The prime minister John Howard has condemned Labor's plan to restrict family tax benefits paid to high-income earners, saying thousands of families would be punished as a result.
Labor wants to limit the family tax benefit to families with a combined income of 250 thousand dollars or less a year.
Mr Howard says tens of thousands of families would be hurt by Labor's changes to the family tax benefit B- a payment aimed primarily at families with a stay-at-home mother.
And he's told the Menzies Research Centre in Canberra, the government's policy recognises the high costs involved in raising children.
"At a time when there is general dismay at our relatively low fertility rate, what possible public policy justification can there be for affording precisely the same tax treatment to a couple without children on 80 thousand dollars per year compared with a couple with two children or three for that matter- on the same level of income".