Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Rebate) Bill 2011. I would like to start by pointing out that a recent Yellow Pages Sensis study ranked the suburb of Malvern, in my electorate of Higgins, as the best place to raise a family. According to the study there are a total of 277 family friendly business listings, including baby and children’s wear retailers, schools, doctors and baby accessories stores. Most suburbs have between 40 to 60 listings.

The ability to care for and raise a child is of great importance to the people of Higgins, as it is for all families throughout Australia. But it is not just the availability of clothing retailers and doctors that matters; the availability and affordability of childcare centres are also of vital importance. Often the largest difficulty faced by families raising children is the ability to sustain an adequate income. This requires one or both parents to be working regularly in order to provide for their family. This is why the availability and affordability of a range of childcare services is so very important for our society, whether it be for after-school care, occasional care or long day care. This legislation will make it easier for families to access child care, primarily by giving them the choice of having the childcare rebate paid fortnightly rather than quarterly or annually. This will have clear benefits for those eligible for the childcare rebate. However, the coalition is concerned that the government is not doing all it can to assist families, as we will soon see when this government introduces legislation in the coming weeks to cap the rebate at $7,500.

The coalition’s record on assisting families with the costs of raising and caring for a child is very strong indeed. It was the coalition that implemented the most significant childcare reforms, including the 30 per cent childcare rebate. From 1 July 2000, we introduced a new childcare benefit that replaced two existing forms of childcare subsidy—the childcare assistance and the childcare cash rebate. The benefit provided for significant increases in assistance for families, particularly for low-income families, and greatly simplified arrangements for claiming assistance.

In 2005 we introduced the childcare tax rebate, which was the most significant childcare reform introduced in Australia—and one that has enjoyed strong community support as well as bipartisan support since its inception. The purpose of the childcare rebate was to ensure that parents who worked fewer than 15 hours a week continued to be eligible for the childcare tax rebate. The Welfare to Work package introduced a requirement that a taxpayer must work, train or study for at least 15 hours a week, or 30 hours over two weeks, to meet the childcare benefit work-training or study test. This meant that those who were in genuine need of childcare assistance could receive the rebate and continue to engage in work or study and contribute to our economy.

These reforms, by assisting families with the cost of approved child care, have built on the childcare benefit system and family assistance packages, such as the family tax benefit, which were set up by the coalition. They remain central to Australia’s social policy framework today.

The baby bonus, implemented in 2004, provided one-off payments to families to assist them in making the necessary changes to work and family arrangements required after the birth of a child. The greater flexibility provided by the baby bonus increased fertility, with the number of babies born per woman rising from the average of 1.77 to 1.81 in 2005 and breaking a 40-year decline. These reforms have ensured that families with children can remain productive, even if faced with significant childcare costs.

We know that access to affordable child care is one of the most important determinants of whether a family is able to remain working, whether it is access to long day care, family day care or after-school care. The coalition in office implemented this important reform that has allowed so many families the benefit of affordable child care, giving them greater choice, flexibility and, more importantly, the chance to sustain their income and continue to build Australia. Despite Labor’s claims that what they have delivered is landmark social reform, what they have in fact done is continue with longstanding coalition policies.

Where to from here? When the coalition went to the last election, we had a set of policies to improve the access to and affordability of child care. We went to the election with a policy of reintroducing indexation of the childcare rebate. For those parents receiving the maximum amount of childcare rebate, this would have provided a benefit of around $300 per year for every child in care. We went to the election with a policy to reinstate $12.6 million of occasional-care funding cut by Labor. Occasional care offers flexible part-time places or emergency care when a parent needs it, whether they are visiting the doctor, commencing study, seeking work or attending to an unforeseen crisis. This measure would have provided funding to help ensure parents were able to access childcare at times of greatest need. We went to the election with a policy that would have seen the childcare rebate paid weekly direct to childcare providers to ensure that families have sufficient cashflow to meet the costs of care. This was to allow parents to pay childcare providers immediately, reduce the potential for fraud and eliminate unnecessary red tape.

This bill will make payments fortnightly and parents will have the option of having the payments paid directly to the childcare provider or continuing to receive the payments themselves, which of course gives parents choice and flexibility. The coalition is supportive of these measures. We know that caring for children can involve not only upfront costs of care but also transport costs and costs involved with locating an appropriate provider. These are not insignificant burdens on families, and any additional help that they can receive through more-flexible policy arrangements is a most welcome development. The ability of childcare providers to receive the rebate on behalf of families is a very beneficial outcome, and 98 per cent of families currently choose to receive their childcare benefit through this method.

However, despite these welcome improvements, this government will be introducing another bill to the House in the coming weeks that will reduce the childcare rebate to $7,500. As parents with children in full-time care would know, Labor’s $7,500 cap will easily be reached and the inevitable extra costs of care will have to be met out of their own pockets. It is a huge disincentive for parents wanting to return to work or to remain in the workforce. What is more, Labor’s removal of indexation of the childcare rebate during the last budget has forced up the cost of child care by up to $300 per child per year. This is how Labor operates when it comes to policy—give with one hand but take more with the other.

It is interesting to hear Labor talk of all the good that they are doing for Australian families, because any success we have had in improving the lives of families has of course very little to do with this Labor government and their changes. Unfortunately, this government refuse to face up to their failure to deliver on their promises. This is a massive problem for everyone, but families in particular were promised a very great deal when it comes to child care and, sadly, they have been let down by this government. It is not due to the efforts of this government that we are seeing greater choice and opportunity for Australian families. Insofar as we have been successful in creating positive outcomes for child care, it is because this government have continued the policies of the previous coalition government. But we have also seen significant missed opportunities and an attitude from the current government that their undelivered promises do not matter—that they can promise and not deliver.

Before the 2007 election Labor promised to build an additional 260 childcare centres. Then the government scrapped this idea and instead decided to build only the 38 that they had actually started. This was one of the Rudd government’s many broken promises, something which this current Prime Minister was supposed to fix—although we all know how that has worked out. This broken promise was particularly bad for families facing rising childcare costs, which are significant and a significant impediment to continued work and sustainable incomes.

In response to the government’s failure on childcare centres, Julia Gillard, in a rare display of contrition said:

We can always do better. There’s always more to do.

This, of course, is the closest we could ever hope to get for an admission by this government of failure—very telling indeed.

The coalition continues to prove its commitment to advancing the economic position of women. Our paid parental leave policy is in every respect superior to Labor’s, which fails to meet the financial needs of families. Our policy provides maximum social benefits, whereas Labor’s scheme falls short on delivering real outcomes. The government’s reckless spending and deficits are having a real effect on families, especially those with children. This is having a negative impact on the financial freedom of families, including their ability to access child care. Previously, the government tried to use the quick political fixes of GroceryWatch and Fuelwatch, both of which were unmitigated policy failures. Meanwhile, the price of petrol, electricity, groceries, housing and medical services continues to rise. The government is concerned about affordability for families but at the same time they are proposing a new carbon tax that will increase the cost of all goods and services throughout the economy.

Labor’s claim that it will continue to reduce the taxes in order to pay for the carbon tax is false, and Labor has proved well and truly that it is unwilling to lower taxes but it is all too willing to raise them or to create new ones. Whether it is the mining tax, the flood levy or the most recent carbon tax, Labor has proved that it is in capable of offsetting these new taxes by lowering or abolishing others. This means that prices continue to rise, putting more pressure on families and reducing their financial flexibility.

This government talks about helping families to meet the extra cost of raising a family while at the same time it caps the childcare rebate and introduces new taxes that force up the cost of living. This is the great lie that Labor is living. It talks about helping families but it is failing to get even the basics of economic management right.

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