Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and for Disability Reform. What policies is the government putting in place to spread the benefits of the mining boom to Australian families? Have alternative policies been outlined, and what impact would they have on families?

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Disability Reform) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite very much for his question, as he knows this government is all about spreading the benefits of the boom, especially to those families who have been finding it difficult making ends meet.

Just last Wednesday families started receiving money from the household assistance package—up to $110 per child per family for families on family tax benefit part A, and up to $69 per family for those on family tax benefit part B. We want to make sure that families get this extra assistance before the carbon price starts on 1 July, and we also want to make sure that it is the big polluters that pay the carbon price, not Australian families. What we know from those opposite is that all they intend to do is to claw back this assistance from Australian families and from pensioners.

I am also very pleased to let the House know that, from 20 June, families will be receiving the first round of the schoolkids bonus—opposed by each and every one of those opposite. From January next year at the start of term 1 we will start paying the first part of the schoolkids bonus, and the second part will be paid in term 3. This will amount to $410 per child for those in primary school and $820 per child for those in secondary school. This means that one million Australian families will get more money as a result of this government's change and the introduction of the schoolkids bonus.

The Treasurer also announced in the recent budget that families are going to receive another increase next year as part of our spreading of the benefits of the boom. Families on the maximum rate of family tax benefit will get up to $600 extra if they have two children or more. This government is all about spreading the benefits of the boom, but all those opposite say to each and every one of these measures is a great big 'no'. We have just seen from the Victorian government that, while we are introducing a new schoolkids bonus, the Victorian Liberals are just getting rid of their school start bonus. We are helping families: all those opposite can do is hurt them.

Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. The minister has outlined the benefits to Australian families from the mining boom. What does this mean for my electorate of Corangamite?

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Disability Reform) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite. I know how hard he works for the people of Geelong and the people on the Surf Coast. More than 11,000 families in his electorate will receive an initial payment this fortnight to help them make ends meet before the carbon price starts on 1 July. Around 9,100 families in Corangamite will receive the schoolkids bonus from 20 June and around 10,000 families in Corangamite will get a boost to their family payments in the middle of next year. Thank goodness—because, at the same time that this government is doing everything we possibly can to help families in Corangamite, we see the state Liberal government down there in Victoria ripping money away from families as fast as they possibly can! While they are ripping money away we have every Liberal here saying no to families. Whether it is in Aston where 7,500 families would miss out if the member for Aston had his way, or in Casey where 8,500 families would miss out, or 8,500 families in Dunkley, or 9,500 families in Flinders and more than 9,000 families in Indi—you have just said no to each and every one of those families because you want to hurt them. We want to help them.