CHANGES TO FAMILY TAX BENEFITS HIT FAMILIES
Labor should focus on being tough on waste rather than adding to the burden of Australian families.
So says local MP Philip Ruddock, speaking specifically on the impact which the Gillard Government’s budget cuts to family benefits.
‘The ALP’s claim that cutting $2 billion from family benefits will only effect the ‘rich’ is clearly wrong’.
Over 2.1 million families will lose some support as a result of the real value of the Family Tax Benefit supplement being cut.’
On top of that, many families with parents earning average wages will lose hundreds of dollars a year through the freezing of the threshold at which families start losing base rate Family Tax Benefit A.
‘Let’s look at some examples which mirror the circumstances of many families in this electorate. Take a family with a combined income of $110,000. Each parent could be earning $55,000 or maybe Dad earns $65,000 and Mum $40,000 – this family will lose $853.50 a year in 2012-13 if they have 2 children under 13 and $906.75 if they have 3 under 13.’
‘How many families can afford to have this much wiped off their family budget with all the increases in living costs they are trying to cope with?’
Interest rates have increased 7 times since September 2009 ‘increasing average mortgage repayments by some $500 a month in a little over 18 months. And now with have a carbon tax coming, with all its consequences.’
Mr Ruddock said the Coalition is committed to easing the financial burden of families by rejecting Labor’s new taxes and paying back Labor’s debt as soon as possible.