Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like many Australian women, I watched in utter shock yesterday as the Treasurer made an announcement that 80,000 Australian mums will be losing part of their entitlement to paid parental leave. The worst thing is that this was all presented as a measure of 'fairness'. I think we all learned last year, when that toxic budget was handed down by the government, that these people have absolutely no understanding of what fairness means. And this policy announcement is further evidence of that.

One of the things I am finding most frustrating is that I thought—perhaps foolishly—that this could be one shadow of an issue on which the Prime Minister had actual genuine conviction. We heard the Prime Minister say several years ago that a paid parental leave scheme would be introduced in this country over his dead body. Then we had this charade of a signature announcement that he would lay his life on the line for this policy. And what we see now, the shock that we see now, is that in this budget they are introducing a policy that will see 80,000 to 90,000 Australian women worse off at one of the most vulnerable times in in their whole lives.

The Treasurer tried to sell that budget last year by telling us that this was all about the children. I say to the Treasurer: if that is the case, why are you tying changes to child care to a $6 billion cut to family tax benefits that will see some of the poorest families in this country $6,000 worse off? Those opposite have no idea about fairness and I reject these changes.

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