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

Thank you for the question with regard to the government's national quality framework, which we have been pursuing in partnership with every state and territory government of all different political persuasions. The member for Aston asked some questions about affordability in particular. I would like to point out that there is nobody who is more concerned about the affordability of child care than the Gillard government. We do not just talk about that; we showed that we believe it by investing some $19.9 billion over the next four years in directly assisting Australian families with the cost of their child care. That is some triple the amount that the Howard government was investing. So when we talk about affordability I think is very important that we actually recognise that we have increased the childcare rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent. We have increased the cap on that rebate from $4,354 per child per year to $7,500, and that has had a very real impact on the affordability of child care. We know the analysis shows that a family in 2004 who were spending 13 per cent of their disposable income are now spending 7.5 per cent of that income. That is not to say that this is an ongoing issue. We know that Australian families are struggling with cost of living. That is exactly why we are investing this additional funding, and that is exactly why we have committed to continuing to work to ensure that child care is both affordable and quality.

I would say the figure that the member for Aston referred to, which has been in the media, is not an accurate figure in regard to increases. If we want to have a look at the figures we have, we know that the new national quality standards came into effect from 1 January this year. The only official figures that we have seen since then were the CPI figures. I would say that the CPI increase for child care for the first quarter of 2012 under the National Quality Framework was less than in the same quarter of each of the last two years of the Howard government, when they were doing absolutely nothing to improve the quality of care. So, I think we need to get the facts on the table.

The other thing that I would just like to address is why it is that we are pursuing these changes, because I know the member that asked the question has made some statements which are not accurate in the House.

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