Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

such is the Liberal philosophy. I do recall the Liberal Party saying in the past that it stands for self-reliance. In fact, it has created a big, fat nanny state. It has done that by extending welfare right through middle Australia to the wealthiest people in this country. We might just see some stories on the Channel 7 news tonight about the government having done that. I imagine it will be a very revealing story to see the people from Vaucluse and Double Bay—these sorts of suburbs—receiving welfare payments from this government.

Just yesterday the Treasurer announced a review to compare Australia’s tax system with other countries’. I do not know how many other countries make welfare payments to their wealthiest citizens. Tax reform must begin with restraining extravagant, unnecessary spending. It is very difficult to justify giving such big benefits to the highest income earners in this country. In fact, documents that I obtained under freedom of information legislation show that the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet estimates the savings from limiting such family payments to families earning less than $125,000 a year. It is a very substantial limit. If families earning more than $125,000 a year did not receive welfare payments, the savings would be in the order of $100 million. A $100 million saving is quite a large amount of money. So, in speaking about tax reform, perhaps the Treasurer could have a talk to the Prime Minister about why the Prime Minister insists on paying $100 million in welfare payments to families who earn more than $125,000 a year—advice provided by his own department.

The member for Moreton, who is sitting at the table, said that the people of Woodridge, Kingston and Underwood received such payments—and so they should under a needs based, means tested system. But I can inform the member for Moreton that the people of Woodridge, Kingston and Underwood are not millionaires.

See this speech in context