Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister. Minister, what consultation was undertaken as part of the process of drafting this legislation? The minister has indicated that in his view this is not necessarily a signi­ficant cost burden, but I would say any increase to the cost burden of families and in particular working families is going to be something they would rather avoid. It simply does not make sense to make things more difficult for working families rather than to make it easier. It is quite extraordinary that we have the Labor Party over here, who purport to stand up for working families, and the Greens and Senator Hanson-Young, who has been very vocal on this issue for quite some time now, prepared to whack an extra financial burden on these families. Minister, specifically what consultation was undertaken with not only industry but also families throughout the communities on the potential impact of this legislation?