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

The extent of benefit is widespread. As I indicated before, around one million Australian families are expected to benefit. Indeed, a particular benefit flows to those who are hitting the current childcare rebate cap. New data that we've analysed and released today shows that by June this year more than 63,000 families had already hit that cap. We expect that, by the end of this month, that will have increased to around 100,000 Australian families. Those are families who are choosing to, or having to, pay all of their out-of-pocket costs entirely in their childcare fees, and that can be a significant burden on those families. And that doesn't count the many families who make the assessment in advance and decide they'll just work fewer days to get that childcare rebate to stretch longer. From next Monday, that cap applies no more to families earning less than $187,000. That's good news for them, greater support for their household budgets and greater flexibility— (Time expired)