Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Early Childhood Education and Care Coronavirus Response and Other Measures) Bill 2021 (the bill) supports and strengthens existing measures implemented as part of the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to child care. Access to quality, affordable child care continues to be critical in supporting our nation's economic recovery.

The Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package was implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to support children of essential workers, and vulnerable and disadvantaged families, to access child care. The relief package also provided financial support to childcare providers to ensure their viability.

The government allocated nearly $3 billion to support early childhood education and care services during the COVID-19 pandemic. This kept the sector viable and ensured care was available for essential workers and families with vulnerable children. In December 2020, only 19 services out of more than 13,000 services had temporarily closed—this is 0.1 per cent of the sector.

The government is confident that the childcare sector is doing well, with childcare usage for centre based day care having increased by 12.9 per cent in December 2020 compared to the same time in 2019. Further, 93 per cent of nearly 7,000 parents surveyed in November 2020 reported that they could access all the child care they needed.

The bill addresses a number of issues with the Family Assistance Law that arise as a consequence of measures the government introduced during the relief package period to assist families and providers during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The bill establishes the flexibility to enable business continuity payments to be paid, on a discretionary basis, to approved childcare providers in circumstances where they are adversely affected by any future large scale disasters and emergencies.

These measures mean that families and providers are not adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring that business continuity payments paid during the relief package period will not be offset against future CCS payments.

The bill also includes measures to better assist families who are unable to meet 2018-19 tax return lodgement requirements on time, given the COVID-19 pandemic. An amendment will allow the extension of the first and second reconciliation deadlines. These deadlines are important in the context of an individual's entitlement to CCS. Extending the deadlines will assist Australian families affected by COVID-19 to meet their tax obligations at the end of the financial year.

The bill also guarantees additional support for families, with the relief package period not being counted towards the 14 weeks of non-attendance after which a child's enrolment usually ceases. This means that debts will not arise due to a child not attending care. This gives surety for Australian families using care, especially those in Victoria.

Further amendments will address several technical issues with and ensure consistency in the administration of Family Assistance Law.

This will include ensuring debts are raised against providers whose approvals are cancelled and who are subsequently paid amounts of CCS by fee reduction during the external review of cancellation decisions that are ultimately unsuccessful.

The secretary of the department will be able to delegate powers to administer child-care grant arrangements to the departments administering the Australian government's grant hubs and, in exceptional circumstances, to backdate the start of child-care provider approvals to a date before the provider made a valid application for approval.

The bill also addresses minor drafting issues in amendments made by the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Improving Assistance for Vulnerable and Disadvantaged Families) Act 2020 that will commence on 1 July 2021.

In conclusion, the bill demonstrates the government's commitment to support child-care providers during disasters or emergencies and ensure families have access to quality, affordable child care. I commend the bill.

Debate adjourned.

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