Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities, Carers and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition certainly welcomes the intention behind the Greens’ amendment, as Senator Humphries indicated in his contribution about the payment for exchange-care arrangements for a single child, and I commend the Greens for placing this on the agenda. I noted that the minister mentioned the complexity of doing something in this area. He also mentioned the budgetary implications, and I cannot help but feel that the mention of complexity—although I appreciate that these are technical matters—is actually to hide what the real issue is here: budgetary implications. I am very aware of the fact that, when a government is heading towards a deficit of $315 billion, that severely circumscribes a government’s capacity to do a lot of the good things which all of us in this chamber hope that government can do. Although this side of the chamber has often been criticised for being a bit obsessed and overly keen on balanced budgets, one of the reasons we on this side of the chamber are so keen on balanced budgets is not that it is some sort of fiscal fetish; it is because if you have balanced budgets then you are more able to spend money on the sorts of things that the community wants such as making things easier for carers. I cannot help but feel that when the government talks about complexity they are hiding behind the real issue, which is the budgetary problems they have created.