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

My question is to the Minister for Families, Community Services, Indigenous Affairs and Disability Reform. Will the minister update the House on the clear choices the government is making to support Australian families? What would be the impact of other policy choices when it comes to fairness for families?

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Disability Reform) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for La Trobe very much for that question because this government is all about building a fairer future for Australian families. It was this government that delivered Australia's first national Paid Parental Leave scheme and 280,000 Australian families have already benefited. It is this government that has delivered the school kids bonus and that of course is helping more than one million Australian families. Making the right choices on this side of the parliament compared to those opposite, we know that those opposite want to abolish the schoolkids bonus. That would take $15,000 out of the pockets of an ordinary family over the life of their schoolchildren, while this Leader of the Opposition wants to give $75,000 to a wealthy woman to have a baby, while they rip $15,000 out of the pockets of ordinary families. That is what those opposite are offering families.

At the moment, we are holding our breath to see whether or not the position of those opposite on the baby bonus is going to last through the afternoon because we have seen so many different positions from those opposite on the baby bonus. The Leader of the Opposition said that the baby bonus was a signature policy, that he did not like our changes to the baby bonus. The shadow Treasurer said that he did not agree with that. He rolled over the Leader of the Opposition and made it clear that he was going to oppose our new family payment for newborns. That was until he got rolled. The member for North Sydney likened the government's changes to the baby bonus to China's one-child policy. But that was of course until the member for Menzies rolled the member for North Sydney. The member for Menzies is now saying that they are going to support everything that the government's proposing on the baby bonus. We have had every single policy possible from those opposite on a baby bonus—complete and total chaos from those opposite when it comes to supporting families.

On their paid parental leave scheme, we have seen the member for Mitchell say that their paid parental leave policy does not pass the fair-go test. The member for Moore says that the Labor Party's scheme is quite good. We have had Senator Joyce, the member for Gippsland, Senator Williams, all of them, say that the Leader of the Opposition— (Time expired)