Ms MACKLIN (Jagajaga—Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) (16:00): The Leader of the Opposition leaves the chamber after yet another tirade of abuse—which is actually all that he is good for—a tirade that was comprised yet again of nothing more than a list of everything that he is opposed to. That is what that speech was all about. Every single statement he made was full of things that this Leader of the Opposition continues to say no to at every turn. This matter of public importance debate is supposed to be about things that are important to families and yet on this very day the member for Mayo, who is also leaving the chamber, has said—and this really bells the cat about what the Liberals are all about—that family payments, childcare support, pensions and disability support are 'the dead hand of government'. That is what the great thinker of the Liberal Party, the member for Mayo, has said—that all of these supports for families are 'the dead hand of government'. On the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens, you want to take this country back into the Dickensian age. That is what a Liberal government would do to this country— Ms O'Dwyer interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Higgins needs to listen in silence or she will not get to listen inside. Ms MACKLIN: and, as we have just seen from the Leader of the Opposition, they do not have one new idea for the future. All they want to do is say no and take this country backwards. I found it extraordinary that the Leader of the Opposition said that the test for this debate was which government would deliver good pay and low interest rates—an extraordinary test. But he had no intention of addressing how he would deliver that in government and he refused to acknowledge that he was a minister in the government which delivered Work Choices. The Labor government abolished Work Choices so that families in this country could have the security that they need more than anything—the security of knowing not only that they have a job but that the good working conditions of that job are protected. It is this government which has delivered 700,000 additional jobs over the four years it has been in office. Just recently we were very pleased to see a very important pay rise delivered to some of the lowest paid workers in this country—150,000 community sector workers who, at long last, are getting a decent pay rise because of the changes that this government made to the Fair Work Act. This would never have been possible under those opposite. The Leader of the Opposition also talked about the importance of low interest rates. How important would it have been for him to tell the truth that, as a result of this government's good economic management, families are now paying less on their mortgages than they were when the Liberals were in government? Families know that under the Liberals they faced 10 interest rate rises in a row and that now, under the Labor government, families with mortgages are paying less. All that said, this government does understand that families continue to be under financial pressure. That is why, instead of filling this debate with abuse as the Leader of the Opposition has—filling it with the ways he intends to say no to everything that this government puts forward—I intend to take the House through all the positive things that this government is doing and has done for families. I will start with the most recent change—never delivered by the National Party or by the Liberal Party—to recognise the importance of family payments for parents who have teenagers over the age of 16. Under the Liberal government, when your child turned 16, family payments went down. It is this Labor government which has fixed that. Those families can now expect to see an increase of up to $4,200 in their budgets each year to help them meet the costs associated with having teenagers. All of us know that teenagers do not get cheaper as they get older—as, somehow, the Liberals seem to think. Of course, it was this Labor government that delivered Australia's first national paid parental leave scheme. Now we know what the Leader of the National Party actually thinks about paid parental leave. We know what he particularly thinks about the Leader of the Opposition's paid parental leave scheme. He totally opposes it. This government did not take any notice of their silly internal bickering. We got on with delivering a national paid parental leave scheme and now we have around 130,000 Australian families actually benefiting from 18 weeks of pay at the minimum wage, which is currently around $590 a week. And it will be this government that also delivers dad and partner pay so that dads and partners can make sure that they too spend some time at home with mum and baby after the baby's birth. We also understand how important it is to make sure that parents get support when they go back to work and they need to meet the costs of child care. These changes were made by this Labor government, not by those opposite but by a Labor government that understands the costs of child care, a Labor government that understands that parents need help when they go back to work. We have increased the childcare rebate to 50 per cent. What that means is that half of parents' out-of-pocket costs, up to $7½ thousand per child, are now being paid—never done by those opposite; never delivered by them but delivered by this government. What we have also done is speed up the delivery of that help to parents as to the costs of child care so that parents are getting that childcare rebate more frequently to help with their fortnightly bills. It is this government that has also introduced the education tax refund—never done by those opposite. These are real changes delivered by this Labor government because we understand that having a strong economy needs to be in the interests of families. That is why we are making all these changes. The education tax refund is delivering real payments, real money, to parents when they need it. As the children are going back to school right now, all parents understand that this is an expensive time. Australian families can get as much as $397 for every child at primary school and up to $794 for every child in high school. One of the important changes that this government has made is that it is also allowing families to claim for approved school uniforms as well as other education costs. All of these changes mean real increased support for families. We have also recognised that it is not only families that need increased support. Our older Australians need it too, those Australians who have done a lifetime of work and want to make sure that as they go into old age they will be able to manage on the pension. It is this government that delivered the historic reforms—reforms never delivered by those opposite—that mean a single pensioner on the maximum rate is now $148 a fortnight better off than they were under the Liberal government. If you are a pensioner couple on the maximum rate you are $146 better off—never done by the Liberals. This government is also delivering a much-needed boost to superannuation so that families can have security in retirement. It is this government that has delivered the tax cuts, and we know how critical it is to continue to do that. We want to see families have more money in their pockets. I will take you through what this actually means to individual families. Someone on $30,000 is paying $750 less in tax than they were when the Liberals were in government. Someone on $50,000 is paying $1,750 less in tax than they were under the Liberals. All of these changes have been made by this Labor government. When you look at what those opposite did you see they did not deliver to pensioners and they did not deliver these childcare changes. It was the Leader of the Opposition who said paid parental leave would be delivered over his dead body. These are all the things that are on the record as facts. It is not about hurling abuse, as the Leader of the Opposition is so wont to do. They are the facts, and we will continue to deliver to pensioners and families. As we meet the challenges of the future by making sure that we have a clean energy economy, this government will make sure that nine out of 10 households get help as to the modest price rises that will come about as the economy changes. We know how important it is to deliver the tax cuts, the increases in family payments and the increases in pensions. All of these things will be done to make sure that families and pensioners get the help that they need. We also know, and this became very clear in the Leader of the Opposition's statements last week, and families know—and they will be reminded regularly by all of us on this side—that you cannot rely on the Liberals. What was very clear from the Leader of the Opposition's remarks at the Press Club last week is that if they ever get into government they will rip out of the purses and wallets of pensioners and families all the money that this government intends to deliver starting in May and June this year. Given what we have also heard from the Leader of the Opposition, they cannot even decide whether or not—and this became very clear today—they are going to deliver a surplus. Are they going to deliver a surplus in their first term? Asked whether that would be the case, the shadow finance minister replied, 'It depends.' That is what the shadow finance minister has said. Obviously, as to whether or not he can find the $70 billion that they know they have got to find, he is saying: how would you know? We have seen today the member for Mayo, and I will go back to where I started my remarks, saying that all the things that families and pensioners depend on—the family payments, the childcare support, the disability support and the support for older Australians—are, according to Liberal Party philosophy, just the dead hand of government. So, is this where the Liberal Party will find the cuts necessary to fill their $70 billion black hole? Are they going to take it from the pockets of pensioners and families? We know that that is the Liberal Party's philosophy. They are the ones who say that that is where they will take the money from, because they have never delivered for pensioners and they have never delivered for families. I also made it clear that for those Australians who are some of the most vulnerable, the people who are looking forward to a Labor government delivering a national disability insurance scheme, all the Leader of the Opposition wants to do is put that on the never-never: never give any hope whatsoever to those people with a disability or their carers and families, who know how desperately in need they are. They know that they can rely on a Labor government to deliver a national disability insurance scheme. It was a Labor government that built Medicare—in fact, we had to do it twice, after a Liberal government destroyed it—and it will be a Labor government that has to deliver a national disability insurance scheme. (Time expired)