THE HON DAVID COLEMAN MP, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR FINANCE:
Good morning everyone it’s great to be here at Teenie Weenies Childcare Centre here in Panania.
I thank Marie and Chris who are the operators of the centre, for having us here. It’s really terrific to have the Prime Minister here at the centre this morning to talk about the benefits of the government’s new childcare package. Close to 6,000 families here in the electorate of Banks will benefit from this new package when it comes into force on 1 July. It’s been great to have the PM here along with Kelly O’Dwyer this morning, to talk about the benefits of this new package.
So I’ll hand over now to the Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks David, thank you very much and Kelly. It’s great to be here because on the 2nd of July, our new childcare system comes into operation.
That’s going to mean that one million Australian families will be better off.
Particularly families on lower incomes will be getting a very significant increase in the childcare subsidy and for almost all families, the caps will be removed. So this is going to result in around 230,000 more families working, or working more, being able to work more hours.
This is all about jobs.
It's about the economic growth that we're seeing.
It's one of the policies that we have put in place to ensure that we continue to get the record jobs growth we have seen.
430,700 jobs in the last 12 months, the largest number on record and 16 months of continuous jobs growth.
This is a massive increase in our investment in child care. This is going to ensure that more kids have access to quality child care and more families can combine work and family. Mothers can stay connected with the workforce, while their children are very little.
Kelly, as a mother with a very big job in the Cabinet - Minister for Revenue and Minister for Women - and little kids, just talk about how important these reforms are, how significant they are?
THE HON KELLY O’DWYER MP, MINISTER FOR REVENUE AND FINANCIAL SERVICES, AND MINISTER FOR WOMEN:
Thank you very much Prime Minister and David. As a working mum and as so many working parents know, child care is incredibly important if you want to be able to work or work more or study or learn new skills. The reforms that the Government has put in place and that will be available from the 2nd of July this year, will enable more families to benefit from accessing child care at a much more affordable cost. It will give additional flexibility to the system and it will make sure those families, particularly low-income families, will get access in many cases to child care for the first time.
Eighty-five per cent of their child care will be covered as a result of these changes for those families who have an income of less $67,000. For those families who have got incomes of less than $185,000, they of course will find they have no cap now, which means that they will get the benefit of being able to put in those additional hours to help their family to be able to get ahead.
We want to make sure that in this country, people have choices. About how they live their lives and creating the right economic framework to enable them to do that, to make those choices about their families. We'll deliver the benefits that people both want and need.
As Minister for Women, I'm particularly excited as well that these changes will make it much easier for particularly working mothers to increase their hours, or to get back into the workforce if they have had a period of time out of the workforce.
That’s why Prime Minister, I think these are the sort of changes that people are going to be very keen to get on to the website, myGov, so they can make the changes to their information so they get the benefits from the 2nd of July this year.
This centre I might say David, Teenie Weenies, is a really fantastic example of the sort of nurturing child care centre that you want for your children. As a working mum with a child who is almost three and one that is almost one, I know how important it is for parents to have confidence in the places they leave their children each and everyday. Because our children are your most important asset.
PRIME MINISTER:
They're our future.
MINISTER FOR REVENUE AND FINANCIAL SERVICES, MINISTER FOR WOMEN:
They are our future. They are our greatest asset and they are our greatest joy.
PRIME MINISTER:
So myGov, make sure you get on to the myGov site and update all your details so that you can take advantage of the child care reforms and the increased benefits in the child care support.
It's really important, go to the website and update your details.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, to use your own words you’ve lost 30 Newspoll in a row, is it clear that Australians have made up their mind about your leadership?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Australians are focused on the real contest, which is the type of country we want to be.
Do we want to be a country that has the strong revenues to fund increased child care? That has record jobs growth, that has lower taxes and more investment?
Or do we want to be the country Bill Shorten is offering; higher taxes, less investment, lower employment, Australian jobs going overseas.
That's what Bill Shorten is talking about.
This is the real choice and the real risk of a Labor Government.
So we're focusing on delivering on the jobs, you have seen record jobs growth. When I became Prime Minister, I said I would deliver economic leadership. Record jobs growth, we have never in our history created as many jobs in a 12 month period as we have at the moment.
We're delivering that, but it is put at risk by the prospect, the risk of a Labor Government. That is a real risk and Australian’s jobs and Australian’s essential services, like child care, are put at risk by an anti-jobs, anti-investment, anti-business Labor Party.
JOURNALIST:
Is it fair to have set that benchmark in 2015 and then not want to address it now?
PRIME MINISTER:
I can assure you I have addressed it, I mean I regret making those remarks at the time, making remarks about 30 Newspolls at the time. But what I promised to do was to provide economic leadership and traditional Cabinet government and I have done both.
JOURNALIST:
What is your new metric for good leadership and what do you think you have to achieve to maintain the confidence of all your colleagues going into the next election?
PRIME MINISTER:
I do have the confidence of my colleagues, that’s the first point. No one, by the way, is suggesting I don't. So the second point is, what Australians want us to focus on is their jobs.
They want us to focus on their child care services.
They want us to focus on schools.
They want us to focus on hospitals and health.
They want us to focus on national security.
They want us to ensure that great jobs remain in Australia and that we have maintained strong jobs growth.
Now, we're delivering on all of those things.
That's what Australians want me to focus on. They don't want me to focus on personalities or the politics. They want me to focus on the outcomes for them and that's precisely what we're delivering. You know, I said we would deliver economic leadership. We went to the last election with an economic plan for jobs and growth.
The highest jobs growth in the country’s history, that’s what we have delivered.
So, we have met that benchmark and that’s the benchmark that matters around the kitchen table. That's the benchmark that matters in this child care centre.
That's the benchmark that matters in workplaces around Australia; what is the Government doing to ensure that we deliver stronger growth, more jobs, better jobs, better opportunities, the revenues that enable us to put $2.5 billion more into child care, $20 billion more into schools, enable us to keep Australians safe from terrorism. Those are the measures that Australians expect me to live up to and that's what we're delivering.
We'll continue to deliver all of the way through to the election where the Australians will face the real choice and the real risk of Labor; anti-jobs, antibusiness, anti-investment, wanting to send jobs off-shore. Well, I tell you, we want the jobs in Australia and we are delivering them.
Thank you all very much.