Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

First of all, I absolutely categorically state that the government would never advise centres to stand down their staff. The government has provided unprecedented support to centres and to families. We are backing families and the childcare sector simultaneously during this pandemic, and I believe we've acted very swiftly to ensure that mechanisms are put in place to reflect the completely uncertain times that we find ourselves in. For instance, for families, we're allowing services to waive out-of-pocket costs and we have extended the number of days families are allowed to keep children absent before they lose access to the childcare subsidy. For childcare businesses the Commonwealth has partnered, in particular with New South Wales, to facilitate swift support through JobSaver to help businesses meet payroll costs if they've experienced a 30 per cent decline in revenue. For childcare workers—an absolutely critical workforce for our economy—where a worker has had hours reduced they are eligible for the COVID disaster payment of up to $750 per week.