Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Those opposite, sadly, are standing in the way of helping Australian families to better meet their childcare costs and in the way of empowering Australian families to better choose the hours they work, the days they work and the conditions they work in. Those opposite went to the last election with but one childcare policy—a policy that was to increase the childcare rebate cap from $7½ thousand to $10,000. Do you know what their policy would have done? It would have seen a fee escalation, as occurred before, and it would have put $176 million per year in the pockets of families earning more than $250,000. They would have been helping the wealthiest Australians, whereas our reforms aim to help those who are the hardest working and those who are earning the least. We are shifting the balance of the childcare rebate to help those who are earning the least, to give them the chance to choose to work more, and to help those who need that help the most.