Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I have sat here trying to bite my tongue but, given some of the comments which have just been made by the opposition, I have to make some serious comments about this. This is the opposition who when in government brought in Newstart and who decreased the income of thousands of single mums. Not only that, this is the opposition who when in government changed the child support formula and then would not do any modelling to find out the impact that it would have when you combined it with Welfare to Work changes, which had already dropped people’s income by $29 a week. Some of those changes were just a couple of years ago; some of the other changes were made just last year.

This is the same opposition who changed the back pay for carers, the same people the opposition now suddenly care about. They reduced it by half. This is not to mention a litany of other changes the opposition brought in which affected hardworking Australians. Do not get me started on Work Choices. This is ridiculous. All of a sudden they are picking on two small issues, particularly the seniors card. If I understand the legislation correctly, it is actually only enforcing existing rules—all it is asking for is a tax file number. Do I understand it correctly? I thought I did. So if you are going to have a bleeding heart then can you have it bleed for something proper, please.