Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The incorporated speech read as follows—

I rise today in support of the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Budget and Other Measures) Bill 2008.

Whilst campaigning prior to the 2004 election, child care availability and affordability was just one of many issues consistently cropping up across the Territory. Child care has become an essential service for working families, where a stay- at-home parent may not be an option for many families, as the cost of living is impacting family budgets.

Unfortunately, with the increasing cost of child care as well, it has become something of a catch-22—struggle with one working parent and no child care fees, or struggle with two working parents and increasing child care costs. This bill seeks to rectify this problem that many families are facing by making child care more affordable for working families.

More than 700,000 families use child care each year, making it an integral service for Australian families. The past five years have seen child care costs soar, rising faster than the cost of other goods and services. In the 12 months to June 2007, child care costs rose by 12.8 per cent, making it the fifth year in a row of double-digit increases.

It is not hard to see why concerns about the quality, accessibility and affordability of child care were important factors in the decisions of 85,000 secondary earners to stay out of the workforce, as found by an ABS survey.

Last year Federal Labor developed an Affordable Child Care Plan in response to Australian families crying out for help in the face of rising child care costs. This is a $1.6 billion investment as part of an overall $2.4 billion package over the next five years, investing in early childhood initiatives that will provide high-quality services for young children and to help build a productive, modern economy for Australia’s future. Federal

Labor went to the 2007 election with this commitment, and we are now making good on our promise.

Part of this initiative was to increase the child care tax rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of out-of-pocket child care costs, up to $7,500 per child per year. The bill delivers on this initiative. This rebate has been substantially increased from $4354, giving families more money to put back in the family budget.

The rebate will also be paid quarterly, rather than annually, which allows parents to meet the costs of child care as they occur. The great news is, parents will receive the first quarterly payment this October, easing the stress on the household budget and hopefully making that weekly, fortnightly and monthly juggle easier.

The quarterly payment of the rebate is in stark contrast to the previous governments’ child care policy. When the child care tax rebate was introduced after the 2004 election, parents had to wait nearly two years to receive the rebate —long after the ever increasing child care costs had been incurred!

It was only after much community pressure did the previous government see the absolute stupidity in this and make the rebate accessible a year after costs. Federal Labor is making the rebate even more accessible, understanding that parents need the rebate to meet the costs as they arise, not a year later, by paying back the rebate quarterly.

The bill also sets out provisions to ensure quality child care for young Australians and to protect families. It will extend the Civil Penalties and Infringement Notice Scheme to provide a broader range of options for enforcing compliance of child care service providers with their obligations under the Family Assistance Act. These obligations include

• not passing on appropriate fee reductions to families;
• failure to keep appropriate records;
• failure to provide families with appropriate financial statements
• failure to provide reports on child care usage and child care benefit entitlements for individuals attending the centre
• failure to act on notices from the secretary.

Currently, the only options available when a centre does not comply with their obligations, and that is either criminal prosecution or the suspension or cancellation of the Child Care Benefit.

These options directly impact on the fees that families pay. The new scheme allows civil action to be taken without directly impacting on families, which will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the child care compliance regime. This means centres will be compelled to meet their obligations without resorting to criminal proceedings that may result in the centre receiving a criminal record.

These changes will only impact on centres that don’t fulfil their legal requirements, sending a strong message of deterrence and discouraging child care centres from starting to or continuing non-compliant behaviour.

In line with Federal Labor’s commitment to responsible economic management by reducing the value of payments for those who are able to afford it, there will no longer be a minimum rate of the child care benefit for approved care from July this year. This proposal will only affect high-income families. In the current system, a family’s income determines how much child care benefit they receive, with a minimum rate applied to the highest incomes regardless.

The bill proposes that instead of the child care benefit reducing to a minimum rate, it will continue to reduce until the family’s rate is zero. The cut off mark for the child care benefit will depend on the number of children using approved care, and will effectively mean that high-income families will no longer receive the child care benefit.

I However, that being said, any loss families will have by this is more than compensated through the increase in the child care tax rebate. It must be made clear that all families currently receiving the child care benefit and the child care tax rebate will continue to be eligible for the child care tax rebate, even if they are no longer eligible for the child care benefit due to their high income. As long as families meet the basic eligibility criteria for the child care benefit that are not income related, they will be eligible for the child care tax rebate.

At the moment, with the increased cost of child care fees, parents are considering whether it is worth having both parents in the workforce, if one parent’s wages are going solely to pay the child care fees. The child care tax rebate is aimed at working families and the parents who are seeking to get back into the workplace.

The Federal Labor Government sees the lifting of workforce participation as a crucial part of their five point plan to tackle inflation. By reducing the out-of-pocket expenses felt by families, parents will have the opportunity to get back into the workforce or even take on extra training. It is through increased workforce participation that Australia’s economy is able to build extra capacity, which will help ease inflationary pressures and drive down interest rates.

All these measures put forward in this bill are part of Federal Labor’s $533.5 million investment over five years to give all children, including Indigenous children living in remote communities, access to an affordable quality earl learning program, delivered by a university qualified teacher, for 15 hours a week, for 40 weeks a year, in the year before formal schooling. This is set to be delivered in an ambitious quality framework that includes long day care, to make sure it meets the needs of working families and to give our kids the best possible start in life. It will also include integrated care and learning, universal preschool for all pre-primary, a rigorous A to E set of quality standards and a highly trained workforce.

This Government is serious about child care. 260 child care centres will be built around the country in areas of need to address the child care shortage that is plaguing our families, a shortage we are well aware exists, unlike the opposition who last year vehemently denied there was any crisis.

The former Member for Longman, who was also then Minister for Families and Community Services, even went so far as to state in April 2007, that “There is no crisis. I’ve been saying long and hard there are no crises.” This was said much to the incredulity of thousands of families who were searching in vain for a child care vacancy for their children. Of course, the former Member for Longman soon found himself in his own crisis, when his electorate gave him their final verdict on his performance as a local representative on November 24th last year.

Federal Labor is listening to Australian families. We are making a significant contribution in the 2008-09 Budget to help working families meet the costs of child care, and I believe this bill does that. I am happy to commend this bill.