Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition has a proud record in relation to child care. We doubled spending on child care to over $10 billion per annum. We supported 280,000 more children in child care per annum than when we first came to office, and women's workforce participation reached record-high levels. Most importantly, we did so through targeted approaches which reduced inflationary pressures on child care. In fact, in the last financial year, childcare out-of-pocket costs came down by 4.6 per cent. This is in contrast to Labor's last time in office, when fees skyrocketed by 53 per cent in just six years.

Labor's childcare plan, introduced today, will inevitably see fees skyrocket again and erode most of the promised benefits for families. This is because the package will add to demand but does not address the waitlists for services, the workforce shortages or the significant regional gaps. When introducing the childcare bill today, the minister promised that Labor's plan would not add to inflation. Australian families will be holding him to this promise.