Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor's fifth budget has again ignored the silent cry for help from Australian families who are struggling with the cost of living, the lack of relief in the budget, higher mortgages and the enormous challenges and joys of raising young children. I'm not sure what's worse from Labor: the gaslighting or the lying. Families are making tough decisions every day, not just about how to balance the budget and keep a roof over their heads but about how many children—

Varun Ghosh (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKenzie, we'll just pause for a moment. Senator Chisholm?

Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that Senator McKenzie withdraw that reference.

Varun Ghosh (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKenzie, I think it's the reference to lying. There's been a request that you withdraw. I make that request in the interests of keeping peace in the chamber and moving along.

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Given the minister's sensitivity, I withdraw.

Varun Ghosh (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much.

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Families are making tough decisions every day. Of those decisions, how many children to have is often the easiest one to make. We know from research that cost-of-living pressures are putting that at risk. Families are not having as many children as they would like. Who's going to take time off work, and for how long? When do they return to work? How do they manage the family budget to stretch financial and family support in order to stay at home as long as possible? How do they deal with leaving young children in the care of strangers while continuing to breastfeed? There is a multitude of questions that families are grappling with each and every day. They are doing the best that they can under enormous financial and social pressures. In conversations I've had, particularly with young mothers, a common refrain I hear is, 'What is it all for?'

This week's budget is depressing if you were looking for greater choice in child care and greater support for Australian families. What has made it worse is the Minister for Finance's comments around the evidence behind putting young children in long day care and that it is better for them to enter school. It is only gaslighting but incorrect. The mountain of evidence from the UN's human rights and child development specialists and psychoanalyst Erica Komisar says that children are better off at home. Labor is gaslighting young families.