Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services, Indigenous Affairs and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Hansard source

Let me say at the outset that I do believe that the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs is a decent person who sincerely wants to do the right thing by the people of Australia who are impacted by her portfolio, but I have to say that she has just delivered perhaps the most contentless ministerial statement in the history of this parliament. We have had the former leader of the Labor Party, the ex-member for Werriwa, describe the Rudd government as a ‘circus of symbolism’. I am afraid we have had a lot of recycled platitudes from the minister sitting opposite. All she has done with this statement today is reannounce a Productivity Commission inquiry. She did not need to take up the time of the parliament to do this and I regret the fact that she has delayed the MPI by a quarter of an hour.

Of course we all want to see more children in this country and we all want to improve the environment in which those children live. But, if we want more people to become parents, let us stop telling them how hard it is to be a parent. Let us not talk down being a parent. In particular, let us stop talking down motherhood and let us stop thinking less of mothers than we do of workers. Let us stop thinking that the only work which really counts is paid work. I very much admire women who hold down difficult and demanding jobs. I particularly admire women in those jobs who also have children.

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