Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The Abbott government budget makes life harder for families in our community. Kingsford Smith in recent years has undergone a baby boom and has one of the highest proportions of women between the ages of 24 and 40—prospective new mums who want to be able to spend the first six months with their newborns to nurture development. But the budget changes make that near impossible for many of them as the government cuts access to the workplace top-up of paid parental leave.

How dare the Treasurer and the Minister for Social Services describe women who are trying to do the best by their newborns as rorters and double dippers? How dare they make it harder for those new mums? How dare they make those new mums choose between the recommended six months and returning to work early to continue to pay the bills?

This budget cuts family tax benefit B for single mums, making it harder for them to make ends meet with new kids. It cuts $125 million from the child dental health scheme. In our community the local Medicare office at Eastgardens is being closed and moved into the local Centrelink office, which will increase waiting times for many in our community.

The one thing we can say for certain about this budget is it makes life harder for families in Kingsford Smith, and that is why we will oppose those measures.

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