Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Talking about 'smart', I would not say anything, Member for Bass! I am sorry; please come back! They are precious over there, aren't they? So what happens today is that ScoMo comes back with a plan which our person suggested to him the other day. But the real problem is not their chaos; it is their broken promises. It is what the Prime Minister still says. There is one thing I admire about this Prime Minister: he sticks to his line no matter what is happening. Actually, he doesn't, does he; I take that back. I was just thinking about paid parental leave then. He says, 'We the coalition government are not going to repair our budget this year at the expense of your family budget.' None other than T. Abbott, member for Warringah, leader of Her Majesty's government in Australia, said, 'We the coalition government are not going to repair our budget this year at the expense of your family budget. That is a lie and it is still a lie, and it remains a grievous lie.

This coalition government are out there claiming the budget is good news for families. If they think this is good news, I would hate to see what they think bad news is. NATSEM analysis shows that nearly one in two Australian families will be worse off. That is 1.4 million working families. We put it on the record and we challenge the government to contradict it with their own evidence—although, this is a party who does not like windmills, so I do not know what evidence they will ever rely upon!

Mr Nikolic interjecting—

I'll tell you what NATSEM says, Sunshine: eight out 10 families with children, earning below $75,000 will lose out overall. Understand the verb I used there was 'earning'. This is a government who likes to blame everyone on a pension as some sort of welfare cheat.

An honourable member interjecting—

I would say they are the friends of the people who are earning. How can this be the case if eight out of 10 families earning less than $75,000 lose out overall? Before some of the people in the government start protesting about these facts, let me tell you the people that we are describing: carers, teachers, police, firefighters, paramedics, social workers. So Labor's message to Australian families is clear: Joe Hockey might think that you don't have good jobs—a good job being enough to buy a house in Sydney. Scott Morrison might choose to denigrate you. But what we can promise you is that Labor will not denigrate the people who are working hard. We value what you do and we think you deserve support for the extra costs of raising a child. Slashing family budgets for Australians already in work is not an incentive. It is not a plan for the future. It is punishment. It is a betrayal of people doing their best to raise children, build community, pay taxes and make ends meet.

I turn to some of the families who are so affected and the detailed matters. Families with newborns: what is happening is that 90,000 women are having reduced support through parental leave changes that this government is now advocating. This means 90,000 Australian women will lose up to $11½ thousand that they would otherwise get, because of this government's changes; 45,000 women will lose part of their paid parental leave; and 34,000 women will lose the entire $11½ thousand. But it does not stop with families and newborns. There are families with toddlers. The government's childcare changes will push some families out of the childcare system altogether. Analysis by Goodstart Early Learning shows that as many as 100,000 children will be worse off. These are the numbers which Labor are concerned about. Families will be up to $4,600 a year worse off. Yet the government is willing to spend the equivalent of $22,000 a day on advertising before parents see any change in their childcare subsidy from this government. Then, of course, there are families with children at school. A family on a single income of $65,000 will be $6,000 a year worse off by 2018-19. A single mum with an income of $55,000 and two children will be $6,000 a year worse off by 2018-19. The family with two children and on a dual income of $60,000 will be nearly $4,000 a year worse off. What I promise the families of Australia is that you will not be the forgotten families of Australia under a Labor government. We will make families an issue. We will demonstrate to this government and we will carry the message every day between now and the election that the Australian people know an out-of-touch government when they see it. They don't like to be patronised. They don't like to be lied to. And they certainly don't like the attacks on families by this government.

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