Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Reynolds for her question and her passionate interest in this area of policy. The government has a plan to help support hardworking Australian families to be able to better access and afford child care to support their workforce participation, studying or volunteering in the future. We are committed to investing some $40 billion over the next four years—an increase of around $3 billion in the support provided to families for our childcare system.

We are restructuring the childcare system to ensure that we provide the greatest hours of support and access to subsidised child care to the families who work the longest hours, and the greatest subsidy and level of financial assistance to the families who earn the least amount of money. This is an inherently fair reform, which will support around 1.2 million Australian families and, importantly, protect those most vulnerable in our society through our $858 million childcare safety net.

I particularly welcome today's report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, commissioned by Goodstart Early Learning, which projects that around 29,000 full-time equivalent jobs will flow, and workers will flow as a result, into the labour force of this remodelled childcare arrangement. This backs up the government's own research, which indicates that around 230,000 families will increase their workforce participation as a result of a more affordable, flexible and targeted childcare system. I welcome the quote by Goodstart Early Learning CEO, Julia Davison, who commissioned the report: 'The Jobs for Families childcare package will deliver a significant economic gain for our nation by making returning to work more attractive for parents.'

This is an important economic reform, Mr President, but it is also an important reform that will help many thousands of Australian families.