Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

In answer to Senator Hughes's supplementary question, as I was saying in answer to the previous question, something that the opposition seems to fail to grasp is that childcare payments are not only a social welfare measure; they are an important measure to encourage more women to participate in the workplace. We know that women's participation in the workplace is far lower than men's and we know that increasing women's participation in the workplace is an important economic measure for this government.