Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy President. Senator Macdonald has been unhappy for some time in relation to a number of decisions which the government has made. What we have heard from the answers to questions during question time today is in relation to another area which he is not happy with, and that is the government's Paid Parental Leave scheme. He has made it very clear to this chamber how unhappy he is with this scheme, as have his colleagues—as has Senator Bernardi. I know that Senator Bernardi wants to be added as also being very clearly not supportive of this scheme—as well as the National Party senators, including Senator Williams, Senator Smith, Senator Boswell and Senator O'Sullivan, and the list goes on. They are just the senators. Then of course there are the House of Representatives members as well.

Clearly, they have been thinking about this particular policy area, and clearly they know how out of touch it is at this current time with the broader Australian community. The answer provided by Senator Abetz to Senator Moore's question in this regard was: 'It is good, sound public policy.' Good, sound public policy! How can Minister Abetz regard this as good, sound public policy while at the same time saying that it is not good, sound public policy to have affordable child care, that it is not good, sound public policy to have a full-time Disability Discrimination Commissioner and that it is not good, sound public policy to have a safety net for people under 30 who might lose their job? They are just three of the examples by which this government affects so many ordinary Australians.

On the one hand, they are quite happy to regard it as good, sound public policy to give women on salaries of $100,000 or more a year $50,000 in paid parental leave, but at the same time, if a young person loses their job, what do they get? They get nothing. They get nothing! That is simply bad, unsound public policy. There is nothing sound about that, and that is what this budget provides. It may be a pet policy of the Prime Minister's, but he needs to start listening to some of his own coalition members, like Senator Macdonald, who has provided a fulsome contribution in this place against this paid parental leave policy. Because if he cannot convince his own MPs—and I do not think that he will ever convince Senator Macdonald on a lot of things; as I said earlier, I think he is pretty unhappy about most things—if he cannot convince the majority of the National Party senators, a number of Liberal Party senators, as well as a number of lower house MPs, to support these budget measures, to support this gold, Rolls-Royce scheme, then why on earth should the rest of the Australian public support it as well?

We have had very clear rejections from the AiG. The government is happy to support the AiG on most other things but, at the moment, apparently, according to Senator Cormann, they are not correct. And while the AiG, according to Senator Cormann, are not correct, what about the government's own Commission of Audit report? They are not correct, either. Surprise, surprise! They have rejected this Paid Parental Leave scheme, recommending a 'targeted expenditure at those most in need'. Yet, no, they are not correct. They do not want to think about those most in need, they do not want to talk about those most in need—those such as young people who become unemployed or those perhaps on a pension—they do not want to think about them, so we are just not going to agree with our own Commission of Audit. Then there is their friend, the IPA— (Time expired)

Question agreed to.