Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Bushby. Our reforms are going to make a real difference to families. Let me give the Senate a couple of examples. One example is of a hard-working family with two parents going to work and earning about $80,000 a year. It is a family with two children attending long day care service for three days a week. Under our reforms that family will, in net terms, be around $3,000 better off a year. For that $80,000 family, $3,000 a year is a lot of money. That example is in net terms, taking into account family tax benefit changes as well as the benefit of the new childcare subsidy. Similarly, a single parent family earning around $50,000 with one child in child care for three days a week will be around $2½ thousand a year better off thanks to our changes. They will be better off because they will not hit that childcare cliff that families are currently falling off. They will be better off because they will be getting a higher rate of childcare subsidy. They will be better off because they will be able to choose to work more hours and the hours that suit them best.