Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare) Share this | Hansard source

There is a bit of new spending for child care in this budget. Guess what? There is some extra money for advertising. Isn’t that terrific? Isn’t it amazing that the government are advertising the 30 per cent rebate on out-of-pocket child-care expenses that was announced during the 2004 election campaign, but it has not yet been delivered. Not a single cent of the 30 per cent rebate on out-of-pocket child-care expenses has yet been delivered. Parents around the country are struggling with very high fees—the parents whom today the minister is calling whingers in the paper. He is implying that anyone who talks about child-care affordability obviously just wants free child care: ‘They are just a bunch of whingers. People paying 400 bucks a week, people paying more than private school fees for their child care, are just whingers. They want free child care. They want everything free.’

Not a single cent of the 30 per cent rebate that was promised in the 2004 election has yet been seen by parents. When it is finally paid later this year, parents will be receiving a rebate on money that they expended in 2004. Two years later they will get a few bucks back on money they spent in 2004. Big deal! These parents are struggling from week to week to pay the child-care fees, the increased cost of petrol and their higher mortgage fees. They are struggling because their wages are not secure anymore and because they do not know what will be in their pay packets next week. The government’s solution to high child-care fees is a top one: ‘In two years time we might give you a bit of money back.’ The money does not go to all parents who have their kids in child care. If your kids are in preschool, you do not get the money. If your kids are in a Montessori preschool, you do not get the money. If you are a single mum on a low income or a sole parent trying to start up a business, you do not get the money. If you spend more than $65 a day, you do not get the money. This budget has been a con on parents. It is no wonder parents are angry. It is no wonder they are disappointed. They need real places, they need affordable places and they need places where their kids live and where they work. This budget delivers none of that.

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