Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Minister for Social Services. Will the minister update the House on what steps the government is taking to help families through more affordable access to child care without costing taxpayers more?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Tangney for the question on the budget. I am pleased that members on this side of the House are still interested in asking questions about the budget. Those opposite have clearly put up the white flag on the budget. They have put their push modelling in the bin and they have decided to spray questions around from one topic to another, and they have lost interest in this year's budget. But we have not, because we know that this budget is going to deliver choice for families; it is going to deliver jobs for families and the choice to be in work and stay in work. We know that, if you are concerned about the taxpayer, if you have an interest in the taxpayer, you will always put forward measures that you know how to pay for. You will always know how to pay for the promises that you make. If you do not, you are like the Leader of the Opposition—you are just a budget smuggler. You are someone who thinks you can just announce things without having to pay for them. You are like the shadow minister for social services. When asked how you are going to pay for this increase in support for child care, 'Well, you have got to pay for it somehow,' she says—somehow. You have to go to the somehow bucket. The member for McMahon has a bucket over there; it just says 'somehow'. You pull all the costings and the funding for your policies out of that.

The way we are doing it, the way we are going to pay for Jobs for Families, for that package which is providing support for child care, is we are using the same measures that, frankly, those opposite did when they were in government. We are making changes to freeze payments for family tax benefits and other measures, which is exactly what those opposite did when they were in government: $7 billion worth of savings for freezing the indexation of family tax benefit, some $6 billion that was saved for scrapping the linking of pension indexation with family tax benefit indexation and abolishing increases to family tax benefit—some $15 billion. In addition to that, what they also did is abolish the grandfathering arrangements for parenting payments. It is interesting when you look at the Leader of the Opposition's record on this, because, when the Howard government introduced this with grandfathering, he said that Labor described the welfare change as extreme, accusing the government of lifting money out of the pockets of sole parents, and said there was 'no evidence that dumping people onto the dole' would 'help them get a job'. But, when he was abolishing the grandfathering arrangements which led to these same outcomes, this is what he said:

The changes to parenting payment will encourage parents with school age children to re-enter the workforce sooner and to ensure a fair and consistent set of parenting payment eligibility rules.

What we know about this Leader of the Opposition is that what he supports today he opposes tomorrow, and what he opposes today he supports tomorrow.

Ms Butler interjecting—

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

The member for Griffith is warned.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He knows that, if you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there. And we know that this Leader of the Opposition is on a road to nowhere.