Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, that was not the question that Senator Boswell asked me yesterday. He asked me a separate question, which I tried to assist him with. But I do point out to him that these changes come in on 1 July 2009. There is no immediate impact on families. I am happy to brief Senator Boswell and any other senators on the details. As I told him, the major impacts are on family tax benefit B. We stand by the changes because, essentially, we do not think you ought to be able to get access to more social security benefits as a result of salary sacrificing into superannuation. We do not think that is equitable. We think people ought to be treated the same as pensioners and the self-employed and ought to be entitled to the benefits based on their income, not on the basis of some arrangement they have of salary sacrificing into super.