Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Will the minister update the House on the government’s efforts to ensure child-centred family policy and whether there are any obstacles?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. There is, of course, no doubt that children are Australia’s most precious asset, and our family payments system really must be used to support the raising of children. The government are already engaged in a number of important initiatives in this area. First of all, we are making sure that we develop a national child protection framework. We have to respond to the carer payment (child) report. Most recently, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Treasurer and I announced terms of reference for a Productivity Commission inquiry into paid maternity leave, with a particular focus on the needs of newborn children. One of my first acts as a minister was to introduce income quarantining, or income management, for 14 Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory to make sure that those welfare payments were being used for the benefit of children.

In opposition, we announced that we would give authority to state and territory child protection authorities to enable them to quarantine welfare payments for the protection of children. The previous government, in the run-up to the election, adopted this policy. We heard a lot from them in this place and in the newspapers about their plans to link welfare payments to school attendance and to the protection of children. The previous minister’s plan was reported in the newspaper as:

Any parents receiving welfare who were not sending their children to school would have their welfare cheques quarantined.

Mr Brough was quoted as saying:

There will be thousands.

He went on to introduce legislation which we in opposition supported. On coming to government, when I asked my department for advice about how this measure was proceeding—I wanted to know what the previous government had done to put these very important measures in place—I found, to my dismay, that the previous government had not funded it; they had not funded it at all. They had issued the press releases, they had given the media interviews, they had put the legislation into the parliament, but somehow they had neglected to fund it. There was no money at all. Not a cent had been allocated by the former government for welfare payments nationally to be managed in the interests of children. It was nothing more than policy by press release by the previous government. There was not one cent to fund this very important measure. If you have a look at the press release from the former minister, he said:

The welfare reform changes announced today by the Prime Minister—

that is, the previous Prime Minister—

are a key measure—

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Dr Nelson interjecting

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

‘A very important measure’, the Leader of the Opposition says. Whatever words might be used, not one cent was allocated to these critical measures. Unlike the Howard government, we intend to provide the national leadership that is necessary to make sure that these very important reforms are implemented.