Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

There is a pause in the threshold for three years. Why are we doing that? Why are we forced to do that? As I said, it does give us no pleasure. We are forced do that because of the unsustainable budget position we inherited from the Labor Party.

Before the member for Adelaide interrupted, I was pointing out that the Productivity Commission review that points the way to a better future, to a more sustainable future for families, which brings down its draft report next month, was not supported by Labor, was never endorsed by Labor. Labor took no interest in finding policy solutions for the future. In fact, under Labor childcare costs went up 53 per cent. You might say that there are subsidies to assist—and yes, there are—but in the last four years of Labor childcare out-of-pocket costs went up 40 per cent, so families were paying 40 per cent more in the last four years of the Labor government. It is a shameful legacy that we have inherited—one we are managing, fixing and sorting out.

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