Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Lauren is a nurse from Bendigo and a mum of two who says she can only work two shifts per week because the cost of extra childcare is too high for her and her family. Why did the Prime Minister design a childcare system which holds back nurses in regional areas from taking on more work?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When the government designed the changes to our childcare system, which would see the amount of rebate for those on low and middle incomes rise to 85 per cent from where it was—a set of changes that saw the out-of-pocket expenses for childcare fall by over three per cent and saw the rate of female participation in the workforce increase and the gender pay gap fall to lows. When we put that proposal in a bill to this parliament the Labor Party actually opposed it. They opposed it. They didn't want to see those changes put in place. They wanted the previous system that they had run, which had been failing families. The Productivity Commission recommended that means testing remain an important part of this process. We took that advice and we put those arrangements in place.

But we knew there was more that you've got to do to support Australian families and Australians working around this country. What you have to do is ensure that they get to keep more of what they earn by paying less tax. They need to work in an economy, particularly when it's been so hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic—a point that has completely mystified the Leader of the Opposition; he thinks the pandemic has played no role in the recession, none at all. He thinks it's all the product of government policies. He is the only person in the country who seems to think that is the case. But that demonstrates that, if you don't know how you got into a recession, you don't know how you get out, and that explains the Leader of the Opposition.

That's why our policies have been about investing in, and getting all of these Australians back into, jobs—760,000 jobs coming back that have been lost during this COVID-19 pandemic recession, jobs that either have gone or were reduced to zero hours. Every single day through this crisis, our government has demonstrated that we've stood by the working people of this country, those who have lost their jobs and those who need to stay in their jobs. And, as I've moved around the country, particularly since the budget, I've seen that Australians understand that. They know that this government is doing everything it can to get Australians back into work and give them those opportunities, and that, as the budget plan—which is a recovery plan to come out of this COVID-19 recession—kicks over into building our economy into the future, whether it's in manufacturing or it's in the energy sector or many other sectors, it will get more and more people back into jobs.

That's what's giving Australians hope and that's why there has been such a strong response from Australians to the budget that the Treasurer's handed down—because it is a plan for Australia to get out of this COVID-19 recession. That's what Australians needed. That's what Australians have got from this government.