Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Omnibus Savings and Child Care Reform) Bill 2017 and the statements of members on this side of the House, who have been clear on how this government is backing families who need it most. This bill includes a number of items which are new as well as previously introduced social services measures which will improve the fairness and sustainability of government payments. But, above all, this legislation reconfirms how we are determined to make life easier for our hardworking families.

As the Minister for Social Services outlined in his second reading speech on this legislation, this bill reintroduces the Jobs for Families Child Care Package, from the Education and Training portfolio, and a range of other measures. Together, the measures in this bill will help us provide a fair and reasonable safety net for those who need it, encourage participation in work and study, and contribute to bringing the budget back to balance.

This government wants a welfare system that supports the most vulnerable in our community, encourages those capable of work or study to do so, reduces intergenerational welfare dependency and is sustainable for the future. But today I want to focus on our government's commitment, and continuing commitment, to investing in child care.

We will, with this bill, provide parents with more choice and opportunity to work, and provide children with high-quality early education. This is absolutely vital in my electorate on the Central Coast, where around one in four, or 30,000 people, leave home early in the morning and return home late at night to their families because the only jobs that are available for them are in Sydney or Newcastle. This is an everyday reality. My husband does it. As I said, around 30,000 hardworking people on the Central Coast do it.

It is certainly something that hits home whenever I meet with the young students who visit Parliament House in school groups, like I did during the last sitting wee. We were visited by some wonderful students from my old school, St Philip's Christian College at Gosford. The Prime Minister took the time to meet all the stage 3 students, who asked some fantastic questions, in his courtyard, and of course they took plenty of photos. As I do with every other school group, I asked every student present to raise their hand if their parents had to leave home early in the morning and return home late at night because their jobs are in Sydney or Newcastle. Around two-thirds of the students usually raise their hands, and it was certainly the case on this occasion as well. It really does demonstrate how widespread the need to support working families is. With this everyday requirement for parents to access child care so they can work, flexibility is crucial. Put simply, access to child care can mean the difference between working and not working, especially when your job is a four-hour round trip commute every day.

Of course, we have so many outstanding child care centres on the Central Coast in suburbs like Point Clare, Erina, Kariong and even just near my electorate office in West Gosford, with many hard-working, dedicated, caring and wonderful staff members. I do want to pay tribute to every single one of them and the childcare centres on the Central Coast. I have been the beneficiary as a mum with two kids and I know what an extraordinary job they do for the future generations.

I commend the Jobs for Families Child Care package because it delivers genuine, much-needed reform for a simpler, more affordable, more accessible and more flexible early education and childcare system. In supporting almost one million Australian families to balance work and parenting responsibilities, this package of measures is fair. It will provide the greatest number of hours of support in child care to the families who work the longest hours and the greatest financial support to the families who earn the least. In my electorate of Robertson, I am advised the latest figures reveal that almost 9,000 will receive an extra $20 in family tax benefits per child per fortnight to help with their day-to-day costs of living.

But the significant investment in child care must be fiscally sustainable. Combining fair and reasonable changes to the family tax benefit system and childcare reforms into a single bill enables the government to reduce spending and increase workforce participation through an affordable childcare system. As part of this bill, the Child Care Subsidy will replace the current Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate with a single, means-tested subsidy from 2 July 2018. The package before the House will also provide targeted additional fee assistance through a new Child Care Safety Net for vulnerable and disadvantaged children and provide consequential and transitional arrangements.

We are also introducing an activity test to ensure that the greatest number of subsidised hours is provided to those who work the most. The legislation also includes the introduction of an hourly fee subsidy cap to put downward pressure on fees charged by childcare providers; it strengthens approved childcare service eligibility requirements; and it enhances the childcare payments system compliance framework. Of course, it is right to ask the question: why is it tied to savings to pay for it? That is simply because we have a responsibility—not just for ourselves, but for future generations, for our children and our children's children—to ensure we do not see the nation's debt go up any further. As the Member for Fairfax said in this debate earlier today, it is in many ways squarely about budget repair.

This bill reinforces that this government is the party of lower taxes. It is a clear reminder that Labor is the party of higher taxes, bigger deficits and more debt. It is the same Labor Party that wants a new carbon tax, but cannot tell people how much it will be; the same Labor Party that wants to make the budget worse off by $16.5 billion; and the same Labor Party, represented on the Central Coast by Senator Deborah O'Neill and others, that wants higher spending, higher taxes and fewer local jobs.

So in contrast to this reckless approach from Labor, this government is supporting families through measures such as those outlined in this bill. As the Minister for Education said, we do not want to see the very children who are in child care today lumbered with higher levels of government debt in the future than is already the case. We do not want to see higher levels of tax that will hurt job opportunities for those children coming through our educational system today. Sadly, far too many families are falling off the financial cliff mid-financial year when it comes to their child care support. Too many Central Coast families have run out of support for their childcare bills. This is a tragedy. We need to be giving children the best start in life. As a mother of two, I know this to be the case.

There are many other elements of this bill, but I rise today to again place on the record my determination to ensure this government delivers a core commitment—simpler, more affordable, more flexible and more accessible childcare system and something that will benefit the families of Robertson. I commend this bill to the House.

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