Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The battlers, the forgotten people. It is interesting to see what Latham, their former knight in shining white armour—and what an interesting character he was—was going to do. I think he was going to remove part of the family tax benefit. In climbing his ladder of opportunity he was going to sell families down the toilet. It is good to get these things on the record.

This is one of the most significant changes to the provision of child-care places in Australian public policy history—and I put that on the record. The Howard-Vaile government have made one of the most significant changes in Australian public policy history. That is the sort of record that Senator Scullion and Senator Santoro can stand behind because we are proud of delivery. We are a government of delivery, and this budget has been the biggest deliverer in the history of this place. This budget still gives you a $10.8 billion surplus. This budget is the result of the accomplishment of developing a trillion-dollar economy and taking Australia back where it should be at the front end of the Western developed world. It is one of the pride economies in the Western developed world and it has been managed under the good stewardship of our Treasurer, Peter Costello, with the strong support of his colleagues in both the Liberal Party and the National Party.

Parents on income support such as parenting payments who are re-entering the workforce will also benefit from this budget with increased funding to the JET Child Care program, which pays almost all the child-care gap between fees and the CCB. The budget also funds improvements to compliance checking and further supports the quality assurance program. It is very important that we do not just arbitrarily throw money around, that we get some control of what is happening, because it is important that the kids out there in these child-care centres are looked after—and they fall silent on the other side. Parents can be assured that there will be more rigorous financial compliance checking. This will ensure that parents get even more value for the assistance they get through the CCB.

The government has also committed to a significant investment to introduce new child-care management systems to ensure that up-to-date and accurate information is available on supply and demand on the use of child care. Parents seeking information on available child care in their local area will be able to ring the child-care access hotline, and it is good to see that we are delivering a quality controlled mechanism so that people can check how their kids are being looked after.

The long day care places—and that is an important policy aspect of this Howard-Vaile government—are already uncapped. We have had some conjecture are out there today about this. Someone can set up a child-care centre when and where they want so long as they meet the state and territory licensing regulations. All places at approved child-care centres are CCB funded so parents will receive subsidised child care. The Australian government’s role is to assist parents with the cost of child care, not to build or directly provide a child-care centre. We believe in the concept of small business and business being a benefactor of the policy of the government rather than the government being the business. We are happy to stand behind that on this side of the chamber and give people the opportunity to go into this marketplace and to make their money from that. That is what builds our trillion-dollar economy. It is one of the aspects that has developed our nation.

Maybe we will have an alternative policy tonight but I bet we do not. I bet there will be nothing but the poor, sad, sorry sight of Mr Beazley giving his obituary whilst Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan—and Bill Shorten on the television—sit back, their eyes peeled, sharpening their blades in true Labor fashion, ready to jump in there and start tearing him apart. It will be interesting to see not so much the applause that Mr Beazley will get from this side of the House but the applause, the conjecture, the eyes, and the daggers being sharpened up on his own side. It is going to be an interesting night. I cannot wait for Mr Beazley’s book after he is jettisoned by the Labor Party—as they have done so well with the rest of their former leaders. The government is providing a record level of funding to families for child care through child-care benefit and the child-care tax rebate. On average families are receiving $2,000 in child-care benefits per year.