Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moreton for his question. This budget unashamedly puts families at the centre of the priorities of the Howard government. This is an additional $4.5 billion commitment to Australian families over the next five years. Of course, there are tax cuts for all Australians who are in the workforce. Those who are retired are getting their superannuation tax free but high-income, self-funded retirees will get a tax cut. Beyond that, we have taken into account childcare costs, and we have dramatically reduced that burden on Australian families.

For the member for Moreton, about 6,600 families in the Moreton electorate will benefit. For an average family on a low income with one child in care, that means about $20.50 less in the cost of child care as a result of the increase of 13 per cent in childcare benefit. The member for Moreton, along with all other honourable members, might like to tell families that are in child care that this year they will be able to claim two lots of childcare tax rebate. That means they will be able to claim up to $4,000 of their out-of-pocket expenses between now and the end of the year. That is as a result of the Howard government listening to families who said they really appreciated childcare tax rebate, but they would like it to be a bit more timely—and the Howard government has delivered.

We have not forgotten those families who have disabled children. We have increased our spending by an additional $62 million to assist some 3,000 families to have their disabled children, those kids with slightly higher needs, supported in child care. I think that is a really important measure.

For those in the bush, sometimes child care becomes quite marginal as far as viability is concerned. Regional and rural members on both sides of this House can go back and say that the Howard government is committing an additional $43 million for those families so they can access a quality childcare place.

We do not always get positive comments from ACOSS, but on this particular occasion Lin Hatfield Dodds said she welcomes the government’s initiatives on child care and education—the minister for education will be happy to hear that—which are targeted at low-income Australians; not those ‘Mr Rudd battlers’ on one-quarter of a million dollars but the real battlers. ACOSS said that, rather than cutting taxes, they were looking for the government to invest in these sorts of things—and that is why Lin Hatfield Dodds is right; we have actually cut taxes for those people and we have improved their access to child care.

There are other important families that the Howard government has paid attention to: for example, older families. In the electorate of Moreton, some 11½ thousand older families will receive the one-off $500 bonus before 30 June this year to help them with their out-of-pocket expenses.

See this speech in context