Clive Palmer (Fairfax, Palmer United Party) Share this | Hansard source

We need strong women in cabinet and a lot of them so that we have role models for our children and so that they can contribute to the debate in the nation. To pay a greater benefit to wealthier women and a lesser rate to poorer women only lessens these poorer women and the respect that they have for themselves.

Citizens are discriminated against by this legislation. Palmer United senators have resolved not to support this legislation in the Senate. A stay-at-home mum working hard every day for her family and Australia would get paid nothing under this legislation. It discriminates against people from the country, people in the regions, who may be engaged in a family farm—they would not be recognised as being entitled to the same benefits as a woman lawyer, a Liberal Party voter, living in the city. Regardless of the income of their mothers, a mother's love is what sustains our children. The content of a person's character is far more important than the size of their bank accounts or how much money they are earning each week.

The cost of the Paid Parental Leave Scheme has been estimated at $20 billion for the first few years. Yet they say we have a budget problem. This measure would pay 50 per cent of a free university education for all our students in the country. The cost of one year's unemployment is equivalent to the cost of 12 years' education. A strong education policy is not only good social policy; it is great economic policy.

How can we divide our people into rich and poor? How can the government declare a class war? The former Labor Treasurer declared a class war against me during the last parliament. We need to unite all Australians and unite them for a common purpose. All Australian babies are created equal, with the same rights as all Australians: the right to a fair go; the right to life in an independent country.

How can the government pay more money for babies of wealthy Australians and less money for babies of poorer Australians? What sort of message does that send to Australia? What sort of a message does that send to our neighbours in the region? We need a more compassionate and caring approach that deals with the rights of all our citizens. We want all women to be loved and respected, put in cabinet, allowed to participate in all the important decisions of the government. How can the Liberal Party reduce tax on the one hand and introduce new taxes not just in the form of paid parental leave which will be taxing our businesses but a debt tax as well, which is an imagined, illusionary tax when there are no real debt problems in Australia.

The Liberal Party is the party of Bob Menzies, Malcolm Fraser, Harold Holt, John Gorton and John Howard; the party of low taxation; the party which now increases tax. Shame on the Liberal Party! Shame! Shame on deserting the hopes and aspirations of all its members! The government should be ashamed of what it has done to all its members. Let's not divide our community. Let's not put a different monetary value on our children. We need to unite our country rich or poor, black or white, men or women.

Tomorrow is another day. Let's make it a new day for all our children, for all our businesses and for all our women. The Greens need to stand up for the rights of working women. To neglect our children is a great folly. In neglecting our children regardless of the commercial circumstances of their parents, we are neglecting Australia. We cannot be wealthy while our country is spiritually poor. As it was said:

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

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