Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. How is the government supporting working families?

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 member for Petrie very much for her question, because this is a government that delivers for working families. Earlier today I introduced legislation into the parliament for Australia’s first paid parental leave scheme, a milestone reform and a major win for parents and their babies—and our scheme is fair to business. The Leader of the Opposition, by contrast, wants to impose a great big new tax on business to pay for his paid parental leave scheme. This government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme is economically responsible and was funded in last year’s budget. Australian families have had to wait far too long for a national paid parental leave scheme, after 12 years of inaction from those opposite. It is this government that is going to deliver Australia’s first national paid parental leave scheme.

Last night’s budget builds on this major reform for Australian families. Another round of tax cuts will help Australian working families. A worker on $50,000 per year will be $1,750 better off as a result of three rounds of tax cuts. And a new standard deduction for work related expenses will make tax time that much simpler for six million families. The standard deduction will be $500 in 2012-13 and $1,000 in 2013-14. The standard deduction will reduce a family’s taxable income. As taxable income reduces, family payments increase. This will see around 280,000 families receiving on average around $250 more per year in family tax benefit part A in addition to the benefit that they receive from the standard deduction. This will be a double win for Australian families. It will also see around 15,000 additional families become eligible for family tax benefit part A for the first time as a result of having a lower taxable income.

Families will also be able to claim a tax deduction equal to 50 per cent of interest earned on $1,000 in deposits. These are deposits in approved banks, building societies and credit unions. This will lower the taxable incomes and taxes of an estimated 5.7 million depositors, three-quarters of whom have incomes of less than $80,000 a year. Around 200,000 families paying less tax on their deposit interest will have reduced taxable income, and these families will receive around $85 more in family tax benefit part A each year. This is a government that continues to deliver for Australian working families through paid parental leave that will support parents and their children and through a fiscally responsible budget that will see more families benefit from family payments.