Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak in support of the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care) Bill 2010. The Rudd government is committed to building a high-quality, affordable and accessible early childhood education and childcare system. I must go on the record and declare a bit of an interest here in that my one-year-old son is going to child care next month but, leaving aside this potential conflict of interest, I am very proud that over the next four years our government will invest more than $16 billion to support families and childcare services.

Our support measures include: our election commitment increasing the childcare rebate from 30 per cent up to 50 per cent of parents’ out-of-pocket costs; increasing the cap on out-of-pocket expenses to $7,778; a national quality framework for early childhood education and care; as well as initiatives to increase the supply, and upgrade the skills and qualifications of, the early years workforce.

I get around to a lot of centres in my electorate and we all know how very important it is that we have high-quality staff in these places, whether it be at St Brendan’s at Moorooka, at Griffith University childcare centre, at Tarragindi childcare centre or at any of the ABC or C&K centres or the like. It is important that we get this balance right.

Some of the toughest decisions we have to make as parents are about negotiating child care, work and the work/life balance. Certainly, in my 44 years I did not worry about—

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