Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Minister for Disability Reform. What choice has the government made to ensure we have a fair family payment system, and what are the obstacles to this?

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

I thank the member for Robertson for her question and for the very hard work that she does for families in her electorate. In this budget this government has had to make some difficult, but responsible, decisions to continue to make our family payments system both fairer and sustainable over the long term.

We know that it is important for families that we deliver to those who need it most, and we deliver it when families need it most. That is, of course, why this government delivered Australia's first national Paid Parental Leave scheme so that working parents could have some extra financial support to have time off from work when their newborn baby came along. Of course, our Paid Parental Leave scheme is fair to working women, unlike that proposed by those opposite, that would see ordinary working women and men paying subsidies of up to $75,000 to wealthy bank executives, or lawyers, to have a baby.

That is what those opposite want to do. We have seen the true colours of those opposite today, the true colours of those opposite. The member for Leichhardt, so out of touch with the needs of working women. The member for Leichhardt should be sacked: he is so out of touch with the needs of a working mother here in this parliament who needed time off to be with her baby.

This government has also done the right thing by parents by introducing the Schoolkids Bonus. We know how important the Schoolkids Bonus is for parents. It really makes a difference when parents have those extra costs at the start and in the middle of the school year. We know once again that this is what the Leader of the Opposition wants to slash. He wants to get in there and get rid of the Schoolkids Bonus, which would see parents lose hundreds of dollars every single year. We know that the Schoolkids Bonus is helping parents; in contrast, this Leader of the Opposition just wants to get out there and cut it to the bone.

This government is all about making what are sometimes very difficult choices, and this is a choice that is made in this year's budget so that we can fund the additional money that is needed for children's education. The Leader of the Opposition needs to come clean and make plain to parents: is he going to support the decisions, the difficult decisions, that this government has made in its budget, or does he have other secret plans that he is not going to reveal to Australian families?

Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. The minister talked about fairer payments. What does this mean for families in my electorate of Robertson?

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

Once again, I thank the member for Robertson. Not only is she doing as much as she can for families, but also I know that she, as a former teacher, cares enormously about what is happening in schools in her electorate. I can inform the member for Robertson that Australian families want a family payment system that is fair. They also want to make sure that they get that extra help when they need it most, and of course that does mean when kids are going back to school. There are 8,450 families in Robertson receiving the Schoolkids Bonus—that is, $410 for every primary school child, $820 for every secondary school child. What we know is that for all of those nearly 8½ thousand families in Robertson it is making a difference and lending them a helping hand when they need it.

By contrast, and I am sure the member for Robertson will be telling families in her electorate exactly this, the Leader of the Opposition will be coming around to every one of those families in Robertson, telling them that he intends to take the money straight off them. They will no longer get the support provided by this government through the Schoolkids Bonus that they need so much.