Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Early Childhood Education. How is the Albanese Labor government's cheaper childcare policy delivering cost-of-living relief for families?

Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank the member for Boothby for her question and for her continued advocacy on behalf of the children in her electorate.

We know that one of the biggest cost-of-living pressures on families is the cost of early learning, and that's why our government delivered on our commitment to make early learning more affordable. We've lifted the maximum childcare subsidy rate to 90 per cent for families earning less than $80,000 and increased rates for families earning under $530,000. And that meant that we cut the cost of early learning for 1.2 million families right across Australia, including 265,000 families in regional Australia, from 1 July this year when those changes came into effect.

This is real and responsible cost-of-living relief, and we know those changes are working. The latest CPI report from the ABS shows that early learning affordability has improved on average more than 13.2 per cent because we delivered on our commitment. All major cities across Australia have seen costs for families dropped by at least 10 per cent, with some seeing a reduction of more than 17 per cent. The ABS also estimates this: that without our changes the costs for families would have increased by 6.7 per cent. They would have increased!

Now, in Adelaide, families have seen an average price drop of 18 per cent in the cost of early childhood education and care. That means 7,300 families are benefiting from more affordable early learning in the member's electorate of Boothby thanks to the changes of the Albanese Labor government.

Let's just contrast that to the track record of those opposite, just for a minute, here, because, in the last four years of government when they were in office, we saw prices for early childhood education increase by double the OECD average. So the Albanese Labor government has made affordable, accessible and quality early learning a priority of this government. This is our goal, and we will continue to work towards that goal, and we will continue to deliver for Australian families, because we know that investment in the early years pays a triple dividend: it's good for families, it's good for children and it's good for the economy.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.