Clive Palmer (Fairfax, Palmer United Party) Share this | Hansard source

When a woman received less historically, it was not from the government. It is not the government's role to use taxpayers' funds and distribute them to citizens according to their wealth. It is not the role of a government department or the government to pay employees in the private sector. Is this the Liberal Party's creeping socialism? The Liberal Party wants to extend the role of government—to make it bigger and give it more functions—to pay paid parental leave. The government expands. Liberals used to believe in smaller government, not larger government. Liberals used to believe in lower taxes, not higher taxes.

We need a childcare revolution, but if you listen to the Treasurer of Australia, Australians cannot afford that—we have got to balance our budget. Then how can we waste $20 billion on what is primarily the responsibility of an employer to an employee? So when is the Treasurer going to introduce a childcare revolution? And what happens to this country when we introduce paid parental leave, abolish the carbon tax, abolish the mining tax and cut everything to nothing? Do you think we will get the economy moving that way? What happens after all those goals are achieved?

The Prime Minister is attempting to win popularity with the women of Australia. But it will not work. The women of Australia know the Prime Minister. And his untruthful government does not care about them. Paid parental leave is no substitute for a desperate single mother who cries herself to sleep each night because the money is not there and she will be unable to support herself or her children in the future. Australians need to care more about the children who are being born here, and give them a decent life rather than put them in hardship.

Paid parental leave was, for a long time, a matter between an employer and an employee. It was a cost of business negotiated between employees and employers. There are, in this country, many children that do not have a home or a bed to sleep in every night. Adults can decide what they want, but all of us have an obligation to care for our children. The payment of money to wealthy women will not give their children a better life. It will not mean that they are more loved, that they grow up better or that they will have a greater contribution to make to our society. There are so many single mothers, and single fathers, who struggle every day to look after their children, who struggle for a better standard of living for their family, and who are being persecuted by the government, which is lessening and lessening their entitlements as families.

But the age of entitlement has arrived. It is the age of entitlement for wealthy Liberal women, as against normal Australians who may live in the regions or may be stay-at-home mums; for them, the age of entitlement has arrived. What happened to the age of entitlement for everybody in this country? Why is it for only a select few? All citizens, regardless of wealth, race, geography or gender should not be discriminated against. All citizens need to be equal under the law. Why should Australian citizens and businesses be taxed, and working women discriminated against, just so that the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff can receive a massive benefit when she gets pregnant? There is an argument that women on lower incomes in less advantaged circumstances should receive greater support for themselves and their children than wealthier women in better circumstances. There can be no reason why wealthier women should receive more money when they are pregnant than women on a lesser income.

If there was any doubt about the Prime Minister's misogyny, that doubt has now been removed by the introduction of this bill. How can it be that there are so many capable and competent female members of the government on the backbench, and such a lack of representation of women in cabinet? That is a matter of serious concern. Role models are important for our society and for our children. We need strong women in cabinet and a lot of them, so that we have role models—

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