Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have heard a lot about the wide range of benefits that will result from the Turnbull government's new childcare package, but I would like to spend some time, in the consideration in detail of Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2017-2018 today, examining the important provisions of one particularly important component of the package—the $1.2 billion Child Care Safety Net. This is a new and improved approach to ensuring that our most vulnerable children are receiving all the care they need. We know that children from disadvantaged backgrounds benefit most from quality early-childhood education and care. That is why our new childcare package is providing additional support to those who need it most.

Within the overall childcare package, our Child Care Safety Net recognises that vulnerable children need extra support, and it does so in various ways. First of all, the Child Care Safety Net will support families earning around $65,000 or less who do not meet the activity test, by providing two days a week. That is two six-hour sessions at the highest, 85 per cent, rate of subsidy, which is an increase on the current 72 per cent rate of subsidy for this group.

Secondly, also under the Child Care Safety Net, the additional childcare subsidy will provide extra subsidies to families of children at risk of serious abuse or neglect, those experiencing temporary financial hardship and people moving from income support into work. Thirdly, families of children at risk of serious abuse and those experiencing temporary financial hardship will be exempt from the activity test and will qualify for up to 50 hours of child care a week, at a subsidy equal to 100 per cent of their childcare fees, up to 120 per cent of the hourly rate cap. Families moving from income support will attract a subsidy of up to 95 per cent of their childcare fees—that is up to 95 per cent of the hourly rate cap—and the hours of subsidised care will be based on the training or study activity.

The ACCS will also ensure that grandparents on income support who are the principal carers of their grandchildren—that is, who are caring for their grandchildren 65 per cent of the time—will not have to meet the childcare subsidy activity test and will receive a subsidy equal to 100 per cent of their childcare fees, up to 120 per cent of the hourly rate cap.

The $404 million Community Child Care Fund will provide grants to services to reduce the barriers to accessing child care. It will improve service viability, particularly in disadvantaged or remote communities. $61.8 million of the Community Child Care Fund, the CCCF, will be set aside to support the transition of budget-based funded services, including mobile services in regional, rural and remote communities. This funding will be in addition to childcare subsidies families using those services receive for the first time and will support the expansion of services into areas of unmet demand to increase Indigenous children's participation in early learning.

A key component of the childcare safety net is the $550 million Inclusion Support Program. Understanding that the ISP commenced last July in advance of the package, I ask the minister to provide an update on its implementation.

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