Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

In rising to sum up the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Subsidy) Bill 2021, I firstly thank all the members who have contributed in the discussion on this particular bill. I particularly thank the opposition for not opposing this bill, so that it can go to the Senate, get through the Senate, hopefully, and then be implemented, because this bill will make a very significant difference to the lives of 250,000 families.

What the bill does, as members know, is provide an additional childcare subsidy for the second and subsequent children that a family has in child care. Why are we doing that? Because we know that, despite the fact that the childcare system is geared towards supporting families with all their children, when you have two, three or more children in child care at any one time those bills really start to add up. Additionally, it can be an impediment, particularly to women, going back into the workforce or working more days of the week as they might want to do. Hence, this bill provides additional funding in a very targeted way to address that particular problem.

As I said, 250,000 families will be beneficiaries of this bill. The average family that uses the childcare system, who is on a median income of $110,000 and has a couple of kids doing four days a week, will be $95 per week better off as a result of it. This is good for the cost of living and it's also good for the economy, because it means that people are likely to be back into the workforce. That, of course, boosts the overall economy and wealth of this nation. So it has those dual purposes there, and I thank all the members for their contributions to this bill.

Of course, it works off the architecture which our childcare system already has in place, and that is a system whereby the greatest subsidies are provided to those of the least means and the lowest subsidies are provided to those of the most means, exiting at $350,000 per annum. That is, if you're a family and you're earning more than $350,000 you don't get any subsidy at all, because our view is that those families are able to afford the child care for themselves. I will point out that, as a result of this bill, this government's total contribution to the childcare system will now be $11 billion per annum, which is about double what it was when we came to office. So it has been important for us to support the childcare system, to support the families that need it and to support the economy in doing so.

The main critique from the opposition that I want to address in this summing-up speech—and I was listening to the contribution from the member for Macnamara—is effectively that we didn't adopt Labor's policy. The reason that we didn't adopt Labor's policy on child care is that it is fundamentally very different to what we are proposing here. Whereas our proposal is to provide the most support to those families of the least means, tapering off to no support when you are earning above $350,000, the Labor Party policy is to provide the most support to those who are on very high incomes. I just find that astounding coming from the modern-day Labor Party. For example, under the Labor policy, a family on $400,000 with two children in full-time care would effectively be getting $1,000 per week from the workers of Australia to pay for that wealthy family's child care—$1,000 per week from the taxpayer to pay for a family's child care when that family is earning $400,000 or $500,000 per annum.

No wonder the Labor Party are in all sorts of turmoil about what they stand for these days, when the most amount of money that they are going to put into the system will go to the very wealthiest people in our society. The cost to the taxpayer of this policy? It would be $20 billion. That would be the cost to the taxpayer. So, under Labor's policy, $20 billion would be paid for by all of those working families in the Hunter and out in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Queensland to pay $1,000 per week for the child care of those families earning $400,000, $500,000 or $600,000 per annum.

That is what the Labor Party's policy is, and that is the reason that this government isn't supporting the Labor Party policy. It is very clear. Our measures are targeted and fair and they support those families who use the childcare system who need the support the most. But our measures are also fair for the over 50 per cent of the families who don't use the childcare system at all. So it is a modest additional outlay on top of what our expenditure is already in the childcare system.

I commend this bill to the House. I again thank everybody for their contribution to this bill. I note there will be some amendments that the Labor Party will be moving which we won't be supporting, but I do thank them for agreeing to not oppose this bill in this House, so that 250,000 families across Australia can be better off.

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