Senator CHRIS EVANS (Western Australia—Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:07): The strength of the Australian economy allows the government to help families through difficult times. One of the things we have done in recent times is continue to assist families with the costs of children's education. We know some families do it tough having older children stay at school or at TAFE in further learning and we know that families find the costs involved in returning to school quite difficult, so we have made two measures recently. The family tax benefit changes will see children aged 16 to 19 receiving extra payments of up to $4,200 per teenager to allow their parents to support them in school. We think 630,000 families will benefit over the next five years. We have also extended the education tax refund so that, in addition to school uniforms and laptops and stationery, people will be able to get support in terms of the deductions for hats, footwear and sports uniforms—real help for families sending kids to school. (Time expired)