Hypocritical Macklin Doesn’t Get It

Labor has shown once again that it is incapable of understanding the Coalition’s budget measures by continuing its campaign of scaremongering and lies to Australian families.

Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews says Labor’s Jenny Macklin is telling lies when she claims the Single Parenting Payment will be cut.

“We are only changing the rate of indexation to bring it into line with other working age payments, like Newstart,” he said.

“Jenny Macklin also claims we are abolishing end of year supplements for FTB recipients – this is wrong – they are not being abolished.

“And to complete the hat-trick of Labor lies, Macklin also claims that we are pushing young people under 25 from Newstart onto the lower Youth Allowance.

“The truth is those already on Newstart will stay on Newstart – they are not being pushed onto the low payment as Macklin implies.

“The ALP hypocrisy is amazing – it was Labor who increased the eligibility for Newstart from 21 to 22 years.

“For each month these Bills are delayed it is costing Australian taxpayers more than $117 million.

“If Labor really wants to help families, it should support these changes and give every household immediate relief from $550 of costs every year by supporting the carbon tax repeal legislation,” Mr Andrews said.