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

I thank the most-extraordinary senator from Western Australia, Senator Smith, for his question. Thanks to the reforms of the Turnbull government, help is on the way for the hardest-working Australian families. Thanks to our childcare reforms in the legislation that passed the House of Representatives earlier today, around one million Australian families will be the greatest beneficiaries of the most comprehensive reforms to Australia's childcare system seen in decades.

These reforms will abolish the current $7½ thousand childcare rebate cap that so many Australian families fall over the cliff of, mid-financial year, meaning they run into all sorts of problems juggling work and family obligations and meeting the cost of child care. The reforms will recalibrate childcare subsidies to provide a higher rate of subsidy to low- and middle-income families, ensuring real benefits—in terms of thousands of dollars of benefits—flow through to the lowest-income Australian families. They will put downward pressure on childcare fees in future, through an hourly rate cap mechanism that will ensure the incessant fee increases we have seen in relation to child care become a thing of the past, once fully implemented. They put in place a strong safety net for the most vulnerable children, while also ensuring there are reductions in red tape and enhanced capabilities for childcare services to offer more flexible hours, more flexible services, and actually deliver services that suit their communities in the future. They also come with new compliance powers which can ensure that taxpayers are getting value for money in the future—of course, coupled with the activity-testing regime that makes sure that the greatest numbers of subsidised hours go to the hardest-working families, as we are equally ensuring the greatest level of subsidy goes to the lowest-income families. A family on $60,000 a year can expect to be more than $2,000 better off as a result of our reforms, carefully targeted to those who need it—