Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

The typical Australian family earns more in wages and pays more in tax than it receives in benefits. This side of the House want to see more families in that situation. We want to see more families earning more by working more. We want to see more families that are paying more in tax than they are receiving in benefits.

That is what our jobs and families package does. That is exactly what it does, as does the excellent small business package, which will see more and more Australians working in small business, which is the engine room of growth. Why is that the case? It is because we found that around 50 per cent of families who wanted to work more could not because of lack of access to affordable child care. They wanted to choose to work more, and that choice was being denied by lack of access to affordable child care. The jobs and families package is all about giving those families who want to work and not be on welfare more opportunity to work. In addition, 24 per cent of those families said that, as a result of the jobs for families package, they would work more. We want to see families in work, not in welfare.

The vision of those opposite in relation to families—the Benjamin Button vision or whatever vision it is that the Leader of the Opposition has—is that a typical family is a family on welfare. We do not want to see families on welfare. We want to see families exiting the trap of welfare and entering the opportunity of work that is being denied as a result of lack of access to affordable child care.

Ms Macklin interjecting—

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