Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

In a proudly Labor budget, we are very much directing support to families to meet their costs. One of the major costs to families is that associated with supporting children in education: meeting the costs of excursions, uniforms, food and sports. As part of the budget, the government will abolish the education tax refund which we brought in to meet those very needs and replace it with the schoolkids bonus scheme, which is worth $2.1 billion.

Currently 80 per cent of eligible families are not getting their full entitlement to the education tax refund, and 20 per cent of families are not getting any at all because they are not making the claims. To address this, we are changing it to make sure that all eligible families will be able to access these benefits to support them in supporting their kids in going to school and meeting the costs associated with that. (Time expired)