Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Building on the Child Care Package) Bill 2019. The bill makes a range of technical improvements to childcare subsidy arrangements, and I will touch briefly upon two of them. One of the adjustments in the bill extends the time frame for the cancellation of a child's enrolment at child care or an after-hours school care facility from eight weeks out to 14 weeks. Currently, parents who only use child care during school holidays have to re-enrol every time a holiday period comes around.

I would like to thank the minister for the shout out to the Woodside Primary School Out of School Hours Care, the Woodside OSHC. The Woodside OSHC is very proactive and presented me with a petition signed by 20 parents calling for these changes. I'm very appreciative of not only the minister's shout out but, of course, these particular changes that will affect many in my community. They told me—this is the Woodside OSHC—that extending the time frame would ease the stress of having to enrol a fortnight before each holiday break and ease having to go through the stress and wasted time involved in dealing with slow department bureaucracy. I was more than happy to write to the Minister for Education about the problem and submit formal questions in writing to his office, and I thank the minister for recognising this issue and addressing this issue in the bill.

The second element of this bill that I'd like to discuss is the amendments to be moved by the minister in the House. The removal of the 28-day grace period for providing tax file numbers and bank account details in order to receive childcare subsidies has caused some concern in the House. In particular, there are concerns—and these are concerns which I share—that the most vulnerable subsidy claimants, such as those facing domestic violence or suffering from natural disasters, will be significantly disadvantaged by the removal of the grace period. I would like to thank the minister for working constructively with my office to find a middle way through. The proposed amendments would allow for discretion to be exercised in the case of exceptional circumstances for people in vulnerable circumstances, and I understand that the minister will be detailing some of the examples where the discretion would apply to give the House a sense of the kinds of protections and exemptions that will apply to people in vulnerable circumstances. We need to make sure that we provide that to people in those circumstances.

I won't delay the House any further. I urge the House to support the government's amendments, and I commend the bill to the House.

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