Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The louder they are, the more embarrassed they are about the fact that they are trying to oppose a policy such as this. We came to the conclusion that, if we were going to do something about the structural challenge facing the Australian economy over the medium and long term, we had to do something about participation rates and we had to do something about productivity. Here is a policy that does not discriminate against the fast-growing employment centres of small business or against businesses that are generous in their maternity leave payments to women today. Significantly, this is a policy that removes the structural discrimination against the employment of women. You receive the opportunity to continue to have financial security for the six months immediately after the birth of a child—an incentive to keep going—and, at the same time, the cost to Australia is borne by the slightly more than 3,000 companies that are the biggest company taxpayers in the country. We are talking about the biggest company taxpayers in the country—for example, BHP, Rio, the Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, ANZ, Westpac, Telstra and Optus. These are the biggest company taxpayers in the country. We are saying that we are going to increase, as a levy, the contribution of those companies so that we can put in place a structural change that will deliver greater participation in the workforce and, significantly, will grow the economy—and, as it grows the economy, it will pay for itself and the benefits will flow.

The hypocrisy of the Labor Party is once again writ large. It is writ large when they talk about ‘funding promises’. Oh my goodness! You remember the $1 billion computers in schools program that is now $2.2 billion and the Julia Gillard memorial halls that were $14.3 billion and are now $16 billion. How about the blow-out in Medicare—$1.4 billion? How about pharmaceutical expenses—a blow-out of $1.8 billion? How about the Labor Party’s $150 million solar panels program that is now $1 billion? Hello! There are no interjections now!

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