Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Single parents in Parramatta, in my electorate, with an income of $55,000 and two teenagers will lose $4,700 every year because of the Prime Minister's unfair cuts to family tax benefits. How is it fair to ask this family to then pay $3,700 more each year by jacking up the GST?

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With respect to that figure that was cited of $4,700, that does two things that it should not do. First of all, it does not take into account any of the availability leading up to the point at which a child would turn 13, because of reforms that we are suggesting to child care which would make families $1,500 a week better off—

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order on direct relevance. People who are—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Watson will resume his seat. The member for Watson is abusing the right of a point of order. The minister is 30 seconds into his answer. He is completely relevant. I am warning members on both sides—

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

The member for Sydney is warned! The member for Sydney will not interject when I am making a ruling. She might be the deputy leader but it makes no difference. It is disorderly conduct.

Mr Dutton interjecting—

The minister for immigration will cease interjecting. I am going to refer all members to the practice that I have referred to before where Speakers in the past have been prepared to rule on a point of order immediately and, if there are continued frivolous points of order, to not hear it at all.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The other thing that that figure—

Mr Bowen interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The ember for McMahon is warned!

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

does is it takes into account the abolition of the schoolkids bonus. That was meant to be paid for by the something called the 'mining tax' which raised no revenue. Are the opposition seriously suggesting that we should borrow money, in a period of debt and deficit, to pay for a schoolkids bonus at this time? It is absolutely a bogus figure. I might make the other point here that when the coalition came to government we inherited from Labor the five worst deficits in Australian history, totalling $191 billion. That was compounded by a further $123 billion in projected cumulative deficits between 2013-14 and 2016-17. The prediction from Treasury was that if we did not take remedial action, which involves finding savings and restraining expenditure, then we were looking down the barrel of 10-plus years of deficits—

Ms Owens interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Parramatta is warned!

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I might say, with respect to this issue of fairness, the opposition today have agreed to at least one small part of the savings package that we have proposed—half a billion dollars. They believe that that is completely fair and we would agree that that is a fair saving. But when you consider the borrowings that are engaged in to fund things that we cannot restrain today, such as in family tax benefits B or in a whole range of other areas inside the welfare system, if we allow the situation to persist for too long where we are borrowing money to fund the—

Ms Macklin interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Jagajaga is warned!

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

current expenditure then the children that you are talking about who are 13 today—

Mr Bowen interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for McMahon is warned! That is his final warning.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

when they enter the tax system will end up not merely paying for the welfare system in the future of their own day; they will end up paying through the contribution of their taxes to the welfare system of today because we have been unable as a parliament to determine appropriate savings. The interesting thing about your position, members opposite, is that while you have—and we are thankful that you have—agreed to at least some of the expenditure restrain that we propose, I note at the end of your media release, Member for Parramatta, you say that you would:

…continue to investigate fair ways of ensuring our Family Tax Benefits system remains targeted to those who need it most.

That is very strong: 'investigating fair ways'. The reality is we must restrain expenditure in this area. We have our suggestions on the table. You have agreed with at least a small part of those but there must be more, and if you have suggestions what are they?