Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has said that this was a budget of tough choices. How tough was it for the Prime Minister to choose between ripping away more than $6,000 from a single mother with two children earning $55,000 as a nurse while handing $50,000 to a millionaire plastic surgeon to have a baby?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the Deputy Leader of the Opposition well knows, it has been the consistent policy of this coalition to have a fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There will be silence on my left.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

because we believe that paid parental leave is a workplace entitlement not a welfare one. I should point out that the parent earning some $55,000 would be much, much better off under the coalition's paid parental leave scheme than under that put in place by the former government.