Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to sum up and to thank those speakers who have made a contribution on the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Early Childhood Education and Care Coronavirus Response and Other Measures) Bill 2021. I acknowledge the children now leaving the gallery, because it's very appropriate and comforting to see kids returning to the chamber. God knows why they'd be leaving such a stimulating debate!

In summing up, I'd like to take the opportunity to remind those opposite of some facts relating to the early childhood care space. Under our charter, women's workplace participation reached an all-time high pre COVID of 61.5 per cent in January 2020, up from 58.7 per cent when Labor left office. More than 280,000 more children are included in child care since we came to office. We're investing in record childcare funding to the tune of $10.3 billion this year alone. What a colossal amount of money, including, and notwithstanding, the $9 billion to subsidise the fees set by the services. That is 77 per cent higher than Labor's contribution when they were last in office. We know that what matters most to parents is their out-of-pocket costs. As members opposite know, our targeted investment means that child care is far more affordable now for low- and middle-income earners. Labor's childcare policy would spend $20 billion over the forward estimates, benefiting higher-income earners the most. A family earning $500,000 would receive a kick-along of in the order of $50,000 with two children if they were in child care—and with no active test. Parents would not even need to be working. Let's not forget that, the last time Labor were in office, fees went up by 53 per cent.

The bill we're debating is about the support that we delivered to families at the height of the COVID pandemic. The key measures contained in this bill will benefit families and childcare providers by giving the government flexibility in how to respond to future large-scale disasters and emergencies, by providing a means to make payment to childcare providers during emergencies such as the pandemic. In terms of our changes to the childcare subsidy balancing requirements, the bill will also allow for better management of childcare subsidy debts that can arise when individuals are unable to meet their tax return lodgement requirements on time, and it will assist families who have been unable to meet those requirements due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The amendments in this bill also maintain appropriate safeguards to support the delivery of early childhood education and care relief packages, which operated from 6 April to 12 July 2020, ensuring that over 99 per cent of childcare services keep their doors open and provide free childcare services for children of essential workers, vulnerable children and others.

I commend the bill to the House.

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