23rd Jun 2014, 12:42 PM – Senate Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Measures) Bill 2014 - Second Reading - Find other means to raise revenue

This division relates to the Policy For limiting availability of welfare payments.

The majority voted against an amendment to the original motion, introduced by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. The original motion was "that the bill be now read a second time"(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through to become law here. ) to which Senator Hanson-Young moved the following amendment:

At the end of the motion, add:

but the Senate is of the opinion that, rather than punishing families, revenue should be raised from big miners, bankers and polluters through:

(a) applying a 'public insurance' levy on the big four banks that are too big to fail;

(b) removing fossil fuel subsidised fuel for big mining companies;

(c) retaining the billions in revenue from the carbon price;

(d) implementing the original super profits mining tax;

(e) imposing a millionaires tax;

(f) taxing discretionary trusts as corporations; and

(g) imposing a levy on thermal coal imports exports.

Because the majority voted against this amendment, it was unsuccessful

Background to the bill

The bill was introduced primarily to amend the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999 in order to:

• maintain the indexation pause on the Child Care Rebate (CCR) limit at $7500 for three years from 1 July 2014; and
• maintain the Child Care Benefit (CCB) income thresholds at the amounts applicable as at 30 June 2014 for three years from 1 July 2014.

Normally, the CCR limit and CCB income test thresholds are indexed on an annual basis to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). These measures constitute a freeze on the annual indexation of these amounts.(Read more about these measure in the bills digest. )

The Government announced this freeze on the indexation of the CCB income test threshold in the 2014–15 Budget. It is part of a broader measure that affects the indexation of income test thresholds for major welfare payments.(Read more about the background to the bill in the bills digest.)