Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for her question. I know she is very concerned about how families in her electorate are supported at every stage of their lives—whether it is through the time they have a new baby and need to be caring for the new infant at home, whether it is in the days that they need access to child care and need childcare support, whether it is in the days when kids are at school and they want support for the costs of getting kids to school, or whether it is in the days that those kids are teenagers and need the kind of support that families need with the cost of teenagers—and, of course, beyond, as people are caring for older relatives.

At every stage for Australian families we have been determined to make a difference—to provide a package of policies that support families. In that regard we have made a series of changes, but we are adding to those changes—for example, by increasing family payments for families with teenagers, boosting payments by up to $4,200 for each child. We have provided the education tax rebate, which supports families with the costs of getting kids to school, and we are extending that to school uniforms. We are devoting more resources to child care than ever before. We have lifted the childcare rebate to 50 per cent of out-of-pocket costs, up to $7,500 a year, because of its importance to working families and its being such a considerable impost on their budgets when families need child care.

Amongst all of that we are particularly proud of the introduction of our paid parental leave scheme. We got that done over a year ago. Since then over 140,000 Australian families have applied for paid parental leave payments. It is incredibly important to them at that time when they are at home with a new infant. Our approach of getting this done, our approach of supporting working families at that stage of their lives, is in very stark contrast to the approach being taken by the opposition. I have seen described as 'friendless' in the Liberal party room the Leader of the Opposition's plan for the Ritchie Rich parental leave scheme.

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