Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Isaacs for his question. As he knows, last week there was good news for many, many Australian families. Those families will get a big helping hand as part of the government’s $10.4 billion Economic Security Strategy. Those families who receive family tax benefit part A will receive $1,000 for each eligible child in their care. In Isaacs, that will mean 10,800 families will receive $1,000 for every single eligible child in their care. Three-quarters of all Australian families with dependent children will receive the payment, totalling $3.9 billion.

It is certainly the case that families around Australia have been welcoming the payment. In the Australian last week there was news of one Sydney mother, Jenny McNamara, who was planning to spend her lump sum payment. According to the article, she said:

“I’11 spend it on everyday needs—things like clothes, food and maybe some presents,” … With her husband Andrew earning $52,000 as a courier driver, and monthly mortgage payments of $1300, the couple rely on annual Centrelink family benefit payments of $6000 to make ends meet.

Certainly for that family Christmas is going to be that much easier. There will be four million Australian children for whom Christmas is now going to be that much brighter.

I was asked about other responses, and I have to say that the response from the other side of the House is just a little bit difficult to pin down. The opposition leader is certainly trying to walk both sides of the street on this issue. Last week, on the day that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer announced the Economic Security Strategy, the Leader of the Opposition held a press conference within hours of the Prime Minister’s announcement. He was trying to demonstrate at that point last week that he was supporting it. He said:

We’re not going to argue about the composition of the package or quibble about it. It has our support. It will provide a stimulus to the economy …

But it did not take very long for this Leader of the Opposition to show his base political opportunism.

Yesterday, on the Insiders program, the opposition leader was so out of touch that he was saying that the government was hyping up the financial crisis that has rocked the world, saying that we have somehow hyped it up. He had this to say about the government’s Economic Security Strategy:

The second part of this $10.4-billion package basically involves giving $1000 for every child whose family are in receipt of family tax benefit A.

Well, that bit was right. Then he went on to say:

Now this has had a lot of consequences that people are writing in to me and other politicians, complaining about.

‘A lot of consequences’. What? Like consequences that families are able to buy things that they need for their children; consequences like families are now able to buy decent presents for their children? This morning on 2GB he was at it again, working away, now trying to undermine the government’s Economic Security Strategy. I quote him again:

Look at the other side, the other half of it. They say: why wasn’t there a general tax cut that would have benefited them?

So it is hard to say: is he in favour of the $1,000 per child for these families? Is he in favour of it or not? Or does he want a tax cut on top of the thousand dollars? Maybe he does, maybe he does not. Who would know? I do not think even he does. Unlike the opposition, the government is very clear: we want to give this extra support to families. We intend to pay it in December. We know these families need extra help and we know that, as a result of paying this extra help to families, it will benefit the Australian economy.

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