Mr BEAZLEY —I wonder how many watersiders have managed to convert 44c worth of shares—

Mr SPEAKER —The Leader of the Opposition will ask his question or resume his seat.

Mr BEAZLEY —into $56,000 for doing nothing?

Mr SPEAKER —I warn the Leader of the Opposition! You do not start your question with a tirade no matter how much you feel inclined to do so. You will address your question.

Mr BEAZLEY —I think you will find, Mr Speaker, the tirades in this place have all been on that side.

Mr SPEAKER —The Leader of the Opposition will remain silent until I have called you. The House will resume its silence. When the Leader of the Opposition or any other member wishes to raise a question, they will raise the question and not engage in argument.

Mr BEAZLEY —My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister explain to families earning $35,000 why this government is forcing them to find an extra $55 a week to support their young unemployed adults after the youth allowance is introduced in July? Does the Prime Minister agree with the Minister for Social Security that families earning $35,000 a year can afford to pay because they are `relatively well off'? Can the Prime Minister explain why he thinks it is fair to force struggling parents to pay for their children's unemployment while wealthy parents like the Parers actually save money by distributing family trust income to their adult children?

Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) —I will come to the question of family trusts in a moment. The first part of the Leader of the Opposition's question related to the new youth allowance. I am delighted that the Leader of the Opposition has given me an opportunity to explain to the Australian community the philosophy that lies behind the new youth allowance system.

The purpose of this new policy—and might I say that I think it is an excellent policy—is to remove the disincentive against participation in the work force or participation in training which exists in current social security arrangements. One of the problems with the present arrangement is that you can often receive more for being out of work than for being involved in study or training. The philosophy that lies behind it is to reverse those incentives to give people an incentive to pursue training, to give people an incentive to pursue more education. Quite wisely, I think the government has adopted the attitude that people should not leave school without a job being arranged or without some—

Mr Beazley —On a point of order—

Mr HOWARD —He asked me about the new allowance, and I am answering him.

Mr Beazley —My point of order goes to relevance. The Prime Minister is talking about a different situation. I am talking about adults who happen to be children in this situation—18- to 21-year-olds.

Mr SPEAKER —The Prime Minister is in order.

Mr HOWARD —We are for a social welfare system that does not provide a disincentive to people undertaking further education and undertaking further training. One of the cornerstones of the youth allowance proposal is that people should not leave school unless they are going into some kind of training or unless they have a job arranged.

The idea that people should simply leave school without any kind of job or after-school training in mind is the sort of attitude and the sort of incentive in the social welfare system that was left to us by our predecessors. That is why we are proposing to introduce the youth allowance system. I think it is a policy that has been very widely applauded.

Might I say—I know this will be of enormous interest to many of my own colleagues, both in the Liberal Party and in the National Party—that the regions and the rural areas of Australia and the young people of the regions and the rural areas of Australia will be mas sive beneficiaries under the youth allowance system. Once again, by asking this question in the way that he has, the Leader of the Opposition demonstrates to the people of the country areas of Australia that he has no sympathy, no understanding and no interest in their future or in their welfare. There are tens of thousands of young people in rural and regional Australia who will be massively benefited by the new youth allowance system because it contains very significant increases in the living away from home allowances for people from the regional and rural areas of Australia.

The Leader of the Opposition then moved on to the question of family trusts and the taxation arrangements that apply to them. I would remind you that essentially the taxation treatment of a family trust is a taxation structure that you created, you preserved and you did nothing about in the 13 years that you were in government. They have finally discovered—after being in government for 13 years and being in opposition for two years, and when they read a taxation office report about a period of time that ended almost coincidentally with their ejection from the government benches of this country—with phoney confected outrage, that there is a problem that has to be addressed.

Let me simply say to the Leader of the Opposition and to those who sit opposite: you had 13 years; you had your opportunity to fix what you now describe as the obscenity of certain trust arrangements. The Australian people woke up to you. The Australian people threw you out. We will be producing a comprehensive reform of the Australian taxation system. That will include, unlike your pathetic attempts to reform the Australian taxation system, a comprehensive attack on tax avoidance practices that you left unattended over the 13 long years that you were in government.