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

My question is to the Minister for Early Childhood Education. How is the Albanese Labor government helping Australian families with the cost of living, including in early childhood education and care?

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

I thank the member for Boothby for her question and for her ongoing and relentless advocacy for families and children in Boothby. Even before we took office in 2022, we knew that the cost of early childhood education and care was placing pressure on families and that it was often cited as the reason that women and primary caregivers delayed returning to work, weren't able to take on extra hours of work or weren't able to go back to study, if they so wished. And that's why this Prime Minister went to the election with a policy to lower the cost of early childhood education and care for over one million Australian families.

Today marks one year since our cheaper childcare legislation came into effect—the legislation that we enacted within our first six months in office. The ACCC has found that, due to Labor's reforms in decreasing the cost of early childhood education and care, out-of-pocket expenses for centre-based day care are down by 11 per cent. What does that mean in real terms? The Minister for Education gave a great example of that, one that is worth repeating in this place. For a family with an income of $120,000 and one child in care for three days a week, these reforms mean that they have paid $2,140 less in early learning fees. In addition to that, from today that family will also get a tax cut of around $2,679, and there's a raft of other measures to assist with the cost of living that this government has enacted as of today—energy bill relief, cheaper medicines and more paid parental leave.

If you want to look at how you deliver real cost-of-living relief, look at this side of the House. Look at the things that we're doing: putting downward pressure on the cost of living whilst not putting pressure to increase inflation. That's what we've been doing here, because that's how you deliver real cost-of-living relief. You don't deliver real cost-of-living relief by jacking up power prices with some fantasy of nuclear energy in the never-never.

The reforms that I've spoken about here today on early childhood education and care are a critical first step in achieving our vision of a universal early childhood education and care system—one that's affordable, accessible and inclusive. (Time expired)

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Families in my Durack community are at breaking point. Joshua, age 16, has told ABC News:

Sometimes we're really scraping just to pay the bills and afford food for the family … Mum, actually quite often, misses out on dinner so that there's actually a portion size suitable for the rest of the family the following night.

Prime Minister, why are Australians families paying the price for Labor's economic incompetence?

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

I thank the member for her question, and I hope that she's told Joshua in her electorate that she voted against energy price relief. One assumes that will have occurred. If Joshua works and is a taxpayer, I hope that she's told him that she actually supports the old stage 3 tax cuts, because that's what the Leader of the Opposition said in February, not that long ago: 'Do we walk away from the principles of stage 3? Absolutely not.' I assume she told Joshua that, if he earns under $45,000, he shouldn't get a tax cut today.

Honourable Member:

An honourable member interjecting—

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

Well, I don't know Josh, but the member does, I assume. I was certainly working when I was 16, and so are lots of Australians. That's part of the point. Part of the point here is that a whole lot of part-time workers will now get a tax cut, and one of the reasons why Treasury estimated that our design of the tax cuts would increase workforce participation is just that. It was designed to provide cost-of-living support at the same time as not putting pressure on inflation. I certainly wish Josh well. I know that many families are doing it really tough, but they would be doing it tougher if the inflation rate were the same as the one that we inherited, which was six per cent.

We are delivering increased wages, tax cuts, energy bill relief and a freeze on medicines. We're making a substantial difference with all these practical measures, all of which were opposed by those opposite and voted against by the member for Durack.