Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator Henderson. I suspect the reason you might be asking the question is that the government at this point in time is not releasing that formula. We are, however, investing around $3.6 billion to support the 15 per cent wage increase for ECEC workers over two years. We did hear the sector's call for more information about the wage funding, and in response we've announced that the fee constraint in the second year will be 4.2 per cent, which is based on the ABS's new childcare services cost index. As soon as we're in a position to provide more details of the funding formula, we will, obviously, do that by communicating with providers.