Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Exactly, it is outrageous. These people stand to lose up to $4,700 per year. Grandparents who look after their grandkids and single parents do all they can for the kids in their charge—they usually do not have disposable income. But under this Abbott-Turnbull government they are facing a triple whammy: an increase in the GST, decreasing pensions and an end to their family tax benefit B. NATSEM, the respected social modelling agency, has said that a 15 per cent GST will affect the lowest 20 per cent of income earners, with seven per cent of their income being taken away while the top 20 per cent will only be affected by losing three per cent of their income. I will conclude by quoting the columnist Rita Panahi again in the Melbourne Herald Sun:

It's all well and good for Turnbull—

the Prime Minister, the member for Wentworth—

to wax lyrical about nautical allusions when laying out his blueprint for the taxation system, but the ordinary Australian wants to know whether the GST or Medicare levy will be increased or whether their benefits will be cut in order to balance the Budget.

As the member for Grayndler said, they say they have got a plan but they just do not want to tell anyone about it. That is what we are trying to force them to fess up to with this MPI—cuts to grandparents who are receiving family tax benefit B will hurt ordinary Australian families, and if that is what the Prime Minister, the member for Wentworth, says will happen then it is certainly not fair. If the Minister for Finance wants an area to cut, get rid of the useless plebiscite on marriage equality, costing $158 million. We are elected here to make the difficult decisions, so there is an area where he could save money immediately.

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