Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Vocational Education) Share this | Hansard source

The member opposite does not think that is very reliable. I would draw his attention to the Prime Minister's own words where he said that NATSEM is one of the most authoritative research and reporting organisations in the country. It should not surprise us, I suppose, that the Prime Minister wants to have it one way when the argument suits him and then completely deny it the next day when it does not suit him. However, the research also shows that families will be slugged thousands of dollars even when the new childcare measures that are predicted to start in 2017 are factored in. So presuming that the government can get the childcare measures through the parliament, given that they have held them hostage to the family tax cuts, this particular modelling shows that they will not have a sufficient enough impact to provide real benefits to working families.

The modelling in particular shows that: a family with a single income of $65,000 and two children would be $6,164 a year worse off by 2018-19; a single mother with an income of $55,000 and two children would be $6,107 a year worse off in the same time frame; and a family with a dual income of $60,000 and two children would be $3,843 a year worse off. When you combine the decision by the government in this budget to talk about child care reforms, hold them hostage to family tax benefits and proceed with those particular cuts, you can see why people in my area might be very concerned.

Added to that, the government then did a complete backflip on it is paid parental leave position. Before the election, under the Labor government, for the first time ever we introduced a universal paid parental leave scheme in this country. Indeed, those opposite who will with us at the time voted for it. The main criticism that those opposite, now the government, made at the time was that it was not generous enough. The Prime Minister went out and said that he had had a road to Damascus conversion on paid parental leave, wanted to be its champion and wanted to introduce to even more generous scheme: his rolled-gold paid parental leave scheme.

What we have now seen with this budget is that not only has the Prime Minister abandoned any attempt to prosecute his own paid parental leave scheme but he has now started to dismantle the universal scheme that Labor put in place and that he voted for at the time. In fact, the women of calibre—as women were described by the Prime Minister when he was talking about his paid parental leave scheme—have apparently now turned into double dippers, rorters and scammers. I think it is a real concern for many, many families out there when they are looking at the combination of all of these factors.

My own local paper is the Illawarra Mercury. I am going to recognise journalists and photographers in my contribution. In a previous contribution today to this parliament, I talked about the fact that Fairfax Media have decided and announced very savage cuts to our regional newspapers across the area. I know, as the member opposite would well know, that other regional flagship papers—which paper was that?

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