Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to be able to contribute to this evening's debate. The Family Assistance and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2013, as has been apparent in the discussions up to now, reflects a measure announced in the 2012-13 MYEFO. It is designed to maintain the appropriate financial support for those who are having a new child while ensuring that our family assistance measures are sustainable into the future. It is very important that we contemplate that in the context of this bill.

In the course of the debate this evening there has been a great deal of focus on the cost of living. Needless to say, that is borne out in the question of providing the baby bonus for new parents. But it is borne out in a range of other ways. It is rather disingenuous for members of the opposition to be coming into this place clearly articulating that they are going to slash the schoolkids bonus, a practical means by which this government has been able to respond to cost-of-living pressures upon families amongst other things, while talking about their credentials in relation to the cost of living.

It is particularly timely in the context of some recent events in my electorate that we have a discussion in relation to this bill on the cost of living because the Leader of the Opposition was in my electorate during the last couple of weeks and took the time to reflect on the cost of living. Regrettably, it was to a fairly small audience, a very closely held group of people. Indeed, a former Liberal Party candidate for the 2010 Victorian state election hosted the event. It was a very closely held event in Beaconsfield in my electorate. The Leader of the Opposition talked about the cost of living. It was interesting that he failed to reflect at that morning tea on the cost-of-living implications of cutting the schoolkids bonus for the some 10,300 families in my electorate, the some 18,000 children in my electorate and some 1.3 million people around Australia who stand to benefit from it. He certainly shied away from discussing that. Likewise he shied away from discussing the household assistance package that Labor has put in place. He shied away from any kind of certainty in relation to the tripling of the tax-free threshold which Labor has put in place which has certainly been to the benefit of people in my electorate. It seems that the only people who are actually concerned about families and their cost-of-living pressures are on this side of the chamber. Indeed, the only person who is threatening families, threatening to impose additional taxes and threatening to take away family assistance is the Leader of the Opposition.

This bill is a particularly important measure which continues to maintain the current baby bonus arrangements for a family's first child or multiple births, regardless of the birth order of their children. Under the new arrangements, the amount of the baby bonus for second and subsequent children will be somewhat reduced to $3,000 from 1 July this year. Notwithstanding that, other forms of assistance continue to be available to eligible parents through Labor's Paid Parental Leave scheme, dad and partner pay, and the family tax benefit.

It is interesting that the previous speaker in this debate, my new neighbour, the member for Dunkley, was reflecting on the Paid Parental Leave scheme. It is extraordinary what people can come up with when they had more than a decade to implement what they say is a much more effective and business friendly paid parental leave scheme. It is very interesting that they chose not to consider a paid parental leave scheme until Labor came up with one. It is also interesting that they choose to fund their paid parental leave scheme through a tax. So when we are talking about real cost-of-living issues, practically responding to the pressures on families and ensuring that modern Australian families are provided with the financial support that they need when they have a new child in the family it is only Labor that has a practical response. It is only Labor that is capable of funding it.

The bill before us will ensure a range of other things in relation to the payment of the family tax benefit and double orphan pension arrangements. The bill will ensure that families remain eligible for the family tax benefit until the end of the calendar year and their child finishes school. The qualification period for the double orphan pension is being extended so that it aligns with eligibility for the family tax benefit.

In contemplating the family tax benefit, it is important to remember that Labor has ensured that up to $110 more per child is made available in family tax benefit A and $69 per eligible family in family tax benefit B since May 2012. That means around 900,000 families are now benefiting from Labor's lifting of the childcare rebate to 50 per cent of out-of-pocket expenses. It means that a range of practical financial measures are being made available to families right across Australia.

I certainly recognise the significance of those family tax benefit measures and I certainly recognise the significance of our lifting of the childcare rebate, since my electorate is home to an increasing number of young families. My electorate comprises a very significant proportion of the growth corridor of Melbourne and it is those families who stand to benefit from the practical measures that Labor is putting in place, while simultaneously ensuring that we have a sustainable family payments system into the future. It is for that reason that I am pleased to speak in relation to this bill this evening, a bill which balances the needs of families having first children and recognises the needs of those families with second and subsequent children but does so in a way which ensures that our family payments system is sustainable into the future.

The opposition this evening have reflected very significantly on the cost-of-living pressures which affect families across Australia. They have not, however, reflected with any great depth on their approach to the household assistance package measures which Labor has put in place during the last year. Indeed, it is worth bearing in mind in the context of the debate this evening that the opposition’s measures in relation to a clean energy future will have the effect, it is estimated by Treasury, of imposing a $1,300 impost on each household in Australia. So not only is their Direct Action Plan something which will impose rather punitive measures on households financially; they are still entirely unclear about where they stand on the household assistance package measures which have gone to support not only families but pensioners, low-income earners and a range of people right across electorates such as mine. Indeed, around 3.2 million pensioners are $172 better off for singles and about $182 better off for couples combined a fortnight as a result of Labor’s pension changes. Those pensioners should know that it is Labor that has been concerned about their cost-of-living pressures and that it is Labor that has endeavoured to ensure that they are properly supported. Again, during the more than a decade that the opposition were in office, they failed to respond practically to the needs of pensioners. They now come into this place and purport to be standing up for families facing cost-of-living pressures and for pensioners facing cost-of-living pressures but they are entirely disingenuous about those cost-of-living pressures.

This bill is a particularly responsible measure that is being put in place recognising the needs of families with young children or expecting young children, at the same time recognising that we have an obligation to ensure that our family payments system is sustainable into the future. This bill makes some changes to the baby bonus to ensure support for new parents with what we all know are significant upfront costs of having a first child but it ensures that we are realistic about some of the costs which follow on for second and subsequent children. The baby bonus, under the legislation, will continue to be paid at a rate of $5,000 for a family's first child and for each child in a multiple birth or adoption. We know that these changes were flagged in the 2012-13 MYEFO, so the opposition has had a substantial opportunity to consider them, to consider how they might respond and to consider how they might best reflect on cost-of-living pressures and other pressures facing new families. Yet we are still in the dark about the kinds of arrangements they might put in place if they were to come to office to support families through the family tax benefit system, through the changes to the tax-free threshold and through the range of changes that Labor has put in place. On these matters the opposition, at best, remains silent and certainly is somewhat confused.

Since coming to office Labor has acted steadfastly to support jobs throughout our economy. Indeed, we have seen almost 850,000 jobs created since coming to office. This is one of the most significant ways in which we have practically been able to support families, ensuring that they continue to have a job, ensuring that family members continue to be able to support themselves. Needless to say, during the period when we were contemplating Australia’s response to the global financial crisis, the opposition remained asleep at the wheel. They were incapable of providing a clear direction at that time. Indeed, the Leader of the Opposition slept through some of the debates which Labor had to ensure that we supported an economic stimulus package for our economy. The opposition’s approach would have meant that we would have lost several hundred thousand jobs at that time and, as a consequence, many families that Labor has supported during its period in office would have found themselves without an income, without a way of supporting themselves.

At the time the opposition left office, the interest rate impost was substantially higher than it currently is—so much so that now families are paying around $5,000 a year less on an average mortgage of around $300,000. These are practical measures. These are significant practical circumstances which Labor has presided over and which have meant that families have not felt the pressure that they might otherwise have felt under a coalition government.

Labor has ensured that families are appropriately supported through its family payment measures. The bill before us tonight continues that. Labor has also ensured that our economic settings provide the circumstances in which employment remains a priority and employment ensures that families are appropriately supported with an income. It is with pleasure that I have been able to contribute to this evening's debate on another significant set of policy measures designed to ensure that our family payment system continues to respond to the needs of families such as those in my electorate.

Debate adjourned.

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