Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment Participation and Minister for Early Childhood and Childcare. Will the minister outline the real reforms the government has put in place to help Australian families and their childcare needs? Are there any other approaches and what would be their impact?

Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood and Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Parramatta for her question on policy matters before the Australian people. I know that, like me, she is very proud to be part of a government that has prioritised increasing the affordability, the accessibility and indeed the quality of Australian child care.

As a government we have massively increased the childcare rebate. Of course, we increased it from 30 per cent to 50 per cent. We increased the cap to up to $7,500 per child per year. As a result of that we know that this is bringing real relief to parents. An average family on $75,000 a year was spending 13 per cent of their disposable income on their out-of-pocket childcare costs under the coalition government. Under this government, as a result of our increased investments, that family is now spending some 7.6 per cent of their disposable income on child care. So we know that our measures are working; we know that they are increasing affordability.

There has been a staggering 20 per cent increase in the number of children in child care just since we have been in government. That includes a nine per cent increase in the last 12 months alone. So we are a government that recognises that families rely upon our action and our policies to help them balance their work and their family and to help them access quality childcare services. But I was asked by the member for Parramatta if there are any alternative views.

I can inform the House that there are indeed some quite alternative views. Last week the opposition leader released the coalition's so-called childcare policy. Guess what it was. It was that they are not going to have one. The opposition leader—proving once more that he might be good at doing a sound bite, although not this week, but he is a lightweight on policy—actually announced that the coalition will not reveal what childcare programs they will cut. He revealed that the coalition will not reveal whether they will reduce the childcare rebate. They will not reveal whether they will means test the childcare rebate. They will not reveal whether they will abolish the childcare rebate altogether. In fact, they will not tell Australian parents what they will do at all, except that they will place it in the too-hard basket and then palm it off for review after the next election.

This is an absolute joke from an opposition. It may seem like a big game to come in here with no policy and instead focus on negativity and on smear, but to the hundreds of thousands of Australian families out there who are relying on government investments, on government assistance, which we are very proud to have increased, this is a very real issue. We know that childcare policies are absolutely necessary and we are incredibly proud of the ones we have put forward. We know that modern governments need proper childcare policies in place, and this opposition have shirked their responsibility. (Time expired)