Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Digital Transformation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Barker for that question and I'm pleased to advise him that 4,000 families in his electorate will benefit from our changes to child care and early learning reforms. Importantly, in the electorate of Barker, as in the rest of the country, low- and middle-income families will be the greatest beneficiaries from this package. Our $2½ billion investment in the system is going to target support to families earning the least and to families working the most.

Some of these changes include scrapping the annual rebate for most families, increasing the hourly cap and reducing the 15 per cent withholding rate introduced by Labor in 2011 to five per cent. In fact, under our reforms one million Australian families will benefit from these changes.

I see the shadow minister is interjecting. I like the shadow minister very much, but I did see an interview that she gave just before question time, and she is not very good at maths. She really is not very good at maths, because a million families are going to be better off under these changes and nearly 7½ thousand families in her own electorate will be better off under these changes. This is targeted towards low- and middle-income families.

I was asked by the member for Barker about differing approaches, and that is a good example. We're making changes to drive down the cost of child care. When the Labor Party was last in government, they made changes that the Productivity Commission highlighted made the cost of child care actually go up. They withheld 15 per cent of families' child care benefits and the child care rebate, but our reforms will mean that Australian families will be able to keep more of their money. Our child care and early learning reforms will ensure that Australian families get every cent they are entitled to and that they can have access to these very important services at reduced out-of-pocket expenses.

Many families will be hundreds if not thousands of dollars better off. I'm happy to give the House a couple of real-life examples A family on $50,000 with both parents working and with two children aged under six in long day care for two days a week at $100 a day will be $2,000 better off. A family on $80,000 with both parents working and two kids under six in long day care for three days a week at $100 a day will be $3,000 better off. These are real-life examples about how these reforms are going to improve the lives of Australian families, putting downward pressure on the cost of living, as opposed to Labor's record when they were in office.

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