, the economic spokesperson opposite—have no idea how many companies it is going to apply to.

There are so many questions that remain unanswered, because it is all about policy on the run. We have seen all of the main media commentators today showing us what it absolutely is: policy on the run. It is a complete sham, and Australian parents know exactly that. They know that the Leader of the Opposition cannot be trusted when it comes to family policy. This government will deliver the first national paid parental leave scheme in this country. It is what parents deserve. They deserve nothing less.

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