Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I go to the remarks that I have prepared, I will just say how hard it is to sit here and listen to the sort of speech that we have just heard where all of this fake care for families and small business is being put on the record. Let's get some facts and not just about the climate change debate. Let's go to a few families that, at this time, will have been able to manage getting their kids to school with the assistance of the schoolkids bonus. For families that are eligible for the family tax benefit part A, $410 for primary school children and $820 for those students in secondary school will enable them to have choices in the subjects that they are interested in because a little bit of pressure will come off the family budget. If you are an average Australian with maybe three kids, like I have, and you are eligible for that $820, $410 and $410—depending on their school level—it is a lot of money to assist you with getting your child to school. That is an awful lot more to be taken away from the Australian people than the amounts we have heard the senator over there, with respect, putting on the record today.

They are rubbery figures, they are uncertain figures, and we cannot be sure that any change they make would flow on to ordinary people. Let's not forget, when we are talking about the flow-on to businesses, those business people who are taking a risk and setting up their business are often struggling, and the family tax benefit part A is something many of them are eligible for as well. They are going to have that asset and support for them and their family taken away. I think these crocodile tears for families are an absolute a myth. They are a pretence, and they take away from the quality of the conversation that Australian politicians should be having with real families, where they address real things, instead of this nonsense which they created at the beginning of the carbon price debate and which they are continuing now in this chamber.

With regard to climate change, the act that is now being debated is one that this nation will look back on and absolutely regret. It is a negative, backward-looking piece of legislation that is attempting to take us back to the 1950s and some benign view of the world. The reality is that we have to attend to climate change. This is a day inscribed in Hansardlest the coalition make that a state secret as well—to which the Australian public will point as yet another time that the Abbott government betrayed their trust. I know that the coalition are keen on having these days at the moment. It seems the more that they betray the trust of Australia the happier they are. They have already proclaimed a number of actions that we can point to in their short time in office where they have blatantly reneged on their responsibility to govern in the national interest for all Australians—not just for some Australians with loud voices and deep pockets. In opposition, the coalition promised to be an open and accountable government, a government of adults. I hear Senator Lines frequently asking, 'Will the adults actually stand up?' because we have not seen much adult behaviour from those here yet. Instead, we have seen them walk in and pull down the shutters and threaten the very institutions whose role— (Time expired)

Sitting suspended from 18:30 to 19:30

I might reiterate a couple of the comments that I made before the break and then continue with my prepared remarks. We have been hearing from the government here in the Senate that they are going to repeal the carbon legislation. They have been making much of its being a fantastic thing for ordinary families. The reality is, though, that while they may hold out some hope of returning some money to some families, they are taking money away, hand over fist, from the schoolkids bonus—$410 per annum for children in primary school and $820 for young people in high school. This bonus is going to eligible families who receive family tax benefit A—a very significant contribution to those families' incomes. The bonus is positively and powerfully making a difference to the cost-of-living pressures that are on families.

If, like me, you have three children—mine are just about out of school; my last one is in year 12—you would know that with one student in high school and two in primary school you would stand to lose $820 for the secondary school student and $410 for each of the children in primary school. When you add that up, $1,640 is a lot more than anything that the coalition government are promising to return the average family household. It may be better to say that they are indicating that they may return it to the average family household.