Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition continually puts out policies—I guess it is the pleasure of being in opposition to just throw these policies out there, not really costing them, not caring how they are going to be costed—but the shadow Treasurer cannot explain them and the shadow finance minister certainly cannot explain where all this money is coming from. We are now up to a $70 billion black hole. I am very confident that will continue to grow between now and the next federal election.

I could stand here for the couple of minutes that I have remaining and keep talking about how much the opposition truly values women. The fact is that this Gillard Labor government has delivered for women. It is delivering for families. It was the first government to introduce the Paid Parental Leave scheme. It could have every single member of the opposition stand up in this chamber and say how great their parental leave scheme was but, guess what? For 11 years they chose not to introduce a scheme. They did not even want to talk about it. It was not worthy of discussion; the Leader of the Opposition would rather have seen it introduced over his dead body. That is how much he thought of it. It is hard to give them any credibility on this issue.

This Labor government has delivered, and not just for women who have babies. We will continue to provide assistance for families well into the future. Look at the childcare rebate, which increased to 50 per cent, increases in the family tax benefit and the assistance to families with teenagers. Under the Howard government, as soon as young people became teenagers the family tax benefit dropped. We recognised that they do not become cheaper as they get older. We are providing that support—such as the assistance for teenagers for dental checkups. These are the sorts of things that this government is doing.

Yes, we will introduce action to deal with climate change. We accept that there are cost implications but we as a Labor government will provide assistance for those costs. We are committed to reducing the company tax. We are the ones who are increasing superannuation. The alternative is to increase company tax and oppose increases in superannuation. Everything they want to do will cost the community. The member for Menzies spoke of the cost of living and grocery prices. Does he seriously believe grocery prices will not go up with a 1.5 per cent slug on company tax? This government will reduce company tax. It will help working families by supporting jobs, increasing superannuation, dealing with the environment, investing in infrastructure and looking after education. (Time expired)

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