Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the amendments be agreed to.

I am pleased to support the amendments put forward by the Senate on what is a very important and significant piece of policy reform that will make child care and early education services in Australia more affordable for the vast majority of hardworking Australian families. It is a substantial reform that will increase the opportunities and choice families have to balance work and family life. Our reforms give hardworking lower-income families an increase in their effective rate of subsidy on their childcare costs from around 72 per cent to 85 per cent and provide support to families who earn less than $350,000 as a household. A family earning around $60,000 a year whose childcare centre charges around $100 a day would pay just $15 per day for the care of their child and with just one child in child care would be around $2,000 per annum better off as a result of the proposals and the reforms of the Turnbull government in this package. Families earning $60,000, $70,000 or $80,000 per annum—hardworking families—will find that they are all significant beneficiaries of these changes.

Family eligibility for the childcare subsidy is determined by a three-step activity test that more closely aligns hours of subsidised care with the combined amounts of work, training, study, volunteering or other recognised activity undertaken. This is an important part of the reform that was recommended through the Productivity Commission, and I pay tribute to then Minister Ley, who recommended that the commission be undertaken. It ensures that the greatest number of hours of support go to those families who are working, studying or volunteering the longest number of hours. It is estimated that our reforms will encourage more than 230,000 families to increase their involvement in paid employment.

We know that children from disadvantaged backgrounds benefit from quality early childhood education and care, which is why we are providing additional support to those who need it. The childcare safety net will support families earning around $65,000 a year or less who do not meet the activity test by providing up to 24 hours of subsidised care per fortnight. This is the equivalent of two weekly six-hour sessions and will be provided at the highest rate of subsidy for these families, which I again note increased from 72 per cent from what they would otherwise receive, to 85 per cent under our reforms. Our reforms will place downward pressure on what has been incessant childcare fee increases through an hourly rate cap as well as abolishing the current childcare rebate cap for most families and increasing it from $7½ thousand to $10,000 for higher-income families above $185,000. We will introduce new compliance powers to further strengthen the government's efforts to clamp down on fraud, provide a childcare safety net for the most vulnerable children, and slash red tape so that services can offer more flexible hours.

These are important reforms. They are going to make a very big difference to help hardworking Australian families. They are going to make our system of childcare payments and benefits far more effective in the future. And I endorse the amendment put forward by the Senate. I am very pleased particularly to be able to be speaking on this message in that these measures were put together when I was the Minister for Social Services. I want to pay credit to Minister Birmingham and Minister Ley, who also had carriage of these matters. This has been a long two-year process. We have been very committed to seeing these changes come into this place and be supported to help hardworking Australian families to get access to the affordable child care that they need, to help those disadvantaged families through the safety net program.

Early childhood education has an important impact on the lives of young Australians and can be the absolute game changer for them and their future opportunities. This package supports them in that objective while supporting the families to be able to go out there and take part in our growing economy and seek the additional hours in the work that they need to support their families. This is the right package for Australia. It is a package that has been fought hard for by the coalition government. It has been resisted now for two years, and I am so pleased, having been directly involved in structuring these reforms, that this parliament is now in a position to finally give hardworking Australian families the affordable child care that they deserve and that the Turnbull government is delivering for them.

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