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

I thank Senator Bushby for his question and for his interest in the Turnbull government's childcare reforms, which will be of particular benefit to his constituents in Tasmania.

Senator Dastyari interjecting—

I will take the interjection from Senator Dastyari along the way about whether Senator Bushby's question relates to empirical evidence—because there is plenty of empirical evidence to support the Turnbull government's childcare reforms, to demonstrate that they are necessary to ensure we have a workable, achievable, affordable, sustainable childcare program in the future because the current model is clearly broken, which is why the Turnbull government has comprehensive reforms. New empirical data evidence released just yesterday, over the weekend, shows that Australian families and therefore Australian taxpayers continue to wear a burden of increased price escalation when it comes to our childcare fees. It is necessary therefore to change the model—to change the way in which childcare subsidies work—because the current childcare rebate arrangements drive those fee increases. They make it simpler and easier for services to up their fees with little regard for the impact on families or taxpayers. Indeed, during the years of the previous Labor government, we saw fee increases of up to 13 per cent at times. We have managed to stymie those and hold those down, but the whole broken system needs to be replaced—which is exactly what we are proposing. Our reforms will be comprehensive and are sweeping and now is the time to see them legislated. They will put in place a new fee mechanism which will ensure downward pressure on fee growth in the future. They will ensure that we have more support for the lowest-income, hardest-working Australian families. They will remove the $7½ thousand cap on support—many families fall off that cliff of support each year. There will be new compliance powers, a clear safety net for vulnerable children, comprehensive reforms that ensure we fix a broken system—

Senator O'Neill interjecting—

and all we need is for those opposite to stop interjecting and start supporting.