Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education and Training, Senator Birmingham. Will the minister advise the Senate on the government's plans to deliver affordable, flexible and accessible child care for Australia's hardworking families?

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

I thank Senator Reynolds for her question and her passionate interest in this area of policy. The government has a plan to help support hardworking Australian families to be able to better access and afford child care to support their workforce participation, studying or volunteering in the future. We are committed to investing some $40 billion over the next four years—an increase of around $3 billion in the support provided to families for our childcare system.

We are restructuring the childcare system to ensure that we provide the greatest hours of support and access to subsidised child care to the families who work the longest hours, and the greatest subsidy and level of financial assistance to the families who earn the least amount of money. This is an inherently fair reform, which will support around 1.2 million Australian families and, importantly, protect those most vulnerable in our society through our $858 million childcare safety net.

I particularly welcome today's report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, commissioned by Goodstart Early Learning, which projects that around 29,000 full-time equivalent jobs will flow, and workers will flow as a result, into the labour force of this remodelled childcare arrangement. This backs up the government's own research, which indicates that around 230,000 families will increase their workforce participation as a result of a more affordable, flexible and targeted childcare system. I welcome the quote by Goodstart Early Learning CEO, Julia Davison, who commissioned the report: 'The Jobs for Families childcare package will deliver a significant economic gain for our nation by making returning to work more attractive for parents.'

This is an important economic reform, Mr President, but it is also an important reform that will help many thousands of Australian families.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister please reconfirm his good advice about how many families will benefit from the Turnbull government's reform to the childcare system, in total?

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

Around one million Australian families will be better off as a result of the work that the Turnbull government is doing to fix and reform our childcare system. We are putting in place a light-touch activity test, which will ensure that the support is targeted to those who are working, training, studying, looking for work or volunteering, that those who most need assistance for child care are the ones who can guarantee that they can access that assistance. This comes on top of the fact that we are supporting early learning outcomes, particularly through our 15 hours a week of guaranteed preschool or kindergarten access, backed by a further $843 million in federal government funding.

Pleasingly, the Goodstart research indicates that lower childcare costs will ensure that working parents will increase their hours and that parents who would not otherwise work will enter the workforce, ensuring that we lift productivity while helping Australia's hardest-working families.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Is the minister aware of any alternatives to the government's approach?

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

The short answer to that question is no. I occasionally hear criticism from those opposite in terms of the government's policy but they offer no alternative in the childcare space. They have no alternative to our policy, which is to fundamentally reform the childcare system to simplify it, to make it easier for parents and to ensure that parents get the support and the encouragement they need to increase their participation in the workforce.

According to the Productivity Commission, Labor's 2008 changes to the childcare rebate, without any check on what it would do for pricing, led to a dramatic escalation in fees in the childcare sector. It of course created yet more budget pressure, which we are dealing with today, which our childcare reforms seek to address by putting in place efficient pricing mechanisms that will in future seek to put downward pressure on price rises to stop the type of escalation we have seen from the policies of those opposite, which have cost families and the taxpayer a vast amount.