Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I held a press conference at about one o'clock today and announced that the Australian Greens would support the Family Assistance and Other Legislation Amendment (Schoolkids Bonus Budget Measures) Bill and support the process to get it through the parliament in the timeframe that the government proposed. The government has made it clear that it wants this bill through by the end of the week in order for the money to flow in this financial year.

I have also made it clear that this is not the way that the Australian Greens would have spent the money—we would have preferred to see it go towards implementing the Gonski review; we would like to have seen $5 billion go into education. However, that is not how the government has chosen to spend the money. Having said that, this measure will provide access to assistance to more low-income people than currently get the benefit. I will talk about that when we get to the substantive debate.