Opposition Early Childhood spokesperson Kate Ellis has taken another hit to her credibility on child care after she hitched her wagon to analysis of the Turnbull Government’s child care reforms, analysis that itself admits is incomplete and flawed.
“New independent research has revealed that Malcolm Turnbull is spending an extra $3 billion on a child care package which will make almost half of all families worse off, or no better off.”
– Kate Ellis, Media Release, 4/03/16
The report, prepared for Early Childhood Australia, acknowledges the superiority of the data the Turnbull Government has already provided to the Australian community that shows almost one million families will benefit as a result of our Jobs for Families package.
“The Commonwealth will have a superior data base with the full population of formal childcare families and exact price and hours information for child care use.”
– Distributional Modelling of Proposed Childcare Reforms in Australia, Ben Phillips, ANU, p.12
“The data in the surveys however does not necessarily line up exactly with the legislated policy, as some people will be undertaking training or charity work that is not covered by the surveys.”
– Distributional Modelling of Proposed Childcare Reforms in Australia, Ben Phillips, ANU, p.9
The Department of Education and Training’s analysis can absolutely be trusted and is based on a ‘complete picture’ and actual outcomes that take all factors of the Turnbull Government’s Jobs for Families package into calculation
Following in-depth and comprehensive analysis of administrative data with exact hours and prices of all child care usage per child and family with work activity, it was found almost one million Australian families will benefit as a result of our reforms.
While Labor is busy spouting faulty stats, Australians are getting fed up with the Opposition standing in the way of child care reforms that will benefit around one million families. Labor is not only standing in the way of the savings that will pay for the additional $3 billion investment in child care but is opposing a policy that will address the mistakes they made in child care when they tinkered around the edges, hurting the hip pockets of families and increasing the costs to taxpayers.
Our objective is to better help parents who want or need to work, or who want to work more, while still supporting early childhood education. More affordable access to quality child care puts the opportunity of work within reach for more families.
If Ms Ellis is so opposed to our increased childcare support, targeted at hard working low and middle income families, then she needs to clarify what her alternative is – will Labor simply continue the status quo or do they have a costed alternative?