Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

As with much of what this government does, this budget is full of clever politics, with pre-election one-off initiatives that unfortunately do not provide the fresh, long-term thinking that Australia really needs. It is a clever election year budget but a budget that fails the future test, especially in the area of early childhood education and development.

I turn first to the changes to the childcare benefit. There is a one-off 10 per cent increase in childcare benefit, in addition to the regular three per cent increase, which will of course be welcome news for parents who have faced annual increases in childcare costs of more than 12 per cent over the last four years. Childcare costs are rising five times faster than the average cost of all other goods and services. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, out-of-pocket childcare costs for families in the last four years have increased by 12.7 per cent, 12 per cent, 12 per cent and almost 13 per cent last year. This year, just before an election, the government decides to give families a one-off bonus increase, but of course families have carried very heavy costs for the last four years. Labor welcomes the increase as a belated recognition of the challenges that families face but continues to be concerned that the government has failed to provide the ongoing relief that families really need. We are very concerned that what will happen is what happened four years ago: the bonus will quickly be overtaken by increased costs.

The budget also brought forward the childcare tax rebate, but it simply delivers on the Treasurer’s original promise which he made back in 2004. Before the last election, he said that he would pay the childcare tax rebate immediately after the financial year when childcare expenses are incurred. Before the 2004 election he promised that families would receive payment of the 30 per cent childcare rebate from 1 July 2005 but, after the election, the promise was broken. Families had to wait until 1 July 2006 to receive their rebate on childcare costs that were incurred in 2004. All we see in this budget measure is the government finally delivering on a commitment that they made before the 2004 election. So they certainly should not get any credit—and I am sure families will not give them any—for making them wait three years for this rebate.

The Treasurer also needs to be more honest with families receiving the rebate about the number of parents who are likely to receive a payment of $8,000. I am sure people will remember that banner headline just before the budget. Given that the average rebate, according to the government’s own figures, is only $813—not $8,000—very few families are likely to receive payments of the order that the government has gone on about. Labor supports the decision to pay the childcare tax rebate through Centrelink to ensure low-income families accessing childcare benefit actually get assistance through this rebate. It is still the case that families will have to wait until the end of the financial year to get this childcare rebate.

We know that, since the budget, the minister responsible has said that he hopes that by 2009—quite a few years away—the new childcare rebate will be paid fortnightly. Of course, what Labor wants to know is whether the childcare management system that is being put in place will in fact enable this to occur. Given the government’s history of the childcare tax rebate, parents are understandably pretty sceptical of any promises that the government makes in this area.

What is clear, though, from these two measures in the budget is that the government only ever seems to get interested in an election year in addressing the significant levels of childcare costs that parents carry. Unfortunately, the government has done nothing to address concerns about the availability or quality of child care. Perhaps this is because the government remains adamant that there is no problem with the availability of quality child care in Australia. Parents just do not believe what continue to be further denials of reality by the minister and are particularly outraged by the attitudes of the federal Treasury. Earlier this year, the Treasury’s Economic Roundup stated:

… contrary to popular perceptions, there is not an emerging crisis in the sector; supply is generally keeping pace with demand and child care has remained affordable.

The paper went on to say:

… unmet consumer preferences represent more of a problem for parents than access itself.

In other words, the government believe that parents are just being too choosy. This is yet another example of just how arrogant, how out of touch the government have become after 11 long years. It seems that all the government can now do before the election is offer cunning, targeted, pre-election sweeteners and hope the public will not notice just how arrogant they are. It seems that the public are on to them. They seem to recognise that the government are out of fresh ideas and also understand that Labor are putting forward real policies that have a plan not just for the next election but in fact for the next decade to navigate us through the challenges.

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