Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Senator Kroger, and I will take that interjection. Yes, we do; we absolutely understand and the contrast between us in the coalition, those on this side of the chamber, and those on the other side, in the Labor government, is absolutely stark. The government walks the walk and talks the talk but does not deliver for families, and it is ongoing and I think the people out there right across Australia have simply had enough. This is on top of a 20 per cent increase in childcare costs since the Prime Minister came to office. We have seen the childcare rebate slashed from $8,179 to $7½ thousand. We have seen the baby bonus slashed, making it more expensive for a family to have more than one child. We have seen Labor's broken promise to build 260 new childcare centres. The list goes on and on.

How Senator Carr can sit on the other side of this chamber and try to claim that they are doing a good job is simply ridiculous. We are seeing further pressure on household budgets under the Labor government and further pressure from the rising cost of living. What we are seeing is a Prime Minister who is starting to seem as if she has a problem with Australian mothers. We hear this talk about Tony Abbott having a problem with women, but I think the Prime Minister has more of a problem with mothers. The Prime Minister broke Kevin Rudd's promise to deliver 260 new childcare centres across the nation. Her changes to Medicare have doubled the cost of IVF treatment, resulting in 1,200 babies not being conceived. Within a few short weeks the Prime Minister will boot single mothers onto the dole. It was under Prime Minister Julia Gillard that the government attempted to stop Defence personnel getting free trips home to visit their mothers at Christmas and most recently the Prime Minister has slashed the baby bonus for second and subsequent children. I would say that this is a Prime Minister that has a real problem in developing proper policy for the betterment of the Australian people, and families right across this nation understand that.