James Bidgood (Dawson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion. Will the minister outline to the House the need for a strong budget surplus to put downward pressure on inflation and interest rates, and how any delays in passing the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Budget and Other Measures) Bill 2008 will further hurt working families.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The House will come to order. The question has been clearly asked.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his very clear question. In responding to the member’s very clear question, I know that he has a very deep concern for the circumstances of working families in his electorate and particularly providing assistance to working families with the cost of child care. As we have had cause to discuss in this House in the past, the government is determined to build future prosperity by investing in lifting productivity. There is much that needs to be done to lift the productivity performance of our nation. Today’s productivity growth is tomorrow’s prosperity. This productivity agenda is built on a solid foundation. That foundation is sound economic management and a surplus of $22 billion that fights inflation and puts downward pressure on interest rates. Within the budget measures there is the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Budget and Other Measures) Bill and it is an important part of the government’s productivity and participation measures.

The clock is ticking. The members of the Liberal Party have until the end of this month—to the end of June—to choose between responsible economic management and cheap, short-term politics. If they choose to oppose or delay the childcare bill, then they will be putting up in neon lights that they are wreckers of our productivity and participation agenda and they are people who would seek to deny a benefit to working families. What we are looking to deliver on 1 July through this legislation is an increase in the child care tax rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent, up to $7,500 of assistance per child per year. Importantly, this measure will be paid quarterly so families get timely assistance. We want to deliver that measure on 1 July. We know it will provide substantial relief for working families. Last night in speaking in the debate on this bill the shadow minister, the member for Warringah, said:

The fact that most people will be better off is beside the point.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services, Indigenous Affairs and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: in fairness to the House, she should give the full quotation, not just selectively quote like that.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member knows that he has other avenues of the House to be able to rectify anything that he is aggrieved about. That is not the way to do it.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I note the contribution of the member for Warringah, a man who dedicated his time as Leader of the House in my memory to fairness and balance in this House! Is that how we recall it? Not quite. That the member for Warringah said in the debate, ‘The fact that most people will be better off is beside the point,’ is a perspective that the government would like to firmly reject. We think the fact that working families are going to be better off is the point. We want to give them additional assistance with their child care. Obviously, the members opposite—the Liberal Party—do not understand the pressures on working families when it comes to child care. Any delay in passing this legislation will hit working families.

Unfortunately, hitting working families would not be out of character, given the opposition’s track record on child care. In the 11 years to 2007, the average fee for a child in full-time long day care increased by 76 per cent from $149 per week to $262 per week—a 76 per cent increase. In the 1996 budget, the assistance that the Liberal Party provided with the costs of child care was to freeze childcare assistance payments for two years. They did not understand then in 1996 that working families need assistance and they do not understand it now. We should remind ourselves that, in government, they also removed operational and capital work subsidies for community based centres, forcing a number of centres to reduce in size or close completely and forcing others to raise fees. If that was not enough, they also withdrew funding that was to support the construction of 5,500 new childcare places. Finally, under political pressure, they introduced the child care tax rebate, but then of course members of working families had to wait two years before receiving their first payment. This is a shameful track record on child care. That shameful track record would be added to in another disgraceful episode if the opposition held up our legislation which will bring fee relief to working families.