George Christensen MP

Federal Member for Dawson

PO Box 1697, Mackay Qld 4740 | 07 4944 0662 | george.christensen.mp@aph.gov.au


Hon Chris Bowen MP
Shadow Treasurer
Member for McMahon
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

via e-mail: chris.bowen.mp@aph.gov.au


Dear Mr Bowen,

Thank you for your letter dated 17 June 2014 regarding paid parental leave (PPL).

I am opposed to paid parental leave because it actively discriminates against so-called
stay-at-home mothers or, as I prefer to call them, unwaged mothers performing their
own child care. I hold this view because I believe mothers who perform their own long-
term childcare are just as productive as those who choose to be in the paid workforce.

You state in your letter that together, we can stand up for regional Australia by
opposing the Liberal National Coalitions PPL scheme. But why would I want to stand
together with a party that stands accused of the very unfairness it tries to brand the
government with?

You see, Mr Bowen, it was Labor that implemented an unfair PPL scheme to start with.
You began the rot. You started the discrimination against unwaged mothers.

Under Labors paid parental leave scheme, unwaged working mothers are left on the
scrap heap. For a woman who, five years ago, left her paid career to become a full-time
mother, caring for her child herself, until that child was of school age, and who then
became pregnant again in the past nine months, your paid parental leave delivers
nothing.

So, Labor stands accused of this discrimination.

Your letter also refers to changes to the Family Tax Benefit system. While I have some
concern with the changes in the budget, it is highly hypocritical for Labor to be pointing
the finger given its recent track record on family support payments.

I would remind you that back in 2011, then Minister for Families Jenny Macklin said
Labor was budgeting for the baby bonus to continue right out into the future and that
Labor wont be scrapping the baby bonus because they understand how important it is
to provide financial support to families when a baby comes into the home. Two years
later, Labor axed the baby bonus.

So, Labor stands accused of lying (and not for the first or last time).


Prior to this, Labor had whittled away at programs that supported parents who chose to
care for their children until they were of school age. The baby bonus that you eventually
completely axed had been progressively hacked away at for years. In 2011, then
Treasurer Wayne Swan cut the baby bonus by $400 a year and then, in 2012, he cut the
baby bonus from $5,000 to $3,000 for children other than the first-born.

So, Labor stands accused of penny-pinching.

When Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister the first time around, Labor stripped more than
$3,250 a year in Family Tax Benefit B out of the pockets of more than 40,000 families in
which one parent earned $150,000 or more while the spouse remained out of the paid
workforce in order to provide care for their children. These are similar to the Family Tax
Benefit changes currently being made by the Abbott government that youre now
condemning.

So, Labor stands accused of hypocrisy.

My desire is to see a fair and equitable policy that will assist those unwaged mothers
who choose to undertake their own child care. A universal childcare benefit may be the
solution or perhaps income splitting or some form of family-based taxation. These are all
great ideas but they cost. And you, as a former Treasurer, left the nation careering
towards a debt of more than $667 billion. So there is little to no financial capacity to bring
in such measures at this point in time.

So, Labor stands accused of squandering our wealth.

Im sorry, Mr Bowen, I wont join with the Labor Party to stand up for regional
Australia. As a member of the Nationals, I stand up for regional Australia in my own
right.

Labor, however, stands accused of unfairness, discrimination, lying, penny-pinching,
hypocrisy and squandering our wealth. And, going by the evidence Ive outlined in this
letter, your party is guilty on all counts.

No, Mr Bowen, I wont be standing together with Labor, a party that has such a
poor track record in supporting families.

Yours sincerely,



George Christensen MP
Federal Member for Dawson

18/06/2014