Senator NEAL(3.15 p.m.) —This government has made much in recent times about their mandate. They said lots about their rights as a government and their rights to carry out their mandate. The trouble is that they have forgotten one essential thing—that a mandate is a two-way relationship. Not only do you have rights in a two-way relationship, but you also have responsibilities. There is a relationship with the voter, which means that when you give an undertaking to carry out a certain policy when you are elected, after you are elected you have a responsibility to continue to put forward that policy.

Senator Abetz —I rise on a point of order, Madam Deputy President. I was wondering whether Senator Neal might like to table the document from which she is reading, along the lines of Senator Bolkus's point of order during question time.

Senator NEAL —I have some notes here that, if you wish, you may come over and inspect. But you are probably very unlikely to be able to read them because my handwriting is not the best. The situation is that when you go to an election, putting forward a particular platform, when you are elected those people have an entitlement to have that policy persevered with once you get into government. What has become very clear with the answers that were given by Senator Newman on this occasion today is that they do not intend to pursue the policies they put forward to the people prior to the election now that they are in government. This is very clear if you refer to the statements made by Peter Costello, the present Treasurer. In relation to new immigrants, he very clearly says:

Full access to family payment and Medicare will be maintained . . .

We might be mistaken—and I am sure some of the people out there in the electorate might be mistaken—into thinking that a full family payment actually means a full family payment. I suppose that would be a fairly reason able assumption. But no, a full family payment, when interpreted by the present Prime Minister, John Howard, does not actually mean a full family payment. John Howard's interpretation of a full payment means half the family payments that most people would rely on—that is, the basic family payment, and the supplementary family payment will not be paid. Somehow the full family payment, after it has gone through the John Howard mill, only means half the family payment that most people could rely on.

You should go and talk to Mr and Mrs out there in the electorate, with two children, who are working away at their jobs. Men come home and talk to their wives, who have been working in a part-time job. They represent a large part of the community. They come home and they have two kids who have gone off to school. They are relying on making ends meet by the family payment. When they think about the full family payment, they do not think it means just the basic family payment. They think that the full family payment means the basic family payment plus the supplementary family payment. Most of you out there would think the same thing. It is pretty obvious that Senator Newman thought that the family payment meant both family payments. In her answer yesterday she said:

People will continue to receive family payments during the period as they do at present.

What family payments are received by new immigrants at present? As soon as they arrive they are entitled to receive both the basic family payment and the supplementary payment, not just one of them, as John Howard would have us believe. If you examine the views of the community and the normal interpretation that any member of the community would have, you would assume that they would include both.

It is completely dishonest and a breach of the promises that you made to the community to come in here trying to divide them on some sophistry of terminology and say that the family payment only includes half of it. Your confusion about what the full family payment means indicates that this is certainly the case and that that misunderstanding is something that the general community would have. (Time expired)