Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Omnibus Savings and Child Care Reform) Bill 2017 in its original form, which will deliver more affordable, flexible and accessible child care for Australian families. I am a huge supporter of the fantastic work that our local childcare centres do in my electorate of Forde. Every year I get around to visit as many centres as possible. It is a great opportunity to hear from teachers, the directors of the centres and families and gain some valuable insights into the tremendous work they are doing with those young kids in our community. It is also a great opportunity for me to support the centres and the kids by donating a number of books and other learning materials. I believe one of the most important things we can do is to give our kids a head start and encourage a love of reading. Every time I drop in to donate books I have the pleasure of taking some time with the kids, reading them a story and enjoying some fun with them in the process.

Early education starts in our local childcare centres, and every family deserves the ability to access affordable child care when they need it. The problem is the current system is no longer working. I have heard from families and childcare workers who tell me the childcare rebate just does not stretch far enough. Families are running out of the rebate too soon and it is having a negative impact on their household budgets. Many families, who have mum and dad both working to get ahead to provide for their families and pay off a mortgage, are frustrated with the current system because the rising cost of childcare fees makes working a second job almost not worth the effort. One mother told me that after paying for childcare fees and exhausting the childcare rebate she was basically working for $5 per hour and wondering, what is the point?

It is clear from the discussions I have had with many people across my community that Australians want better and more affordable child care. This government, through this package of measures, is determined to deliver it. This legislation delivers the most significant reform to the funding of early childhood education and the childcare system in 40 years. The Coalition will deliver new agreements to better target support towards hard-working Australian families who are earning the least and working the longest hours. More than one million families will benefit from the government's reforms to make childcare more affordable, flexible and accessible.

This package of measures will abolish Labor's cap on the $7,500 childcare rebate, giving more incentive to parents who want to be in the workforce to find work or to work more hours. The cap will be abolished for families earning less than around $185,000. The government will also increase the subsidy rate to 85 per cent for the lowest-earning families and taper that down so it is lower for families earning the most. This will ensure that families earning the least will benefit from the greatest percentage of childcare rebate.

The government wants families to have the freedom to choose their child care around their work, rather than limit their work hours to suit their child care. It is estimated that this reform will encourage more than 230,000 families to increase their involvement in paid employment, which will have a positive impact on our economy.

When Labor increased the rate of the childcare rebate in July 2008, childcare fees accelerated dramatically. We will seek to ensure that history does not repeat itself by putting an hourly fee cap in place. Since being in government the coalition has already brought annual childcare price increases down to around six percent, far less than the spike in fees of 14 per cent under Labor.

I am proud to say that this legislation will make Australia's childcare system more affordable, flexible and accessible. It also implements the necessary budget savings to fund these reforms in a responsible way. I have just heard the contribution in regard to the budget-based funded childcare services. We are aware that we need to ensure we provide a solution across the country. Centres in remote and rural areas, which provide tremendous service to their communities, will be transitioned over the next few years to the new model so we have a common model across the country. They will also have opportunities for some additional assistance, and overall the funding increase to those services as a result of the new changes will increase to about $110 million, compared to approximately $62 million at present. That will alleviate the concerns expressed by the member earlier. We are putting more money into those regional, rural and remote childcare centres and assisting those families.

The Australian people elected a coalition government to bring the budget back into order and to make the changes that are necessary to create opportunities for all Australians. This omnibus savings bill is part of that process. It allows us to continue the work necessary to deliver on budget reform. We cannot continue to manage a budget by borrowing. It is important that in the context of managing the budget, we seek to live within our means. As a coalition government, we have consistently indicated that the decisions and the changes we are making are designed to achieve that outcome.

We have already been forced to defer the start date of the childcare reform package for more than 12 months because of Labor's failure to support these necessary savings and yet it is the families in electorates like Forde and many others around this country, which those opposite purport to support, who are paying directly the price for Labor's intransigence in blocking these changes. We can no longer live off the credit card of future generations, and that means funding childcare reforms with savings from the family tax benefit. The family tax benefit reform package will not only deliver record levels of childcare support to families who need it most, but it will also deliver sustainability to the family payment system. And that is important, because we want a family payment system that not only supports and is sustainable for current families but also provides support and sustainability for families of the future. It will mean almost 100,000 low-income families will get up to an extra two weeks paid parental leave by increasing paid parental leave to 20 weeks. And around 1.2 million families will get up to $20 per fortnight more in family tax benefit payments to help them with day-to-day expenses, including more than 15,000 families in my electorate of Forde. These changes are on top of the benefits working families will receive through removing the cap on the childcare rebate and increasing the subsidy rate to 85 per cent.

When it comes to reforming the broken childcare system, it is this side of the House that is providing solutions for our families—not those opposite. Unlike those opposite, who went to the election promising to continue the current system only to undermine their stance more recently, it is this government that has put the time and effort in to consult with parents, families and childcare providers. We have listened to input from the Productivity Commission and two Senate inquiries to present a package that we know will make child care more affordable and accessible for those who need it most. The coalition government's childcare reform will help so many hard working families right around the country. It will provide more opportunities for parents thinking of going back to work or working more hours as the opportunities arise. It will provide parents working part time with the affordable and flexible child care they need to increase their hours—and make working more worthwhile. I believe this legislation will make a tremendous difference to the hardworking families in my electorate of Forde, and I commend this bill in its original form to the House.

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