Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

It is a genuine offer. I will shout the cup of tea and we can sit down and talk about that. The second thing that this bill pays for is that all FTB A families will receive $10 more a fortnight. That is, 1.5 million Australian families will receive $10 more a fortnight. Also, all young recipients of DSP and youth allowance will be over $10 a fortnight better off. In the long term it restrains expenditure growth, and so it assists us maintaining and achieving a surplus. It does all of these things. Yes, we are prepared to make a very difficult decision, which is to phase down and, in the end, ultimately remove the Family Tax Benefit end-of-year supplements. That is not going to be a simple thing to do. No doubt it was more popular in 2004 to introduce them than it will now be to phase them out and remove them, but these supplements at the end of the year that come as a lump sum to FTB A and B families were produced in 2004 in Peter Costello's ninth budget when he was predicting a $13 billion surplus. In the years preceding 2004, there had been a very large problem with end-of-year debts. That problem has stabilised. Into the future, we will be able to very dramatically decrease that problem with the single-touch payroll system.

We have a situation where an overwhelming number of families are receiving an end-of-year supplement to pay them to reimburse a debt that they do not have, and we think that money can be better spent—better spent on child care, better spent on the fortnightly cycle for FTB A families, better spent in a way that increases employment across that sector. (Time expired)

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