A major overhaul of Australia's child care system expected to benefit one million families was passed by the Senate following a heated debate on Thursday night.
Here are 7 most important facts about the childcare changes:
- Parents must work, study, volunteer or search for work at least eight hours a fortnight to be eligible.
- Under the $1.6 billion package which cleared the upper house on Thursday night, a family earning less than $65,000 a year will pay just 15 per cent of their child care fees with the remainder of the bill footed by taxpayers.
- The means-and-activity tested subsidy tapers down to 20 per cent for those earning $340,000.
- All subsidies cut off for families earning more than $350,000 (federal government agreed to an amendment from crossbench senator Derryn Hinch, meaning the amended legislation needs to go back to the lower house for its tick of approval)
- The more hours parents work, the more subsidised care they get.
- No annual cap on childcare subsidies for families earning less than $185,710.
- These changes will come into effect from 1st July 2018.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham, in a series of tweets, pointed out how families in different wage groups will fare under these changes:
Family on 50k per/yr with 2 kids in care 3 days a week and paying $100 a day will be $3,295 better off.
A family on 80k per/yr with 2 children in care for 3 days & paying $100 a day will be $3,424 better off.
A family on $150k with 2 kids in 3 days of care and paying $100 a day will be $1,626 better off.
Labor and the Greens opposed the package, arguing it hurt the most vulnerable and disadvantaged by slashing in half the hours of subsidised care available for families earning less than $65,000 a year who fail the activity test.
They wanted the 12 hours-a-week entitlement boosted to 15 hours, with Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young describing the move as a "kick in the guts" for vulnerable children who'd been put in the "dustbin", AAP reports.
"Unless both your parents are working... you're not as valuable to this government," she was quoted as saying by AAP.
Minister Birmingham said 12 hours allowed two six-hour sessions per week, equivalent to normal school hours.
There were also safeguards allowing children from disadvantaged homes to be eligible for fully subsidised full-time attendance of 50 hours per week, he said.
"Hard-working Australian families should be swinging from the rafters tonight," he said.
