Labor’s Amanda Rishworth has resorted to deliberately spreading mistruths about the Turnbull Government’s child care and early learning reforms.
In an act of desperate distraction from the fact Labor still doesn’t have a policy to replace Australia’s broken child care and early learning system, Ms Rishworth today made a series of wild claims that are demonstrably false.
Myth #1 – The Government has failed to acknowledge people will be worse off
We make no apologies that our reforms retarget child care and early subsidies to those families earning the least and to families working the most and that around one million Australians are set to benefit.
Every family has been able to estimate their entitlements under our reforms at www.education.gov.au/childcare since 7 July 2017 so that any family, whether they’re in Bourke Street or Broome, can visit it and see exactly what it means for them.
Despite Ms Rishworth’s scaremongering, families working irregular hours – like shift workers or seasonal workers – will still benefit from our reforms. And they can estimate the number of hours they work per fortnight over a three-month period, so only need to update their details four times a year.
Would Labor still prefer to see taxpayer support extended to people who aren’t working, studying or volunteering or those on high incomes? In fact, Labor’s election policy would have delivered up to an annual $176 million windfall to families earning over $250,000 at the expense of low to middle income earners.
Labor also ignore research that an estimated 230,000 Australians will increase their workforce participation because of our reforms, which will provide additional benefits not reflected in modelling.
We’re also introducing a $1.2 billion Safety Net so the most vulnerable children get a strong start in child care and early learning while supporting parents into work.
Myth #2 – The Government is withholding a portion of the Child Care Subsidy because the changes are too complex
Withholding a portion of child care and early learning subsidies was introduced by Labor in July 2011 to, as the then-Minister Kate Ellis said: “…ensure that families do not accumulate any unforeseen debts as a result of overestimating their income…”
Labor’s withholding rate was set at 15 per cent, much more than the Turnbull Government’s plans.
Families will get every cent they’re entitled to from the Turnbull Government’s extra $2.5 billion of child care support.
Myth #3 – Budget Based Funded services are ‘in the dark’ about how they are being supported
As the Government has outlined a number of times previously, we’ve been working with each and every Budget Based Funded service to transition to the new system and each of them have been informed about how they will be supported.
The Labor Party stood in the way of our extra child care investment in Parliament and when they were last in government, made changes to the system that the Productivity Commission said “accelerated” fee increases. Tanya Plibersek even boasted about the fee increases that change brought about in a press release on 9 January.
Despite a Productivity Commission report, two Senate inquiries and months of Parliamentary debate, Labor still insist on running a talkfest that’s been going for more than a year and they haven’t come up with any solutions to Australia’s broken child care system.
Labor have no policy and no ideas for child care and early education.
Examples of how families are set to benefit under the Turnbull Government’s plans:
- A family on $50,000 – both parent/s working, with two children aged under 6 in long day care two days a week at $100 a day will be around $2,000 better off a year
- A family on $80,000 – both parent/s working, with two children aged under 6 in long day care three days a week at $100 a day will be over $3,000 better off a year
- A family on $150,000 – both parent/s working, with two children aged 6 and under in long day care three days a week at $100 a day will be more than $1000 better off a year