Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to that final question is no. What I would say to the good senator is that the government has put forward a holistic families package. What we have decided to do is to prioritise an additional investment in more affordable, more flexible, simpler child care arrangements because we understand that that will help families get into work, stay in work and be in work. The Labor Party has to decide whether they will agree with us that that is an important priority. If they do, they are going to decide on how we can work together to pay for it, because you cannot spend more money in one area without spending less money in another area. I know that the Labor Party has got this big Labor magic pudding, but on the coalition side we understand that if ever you want to spend more in one area you have got to spend less in another area, which is exactly what this government is doing. It is offsetting our new expenditure by expenditure reductions in other parts of the budget.