Senator HANSON-YOUNG (South Australia)

(6.16 pm)—I rise today to speak in favour of the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Rebate) Bill 2011. To finally see some legislation in this place to deal with this issue is a welcome move. Of course, back in June last year, before we took a break before the last election, the Senate actually amended a piece of legislation to do exactly this—to bring forward the payments for families. So the Senate has indeed already agreed that this is a good idea. Unfortunately, because of antics in the House, we were never able to deal with that piece of legislation and get it moving for families sooner. After the Greens’ amendment went through this place and got stuck in the

House, we went to an election. During that election campaign the government—the Prime Minister herself— announced that this would be a new government policy: to bring forward childcare rebate payments from quarterly to fortnightly. That was exactly what the Greens had already amended the legislation to do, but we have had to wait until March the following year to see the government fulfil that promise to families.

But it is a welcome step. Finally we are starting to see some common sense coming out of this. Look at the cost of child care to families across the country. We know that families are paying anywhere from $80 to $150, $200 or $300 a week in childcare costs, depending on the centre, the number of children and the number of days. That means that some families are waiting for three months to get their $1,800 back through their childcare rebate. That is a lot of money and a big chunk of the family budget to be waiting on every quarter as opposed to every fortnight, even though we know that most people pay their childcare fees monthly if not fortnightly.