Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A week can be a long time in politics, and this week the government announced their new package for Family Tax Benefit and their new plans to cut Family Tax Benefit for many, many families here in Australia. What we have learned today and in the past couple of days is who this change will impact. What the government is now proposing is: when the youngest child in these families turns 13, they will lose Family Tax Benefit part B—and you might remember that this policy was, first, when your youngest child turned six. That has now been knocked off, and the government has come back with a new plan to cut it when the youngest child turns 13. So it will see these families lose about $2,500 a year. These are low-income families—these are single parents; these are grandparents who are caring for grandchildren.

In choosing the age of 13, does the government think that children become cheaper once they become teenagers? Anybody with teenagers will tell you that is not true. I myself do not have children, but, from the constituents who I have spoken to, children quite often, they tell me, become more expensive as they get older, as their needs and wants and school activities become more expensive, and as they start to become young adults and start to think about what they would like to do beyond school.

The government claims that these changes are about workforce participation, and that this will encourage these families, these people who are currently at home caring for children, to re-enter the workforce. But it fails critical tests. Are there suitable jobs available? Will there be decent after-school care? What is the cost of that after-school care for families in this situation? We are already in the midst of a job crisis, particularly in regional areas where the availability of suitable part-time work is rare, particularly for people who are raising children. Quite often these families might work in hospitality or in retail, in aged care or in other caring professions. These are some of the other industries under attack by this government through proposals to cut penalty rates and proposals to make it harder for these people to get hours and to continue to work in their industries.

What we have heard today in Senate estimates and what we heard today in question time was that the department estimates that about 136,000 single parents will be affected by this change. There will also be about 4,000 grandparents who are carers will be affected by this change.

As to grandparents who are caring for their grandchildren, from what the minister has said on TV, in other media and in this chamber, I do not believe the minister understands who they are. Perhaps he has not met one. These people are the unsung heroes in our community. They are, by definition, caring for their grandchildren because their children are not able to do so.

When you meet these people they all have a story to tell, and it is usually from some quite heartbreaking circumstances that they have ended up becoming the primary carer of their grandchildren. On the weekend, when I was doorknocking in North Bendigo, I met a lively household; there was a grandmother, and four children running around: one was in high school, two were in primary school and the youngest was in kindergarten. I asked her what it was like this time around, and she said: 'It's a lot harder. I raised four of my own; now I have my four grandchildren to raise.' I asked about her daughter, and she said: 'To deal with the situation, I've had to become cold. I've had to cut my daughter off, because now I have to care for my four grandchildren. I'm a mother all over again. And it is harder the second time around: I'm not as fast; I'm not as young; and life is a lot more expensive these days.' Then there is Neil and his wife, caring for their granddaughter because they lost their daughter not that long ago.

These are real people with real stories whom the government is now going after. They are unlikely to return to work because some had already retired; others have retired early to take care of their grandchildren. These are people who deserve our compassion and respect, not these cruel cuts that the government has put forward in this proposal. I call on the government to rethink this measure and change it before this House comes back together.