Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. Yesterday, when asked about the Liberal government's cuts to grandparent carers, the minister said, 'It's a very, very small cohort.' How many people does the minister have to hurt before the Liberal government pays attention?

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just before I call the minister: the last part of the question was not in accordance with the standing orders, but I will call the minister to address the first part.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of the FTB B families, of which there are about 1.3 million, there are, as best we can track, 3,700 that fall into the category of a grandparent carer. What I would put to the members opposite is that they make what I think is a very strange assumption—it is not one that accords with the reality of the situation. Their assumption is that all grandparent carers are of age pension age or older. The reality is that of that—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of course they do. That is the impression they seek to create.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my left will cease interjecting.

Opposition members interjecting—

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, it is.

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my left will cease—

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, if you do not, then let's talk about the reality.

Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order on standing order 90. The minister probably knows that he ought not impugn the motives of members.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Griffith will resume her seat. The minister has the call. There is no point of order.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am sure their motives are very pure.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will—

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With the 3,000 grandparent carers, I posit that the assumption is that they are all of pension age or older. But they are not. What we are saying on this side of the House with respect to grandparent carers, single-parent families and couple-parent families is that we must devise the architecture of the system so that taxpayer funds are being applied in a way which creates the greatest enablement and incentive for workplace participation. That 3,700-person cohort we are talking about are not all of age pension age. A very large number of them are—

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They're not just a cohort; they're people!

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Shortland will cease interjecting.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

people at 50 or well under 50.

Ms Burke interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Chisholm has asked her question. She will not interject.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You know—surprise, surprise—on this side of the House we say that at 50 or under 50 there is a great importance in maintaining engagement with the workplace. That is good for you; it is good for your family; it is good for the nation. So we simply do not accept whatever assumptions you do and you work under. What we are doing is devising a system that provides, by having an alignment between the way in which we fund child care and the way in which we transfer taxpayer funds to family tax benefit recipients, the greatest possible incentive to work. I would put this question: when we saw, as we did under members opposite, that you took $7 billion out of the FTB system by indexing income thresholds, which you did in 2008-09, which you expanded in 2009-10, which you continued in 2011-12, which you continued in 2013-14; when you removed the indexation of FTB rates from pension indexation, which you did in 2009-10, which took $6 billion out of the system; when you failed to proceed with additional increases to FTB part A payments, which took $2.5 billion out of the system, which affected grandparent carers and affected every single family on FTB, but there was nothing ancillary or in relation to that that helped any of these people—nothing in child care, nothing for children under one— (Time expired)

Mr Ewen Jones interjecting —

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Herbert will cease interjecting.