Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to the Prime Minister's failure to answer my previous question about family payments. When will the Prime Minister admit that over one million Australian families will have their family payments cut because of the legislation the government introduced today? How can the Prime Minister stand there and pat himself on the back for attacking the living standards of over a million Australian families?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know the honourable member is not a master of detail, but let us be quite clear about this: our childcare reform will benefit directly almost one million Australian families. The greatest beneficiaries will be families on low and middle incomes. It delivers the highest rate of subsidy—85 per cent—to those who need it most, those earning around $65,000 or less. It would mean a working family on an income of $60,000 a year would pay around $15 a day for child care. This is enabling more Australian parents, more Australian mothers and fathers, to stay in work, to stay connected to the workforce, to be able to balance the obligations of family and the need—both economic and professional and in every other way—to stay engaged in the workforce.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order?

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Relevance. This is the second question in a row to the Prime Minister where I have asked about family payments. Why won't you talk about the cuts to family payments? What—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. The Prime Minister has the call.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The honourable member talks about relevance. The only things that he regards as especially irrelevant are the needs, the jobs, the budgets, of Australian families. If he thought they were relevant, he would not have a set of reckless policies the only object of which is to put businesses out of business, to send families to the wall. He has no concern for the economic consequences of the reckless ideological policies he pursues. The Labor Party has pursued them nationally and at state level, and, if you want to see what Labor's ideological, reckless approach to energy delivers, then visit South Australia, and there you will see it: the most expensive and the least reliable energy in the country. We are defending, supporting and securing the opportunities of hardworking Australian families. The opposition has lost touch with them, just as the Leader of the Opposition lost touch with his own members. He sold the members of the AWU out when he was a union leader, and now he is selling them out as an opposition leader.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moreton is warned.

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. Will the minister update the House on how the government will ensure appropriate and sustainable support is provided for hardworking Australian families when they need it most? Is the minister aware of any other approaches that would lead to an increase in the cost of living?

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. Supporting hardworking Australians was the subject of an announcement by the Prime Minister, the education minister and me today. How families fare depends, of course, on their ability in the long run to engage in the workforce and employment. The reforms we have announced today absolutely maximise the opportunities for individuals to engage in the workforce and to improve their and their family's circumstances. For instance, a single-parent family with an income of $50,000 and two children in long day care for two days, which costs $100 a day, will be $1,400 better off under the reforms that we announced. That same family, if they were using family day care for three days, will be $2½ thousand better off.

The reforms we have announced today, as the Prime Minister has noted, will benefit one million hardworking Australians—the biggest reforms to child care in a generation. The greatest benefit will go to hardworking families with the lowest incomes. Families under $65,000 will see childcare costs at only $15 a day, representing an 85 per cent subsidy to child care. Ninety thousand families will benefit from the abolition of the rebate cap, and 40,000 families will benefit from an increase in the rebate cap to $10,000. Reforms will put downward pressure on the cost of child care, which was inflated under members opposite.

Reforms are estimated to increase the involvement of 230,000 Australians in the workforce. At the same time, there is a $20 increase to all families receiving, per fortnight, FTBA. Ninety-six thousand families will benefit from two extra weeks paid paternity leave and up to an extra $1,300 after the birth of their child. All of this is achieved by closing down end-of-year supplements—the greatest reforms to child care in a generation achieved by closing down end-of-year supplements, a $20 increase a fortnight by ending supplements and more paid parental leave for the lowest income earners in Australia because we are able to reform the family tax benefit system.

I was asked whether or not there were any alternative policies. This is the biggest reform to child care in a generation, child care whose prices were inflated, under members opposite, over six years. Yes, there is an alternative option. After four years in opposition to think about this and devise an alternative plan, the member for Adelaide announced the alternative plan for child care: a national consultation. Well, you can hear the sighs of relief from parents at the doors of child care as we sit here today. A national consultation with child development experts and academics—(Time expired)

Mr Fletcher interjecting—

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Urban Infrastructure is warned.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to the Prime Minister's failure to answer my previous two questions about his cuts to family payments and ask: how can the Prime Minister justify ripping family payments out of the pockets of over one million Australian families and, at the same time, propose $50 billion in a tax giveaway to big business?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The honourable member has failed to recognise that it is our duty to ensure that our social welfare spending is targeted to deliver the greatest support for Australian families, and that is precisely what we are doing and precisely what the minister has just described. We are providing greater security for Australian families in child care so that they have greater opportunities to work, to get out, to stay in the workforce and to stay connected with the workforce.

You would think, given that these reforms will benefit lower- and middle-income families the most, and you would think, given the way they are targeted so equitably and so fairly, that the opposition would support it. But, of course, they do not. They are an opposition without any integrity and without any concern for the livelihoods, for the businesses, that support Australian families. Their recklessness on energy and their negativity on child care stand in the way of getting a better and a fairer deal for Australian families. We will always stand up for hardworking Australian families, providing them with the security that they need, whether it is security of energy or of available and affordable child care, because from that security—and only from that security—springs the opportunity to work, to get ahead, to invest and to realise their Australian dream. That is what we stand for: hardworking Australian families.

The opposition should support us because they know that without that security we will continue to see hardworking Australian families and hardworking Australian businesses put under increasing pressure. We want Australians to get ahead, and we are acting to support them as they do.