Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The PM said that he would help families with the real cost of raising children. Yet, in the bills passed this week by the House, and in his budget, he has cut $7.5 billion in family payments. These cuts will leave some families around $6,000 a year worse off. A single-parent family on $55,000 with two children will lose around $6,000 a year. That is 10 per cent of the income of that family. This move only seeks to do one thing, and that is punish the children of single parents. Every dollar that a single parent has is spent on their children, on raising children.

A parent from Castlemaine just recently met with me. She came in with a wad of bills, talking about the next six months and what this budget will mean to her. She said to me, 'Lisa, you tell me which bill I won't pay so that my daughter can go on her school camp.' This is the reality facing so many parents in my electorate and in electorates all over Australia because of the decisions of this government. This government is forcing families like this into poverty, below the poverty line.

The government talk about being the friends of small business. Have they stopped for one moment to consider the impact on small businesses of cutting $7.5 billion from the local economy? This budget is bad. This Prime Minister is bad and does not understand the impact on real Australians.