Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Because it is a point that we should get out and I think that people should know about it. It is very important. Low-income families already get the maximum rate of CCB. That on average covers around 65 per cent of child-care costs. In addition, the government has increased this funding because it has a vision for the future, for the progression and the nurturing of those who are probably the most important in our community: the new generation coming through. The children are the people this government intends to look after, and has.

As I have said before, we have got double the number of places that were available under a Labor government and I do not think that the population has doubled since the Labor government were in power. It might have, because it was a fair while ago, but I do not think that it has. Nonetheless, it has been a Liberal-National government that has really gone to the fore in trying to develop the child-care system. If the Labor government warrant such outrage about this, we just want to go to one thing: where is your plan? Surely after all this time you should be able to deliver some document to the chamber showing what you intend to do. But there is no such luck. There is nothing there. Why should you worry about delivering a child-care plan when you can go to Manuka for a Chinese meal? Why would you bother? There are other things to do around this town than deliver policies so let us not worry about policies. Let us just sit on the other side of the chamber and arbitrarily pick pieces out of the most brilliant budget of this century, the budget that has delivered the major tax cuts that we have all been looking for.

Who would ever have believed that we would live in a time when the top marginal tax rate in Australia would start at $150,000? That is a tax cut for everybody in this house; that is more money in your pocket. You can do that when you manage to balance the books. There is a bit of an art to balancing the books and this side of the house has the capacity to do that, and the Australian people know that. The Australian people know that when it comes to economic management there is only one side they can turn to and that is the Liberal-National government, and that is what has happened here.