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

I thank Senator Stoker for her question and her very strong interest in ensuring that Australian families have access to the best possible child care and early childhood education services. One of the benefits of a strong economy, of the Turnbull government's strong economic management, is that we as a government are able to deliver the biggest improvements to childcare support for Australian families in 40 years. From 2 July—in just under two weeks time now—nearly one million Australian families are set to benefit from a better, fairer childcare system in the future. Nearly one million families are set to reap the rewards of an additional $2½ billion in support for childcare services, because we want to make it easier for those families in terms of juggling their household budgets and in terms of meeting their work and family obligations.

We're increasing the subsidy rate—indeed, targeting that increase towards the lowest-income-earning families. Around 370,000 Australian families earning less than around $67,000 will see the rate of the childcare subsidy increase from around 72c in the dollar to 85c in the dollar under our reforms. Other families on medium incomes will also see real benefits. And 85 per cent of all families using the childcare system will no longer be subject to the dreaded annual childcare rebate cap—a cap that currently means that midway through the year many families run out of childcare support and have to pay full-tote odds. Instead, that's being abolished for those families, ensuring that they can work as many hours and days as suits them without childcare costs being an impediment. All up our program is estimated to result in around 230,000 Australians choosing to work or work more, increasing their workforce participation, ensuring that we have a virtuous cycle there. The strong economy is allowing us to make this investment and this investment in a fairer childcare system is going to help underpin a strong economy into the future.