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

There is a risk, and that is that the govern­ment will not be able to get the legislation through the parliament this week. Liberal senators have been saying, 'They won't spend it on education.' What an insult to Australian families. The Liberal Party have now decided they want to tell Australian families how to spend this money. Where have the Liberal Party got to?

What this government is trying to do this week is to enable legislation which will allow us to pay the Schoolkids Bonus scheme. It seems the Liberal Party are going to block that. They are going to block us from providing assistance to families. They have for the last year complained that families are under pressure, that families are not managing as well as they should be. Yet when this government moves to assist families with the cost of sending their kids to school, the Liberal Party are going to oppose it. They ought to wake up to themselves. Australian families want to know why they do not support these payments being made. (Time expired)