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

As I was saying, from July our changes to the childcare subsidy will boost the maximum subsidy rate to 90 per cent for families earning $80,000 or less. We're also boosting the subsidy rates for around 96 per cent of families with a child in care who are earning under $530,000. Our changes will also introduce a base level of 36 subsidised hours of early learning per fortnight for First Nations children. First Nations children will have access to the base level of subsidised hours regardless of their family activities.

These changes will deliver more affordable early childhood education and care for around 1.2 million families, including 265,000 in rural and regional Australia. Our reforms will help more children access the powerful benefits of early childhood education and provide real cost-of-living relief for families. We're making these changes because we know that investing in early education is good for children, it's good for families and it's good for the country.