2 June, 2011
JOINT MEDIA RELEASE WITH THE HON KEVIN ANDREWS MP
Under questioning by Senator Mitch Fifield in a Senate Estimates hearing today, officials from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs confirmed that the Gillard Labor government had received advice on freezing family benefits as early as January 2010.
This democratic deficiency can be added to the list of deceit perpetrated by this weak government.
First it was the carbon tax, now we learn that Labor planned to freeze benefits before the election but chose not to tell Australians about it.
An email sent to the Minister’s office one minute before caretaker provisions for the 2010 election commenced advised that the Department has completed a “new version of the spreadsheet with updated numbers for the pause supplements option.”
It also emerged during Estimates that the Government had the Department cost two policies from the Greens.
The Greens are extremists. Why Labor has the Families Department costing their policies is totally incomprehensible.
What it does disturbingly signal is that Greens policies may in fact start filtering into government policies.
The Government needs to immediately come clean and release the costings of these Greens policies, prepared at taxpayer expense, for public scrutiny.