Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all those members of the House who have contributed to this debate. The Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Management System and Other Measures) Bill 2007 is an important bill because it is taking child care into a new age. It will ensure that the interaction between the federal government and the childcare industry is using the latest technology. We can swap information to ensure that parents are getting the right amount of money and that we have the best possible advice on where childcare places and vacancies are. We can then make that information available through our childcare hotline. That is all possible because the federal government has made a major investment in the childcare management system. It will start to roll out later this year through long day care centres and then over the next two years through the remainder of the childcare industry.

It will really reduce the burden on, particularly, directors and the work that they do—many doing work manually. This will speed up not only their internal work but also the clarity of it, and provide that information in a timely fashion to government and then back to the centres. There are a couple of other intended consequences: the new compliance measures supported by CCMS will minimise any risk of incorrect payments and fraud and maximise the speedy detection of these problems should they occur. The amendments will raise awareness by services of their obligations and the consequences of noncompliance. Unfortunately, what occurs now is that through our compliance measures you do not get this information until well after the event. You then have to go back to parents to ascertain when a child was in fact in care et cetera. So this is in the interests of the taxpayer, the parent and of course the childcare centre.

The Howard government makes a massive contribution to assist families with child care and this will help to ensure that what is spent is spent the correct way, that we get quality childcare places and also that all moneys expended can be accounted for. When I refer to a massive sum of money, I am talking about $11,000 million which is what we anticipate spending over the next four years, more than twice what was spent when the Keating government was last in power. We have also doubled the number of childcare places and have put in place other measures to ensure that there is greater access to child care, such as freeing up before and after school care.

There are no limitations on anybody wanting to start up a before or after school care program, a family day care, or a long day care service. The federal government will fund the childcare benefit for those parents. It is important to acknowledge and understand that that is how we fund: we do not fund centres; we fund parents to help offset the cost of their child care.

The member for Capricornia, the shadow minister present in the chamber, made some comments about the cost and lack of affordability of child care. Although she does not need to be reminded, I remind her that it is important to note the federal government in its budget has increased childcare benefit by 13 per cent from 1 July—in 18 or 19 days time that kicks in. That will mean $20.50 per child for low-income families using full-time care and that is clearly where we have targeted the majority of our assistance.

Obviously we have made other improvements to the childcare tax rebate, bringing it forward in a timely fashion. Most importantly, we are ensuring that approximately 100,000 families who do not have a taxable income sufficient to offset that rebate will benefit. This means that they will be able to offset another $300 to $500 per year against their childcare fees.

When you take into account the subsidies, as a result of the increase in childcare benefit, the Howard government will pick up between 55 and 93 per cent of the fees of Australian working families who use approved long day care. That is incredibly generous and appropriate. It will assist parents to get back into the workforce and will offset those costs—and it belies the story that the opposition would have you believe.

On the weekend, I was in Brisbane with the Queensland childcare association. I had a few hundred people sitting in front of me, all predominantly childcare owners. In this open forum with the media present, I said, ‘Put your hand up if you are charging $350 a week for child care.’ Not one did. ‘Three hundred dollars?’—it was like a bidding war. I think I got one hand at $300. ‘Two hundred and fifty dollars?’—and the majority of hands went up. That is not surprising because that is exactly what our figures show.

Are Australian families paying $250 a week? No. The Howard government is picking up up to 93 per cent of that $250 a week and, for the majority, it is picking up at least $125. Divide that by five and you have parents out of pocket about $25 a day for having a quality childcare place. The Child Care Management System helps to protect that and ensures that parents get the money that they deserve. That is what this bill is aimed at.

There are those who do not get childcare benefit because they are high-income earners earning over $108,000. In those cases, through the federal government’s childcare tax rebate and by making sure that the childcare benefit minimum rate is available, high-income earners can expect at least $5,000 per child in direct assistance towards their childcare costs. High-income earners do not get nothing; they get up to $5,000 or thereabouts. If their child is in care for two days a week, because it is calculated on 30 per cent of their out-of-pocket expenses, the more expensive that care is, the more that the government is paying. We are contributing to everybody regardless of where they are on the income spectrum and we are providing the majority of support to the low-income earners.

Another example is that a working family with an income of $60,000, which is fairly common these days in Australia, using part-time care for one or two children will have between 55 and 79 per cent of their fee subsidised, depending on the centre they use. That shows that parents cannot listen to what the opposition says because they get told two things. They get told that there are no places. I have challenged the shadow minister on air many times to name but one place.

See this speech in context