Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the speakers who have contributed to this debate. I particularly acknowledge the previous speaker, the member for Blair, who I did have the good fortune to visit and to open the new childcare centre at Yamanto which was the honouring of an election commitment and see firsthand that the member for Blair does the finest ‘troll under the bridge’ voice of the Billy Goats Gruff. He amused the children out there whilst also delivering on a very important election commitment. I would like to thank all of the previous speakers.

We know that the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Budget Measures) Bill 2010

In relation to affordability, we have also delivered on our election commitment to increase the childcare rebate from 30 to 50 per cent of parents’ out-of-pocket expenses. We know that last some 670,00 Australian families benefited from our significant reforms, which enabled them to claim back half of their out-of-pocket childcare costs where they spent up to $15,000 a year for each child in care. We have also delivered upon our commitment to change the payment of the childcare rebate from an annual payment under the previous government to quarterly payments under our government, giving parents assistance closer to the time when they incur their childcare costs.

In total, we are proud that our government will provide $14.4 billion over four years in financial support to parents with the cost of their child care and to help them manage the family budget. This is some $8 billion more than the Howard government provided in childcare fee assistance in their last years, which you may not have picked up on from the shadow minister’s contribution to this debate. Understandably, they are not trying to highlight the fact that we have more than doubled our commitment to helping parents with the affordability of their child care. We on this side have shown time and time again that we are committed to affordable and high-quality child care and that we are putting our money where our mouth is when it comes to delivering this. It is also really important to note that the majority of Australian families using child care—some 760,000 families—will not be impacted by this change. This is because the average claim for the childcare rebate is less than $2,000 per year per child which is obviously a long way off the $7,500 cap.

Our government has a strong commitment to early childhood education and child care with a record investment of $17.1 billion over the next four years, some $10 billion more than that provided in the last four years of the Howard government. We are proud of this record; we will continue to get on with the job of working to deliver affordable, quality and stable child care. I commend this bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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