In life, and in politics, it always pays to own up to a mistake and move on.

But that's not a lesson the Treasurer, Joe Hockey, seems to have learnt when it comes to the government's plan to tackle the "fraud" of new parents "double-dipping" by accessing two paid parental leave schemes.

Joe Hockey's second budget cracks down on paid parental leave 'double-dipping'. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

On the Sunday before Mr Hockey handed down his second federal budget, press gallery doyen Laurie Oakes suggested to the Treasurer that parents accessing both the government paid parental leave scheme and their employers' was "basically fraud, isn't it, taking an allowance twice effectively? Who is doing it?"

"Well, it is," the Treasurer said, adding that "it's mostly people who go on parental leave that earn more than $90,000 a year".