Working family was a term used by Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia, and members of his leadership team, during the lead-up to the 2007 Australian federal election.
Despite calls[5] for a definition during the election campaign, the term remained undefined.
The ambiguous nature of the term allowed evasion of definitive policies throughout the campaign.
[5] In the lead up to the federal budget of May 2008 the term continued to cause confusion and the scope was expanded by the Treasurer and the Prime Minister to include, among others, "a single person who is a pensioner or a self-funded retiree, or someone who is being provided care by a carer".
[6] On 1 May 2008, the Treasurer of Australia, Wayne Swan (Australian Labor Party), described 'working family' on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio program, Radio National Breakfast, as follows: This definition was reinforced by Rudd later the same day, saying, "If you’re a working family on $50,000 a year, it means, or a worker on $50,000 a year...."[9] In the Federal Budget's second reading speech, presented to the Parliament of Australia on 13 May 2008, the term "Working family/ies" was used thirteen times.