Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Again, I'm happy to take the details of that question on notice for Senator Hughes. I'm sure that her colleagues in the House of Representatives are posing the same question to the actual minister to get that level of detail. If that's not occurring, perhaps she could have a chat to her colleagues about that.

I think the other point to be noticed here is that, as we have consistently said, child care is not simply a social welfare program. Child care is not simply about economically supporting families who receive childcare benefits, as important as that is. Increasing childcare payments is an important economic policy of this government to broaden, in particular, women's participation in the workforce. Having affordable child care, regardless of income, is an important measure for this government to take to increase women's participation in the workforce. It is a shame that the former government didn't take the opportunity in any of the nine and a bit years that it was in government to do the same thing. (Time expired)