Labor MP, Graham Perrett has issued a festive season warning that the Turnbull Government has delivered a cruel Christmas present for Australian families by reintroducing its savage cuts to Family Tax Benefits.

Labor is worried that many Australian families will start 2016 the same way they started 2015 – with savage cuts to their budgets hanging over their heads.

“Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts to Family Tax Benefits will hurt more than 1.6 million Australian families, including single parents”, Mr Perrett warned.

Graham believes that some families could lose as much as $4,700. “Just like the proposed GST, this will deliver a massive hit to family budgets around Australia”, he claimed.

The Turnbull Government has also reintroduced a number of cuts introduced in the first Abbott/Hockey 2014 Budget, including abolishing the Education Entry Payment and the Pensioner Education Supplement.

“These payments to low income Australians and help with the cost of education. Sadly the end of Tony Abbott’s Prime Ministership does not mean the end of attacks on Australian families”, Mr Perrett said.

The groundbreaking and widely popular National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) when introduced by Labor almost three years ago called for it to begin its transition to the full scheme by July 2016 – requiring all states and territories to sign up to it.

Delegates to the national disability services CEOs conference recently heard there was no room to delay the start of the transition to the full National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) across Australia from July 1 next year, as originally planned when Labor passed its legislation in 2013.

Shadow minister for disability reform, Jenny Macklin said she did not support any delay to the rollout.

“This is for one simple reason: people with disability have waited long enough,” Macklin told the conference. “They should not have to wait any longer.

“I am conscious of the skill and toil put into making the scheme a success thus far, and I know it will get more challenging as we ramp up, not less,” she said.

“People with disability, their families and service providers now have some certainty.”

Bilateral agreements for the full scheme have been finalised in the ACT, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.

“They were a long time coming, but it is great news for all those who have fought so hard to secure the future of the NDIS,” said Macklin.

“The agreements mean that people with disability, their families and service providers now have some certainty about the nature of the rollout,” she said.

“The bilateral agreements with these remaining jurisdictions must be secured and signed as a matter of urgency.

“We will keep listening to you, and learning from you.”

“Participants and families need this certainty, and they need this time to get ready for an entirely new approach to accessing care and support.”

Labor has committed to contributing to the public discussion on the NDIS and on broader disability policy.

“We will do what we can to ensure the NDIS delivers its core promise to the people who need it: the promise of decency, security, independence and opportunity,” the shadow minister said.

“And we will keep listening to you, and learning from you, as you help carry out this once-in-a-generation, transformational social change.

“Building the NDIS thus far has been challenging, and I know it will get more challenging still.

“It will require you to keep leading this change — to keep changing lives,” she said.