Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Government Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ayres for that question. I completely refute the premise of the question. This government is doing all it can to back families and the childcare sector again during this pandemic and has acted swiftly to ensure appropriate mechanisms are in place. For example, for families, we are allowing services to waive out-of-pocket costs and have extended the number of days families are allowed to keep children absent before they lose access to the childcare subsidy; for childcare businesses, the Commonwealth has partnered with the New South Wales government to facilitate swift support through JobSaver to help businesses meet payroll costs if they've experienced a 30 per cent decline in revenue; and for childcare workers—a critical workforce in our economy, which I know all of us in this place acknowledge—where a worker has had their hours reduced they are eligible to apply for the COVID disaster payment of up to $750 a week.

Importantly, in Greater Sydney, child care remains fully open and available to families, but we know that some families are choosing not to use care, including because of changes in their work patterns. From 19 July, services in Greater Sydney are allowed to waive the parents' component of the childcare fee when children are not attending. This provides a twofold benefit. Firstly, families benefit from the reduction in out-of-pocket costs if they are not using child care. For example, a family on $110,000 a year using three days a week of care for two children would save $178 a week during this difficult time. Secondly, to further support families in this situation, we are also providing additional allowable absences for the duration of the lockdown period—currently until 28 August this year. This mechanism means that families can keep children away from child care without losing their entitlement to the subsidy because of those absences.