Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm particularly pleased to speak on this MPI on child care today because earlier this year I became a father for the first time. Perhaps for that reason I'm alert more than ever to the crucial importance of the early years of our children. On Friday of last week I went to see Goodstart Early Learning Child Care Centre Berowra, a centre that's been there for 20 years and provides fantastic care to the young people in my community. I got to read to some of the young kids there, I got to make pyramids, Egyptian-style, with some of the five-year-olds, and I even had one small kid lobby me for more support for farmers, showing that you're never too young to lobby your local MP.

As other speakers have said, the first few years of our children's lives are a time when they will learn more than at any other time in their lives. There is some really interesting research by Professor Heckman of the University of Chicago about the importance of those early years. During these special years there are new experiences every day. They're learning how to walk, how to talk, how to share with others and how to draw and, eventually, they're learning the first stages of reading and writing. Children are naturally curious, and childcare workers work hard to nurture that curiosity.

The Turnbull government's commitment to child care and our policies support families with young children in child care across the country. Recently we implemented our new childcare package, which increases Australia's investment in early childhood education and care by $2.5 billion over the next four years. Our policy was designed with families front and centre. Under the Turnbull government's policy, nearly a million Australian families benefit. The average Australian family is set to be better off by $1,300 a year under the childcare package. We've removed the annual childcare rebate cap of around $7,600. This ensures that low- and middle-income families aren't limited by an annual cap on their child care. Around 85 per cent of families using child care will feel the benefits of this reform over the course of a financial year.

Families earning more than around $187,000 will also benefit from an increased cap of $10,190 per child to assist with childcare costs every single year. We've increased the subsidy from around 72 per cent to 85 per cent for more than 370,000 Australian families using child care and earning less than around $67,000 a year. Due to these policies, hardworking and aspiring Australian families with children in child care are now better able to face the cost of living, especially when you combine the policies with the coalition's tax relief policies which passed in the recent sitting of the parliament. The new activities test is ensuring that taxpayer support for child care is targeted to those who depend on it in order to work or to work additional hours. It's estimated our reforms will encourage more than 230,000 families to increase their workforce participation. Incentivising Australians back into the workforce will continue to grow our economy.

Our $1.2 billion childcare safety net recognises that vulnerable children and families need extra support. For example, the family safety net ensures that grandparents with primary care of their grandchildren, foster parents, and parents undergoing medical treatments receive the support they need. Hourly rate caps have been introduced as a necessary measure to arrest incessant childcare increases. In addition to the new childcare package, the government has committed around $870 million for preschools in 2018 and 2019 to ensure more than 340,000 children each year continue to have access to 15 hours of preschool a week. That's 600 hours a year.

It's important to think about what Labor have done to improve early-childhood education and care, because this motion's been moved by those opposite. Labor have been so desperate to find failure that they set up their own protest site. But, guess what, within just a few weeks they took it down because there was no interest. They voted against our reforms and continue to snipe from the sidelines but don't have any childcare policies of their own. The reality is that the opposition voted against the 5,805 families in my electorate of Berowra who will benefit under this package.

In 2016, Labor offered only expensive election bandaids to the old, broken system which would have delivered an annual windfall of up to $176 million to families earning over $250,000, at the expense of low- to middle-income working families. Labor haven't learnt the lesson from their previous term in government. They stood by while childcare fees increased by 53 per cent under their six years of government, without taking the necessary action to fix it. We're now taking that action. Labor failed to deliver their promise to build 260 new childcare centres and end the double drop-off. We remember Kevin Rudd talking about that. They only built 38. Labor totally dropped the ball on compliance. Under Labor, in the two years to June 2013, there were no cancellations, no suspensions and only two fines issued. Compliance checks fell from 763 to 523—a paltry effort compared to this government's 4½ thousand checks in the last financial year. (Time expired)

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