Senator DENMAN (2:40 PM) —My question is to Senator Patterson, the Minister for Family and Community Services. Can the minister confirm that her department has prepared options for non-legislative members to reduce family payment debts? Can the minister explain why it is that nearly four years after the introduction of the family tax benefits system and after 2.9 million families have been paid $2.5 billion worth of payments incorrectly the government is still to introduce administrative changes to prevent families from falling into debt?

Senator PATTERSON (Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women) —This gives me the opportunity to remind honourable senators that since the introduction of the new tax system we have given families almost $2 billion more in family tax benefits—$2 billion a year more in assistance.

Senator Jacinta Collins —You clawed back one—$1 billion was clawed back.

Senator PATTERSON —Senator Collins sits there and says $1 billion was clawed back.

The PRESIDENT —Senator Patterson, ignore the interjections.

Senator PATTERSON —When Senator Collins can look at some budget statements and budget papers and understand them, I will give her a gold star. Senator Vanstone has gold stars in her office, but it will be a long time before I walk down the corridor to get a gold star from Senator Vanstone to give to Senator Collins. She could not read a budget paper if her life depended on it. We have not clawed back. You do not understand that a family tax benefit is an uncapped benefit. When you increase the number of people in jobs, the amount of money you spend on assistance to families is reduced. We have given families almost $2 billion a year more in assistance. That means that the average family gets almost $6,000 each year as a result of that almost $2 billion additional funding that we have given to families.

I have gone out, sat down and talked to people who have had overpayments in family tax benefits and gone through with them the form that they have to fill in when they apply. I believe that it is too complicated. I believe we need to streamline the choices. We have a task force working on that. I am doing that. The new form will be introduced at the beginning of the tax year to make it easier for people to understand. We have just notified all families whom we think are at risk of receiving an overpayment that they need to ring Centrelink and update their income details. We have made a number of changes to assist families.

I remind honourable senators that over 500,000 families receive a top-up. When Labor provided family assistance and were running the system, people who got too little in any one year did not get a top-up. We are ensuring that families in similar circumstances receive similar assistance from the taxpayer. That is what we believe is fair. What we need to do is to make sure—

Senator Jacinta Collins —It's a catch-up, not a top-up. It's a different system.

The PRESIDENT —Senator Collins, interjections are disorderly.

Senator PATTERSON —We have increased assistance to families by almost $2 billion a year. I am ensuring that we make it as simple as possible for families to understand what they need to do to reduce the likelihood of receiving an overpayment. Let me remind people that under Labor's system those who got too little in any one year never got a top-up.

Senator DENMAN —Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister confirm that she is considering cutting funding to or abolishing the Family Assistance Office, which administers family tax benefits and child-care benefit payments? Wouldn't further administrative cuts over and above the 1.5 per cent across-the-board running costs savings put in place in Centrelink recently actually increase the chance of families receiving debts?

Senator PATTERSON (Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women) —What I am considering doing is making sure that every single Australian family knows that we have given almost $2 billion a year more to families in family assistance. We have given families choice. We have FTB B to assist families where a parent chooses to stay at home. We have given families more choice than they ever got under Labor, more assistance than they ever got under Labor and more opportunity to have jobs than they ever had under Labor.