Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering more support for Australian families who need it most? What approaches have been rejected?

Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

RISHWORTH (—) (): I'd like to thank the member for Corangamite for the question and for her tireless advocacy for families in her electorate. Of course, 1 July was a very important day for Australian families, because it meant more cost-of-living help started to flow for families right across the country but particularly in the member for Corangamite's electorate. That's 70,000 taxpayers getting a tax cut in Corangamite. From 1 July, also in the seat of Corangamite, 2,300 parents are going to benefit from more paid parental leave over the coming year. That is because families are now eligible for an extra two weeks of paid parental leave as a result of our government's actions. This means, in terms of helping with the cost of living, families now will receive over $20,000 in help at the time they take off to care for a newborn baby. But, of course, we're not stopping there. We are further expanding the scheme to 26 weeks and will legislate superannuation on top of it.

Our changes have been widely welcomed by families. This week, I had the pleasure of meeting parents and hearing firsthand about our government's changes and what they mean to them. Jenny told me: 'We get extra time to adjust to being a family. It's not easy being a new parent. It's also good for mental health and recovering after birth.' Steph, mum of Billy, said: 'When Billy was born, we got some time off. If we have a second, it will help us exponentially. In fact, I can share this leave with my husband.' Also from Monday, 1.3 million low- and middle-income families are receiving a boost to their family payment, and every household will see their power bill cut by $300 and all Australians will benefit from cheaper medicines.

I'm asked about what approaches have been rejected, and, yes, there are some approaches. It's the approaches by those opposite when they were last in government. Of course, they cut family payments, year on year, with indexation freezes, they called mothers taking two lots of paid parental leave 'double dippers' and they tried to cut paid parental leave over and over again. Now they are signalling that if they were in government they would do it all again, with the member for Hume saying he would cut so-called overspending, so-called unrestrained spending. What does that mean? Cuts to paid parental leave and cuts to family payments. This will mean families get less support and less help.

While Labor stands up for working families, those opposite are planning how they are going to cut and to foist risky, expensive nuclear reactors onto us all. It is only our government, a Labor government, that will stand up for families and do the right thing.