Page 92 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 15 February 2011
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That is precisely what the childcare rebate and the childcare benefit are there for. For many families it pays 50 per cent of the childcare fees. When you talk about $350 a week—I think it is $375 at the centre I am at—for most families—not families like mine—that cost is offset by a 50 per cent rebate via the commonwealth government. That is a significant reduction in fees, and, particularly for those parents who have more than one child, it should ease some of the pressure of childcare.
What it has also done, though, is made childcare in long day care centres very, very attractive, and so you are dealing with extra demand being generated to long day care and less focus on other types of childcare, like occasional care and family day care. I think that is something that we have seen in the ACT with increasing demand for additional childcare places and additional childcare centres to be made available. That has been a direct result of the cost of childcare when rebated coming down.
The government in every budget looks at our concessions regime. I know my colleague Minister Corbell will talk more about that, but I can certainly say from the budgets I have been involved with that every single budget goes through an analysis of what an initiative will mean to individual taxpayers in the ACT, what will it mean for those who earn under the average wage or who are struggling and, if there are increases in costs, how we offset those increases. That could be through something like the fire and emergency services levy, which had a concession attached to it, the homebuyer concession scheme or the energy concession schemes that the government has established.
Another example is the one we have just done recently for renal dialysis. People spend a lot more on their water bills because of how much water their machines use. We have stepped in to pay the cost of that extra water in recognition of the fact that, for that small group in the community, many of whom are already struggling, their costs are much higher than anyone else’s and that there is very little they can do about it. Plus, there is a benefit with them not coming to the renal unit to have their dialysis if they can have it at home.
They are examples of where we are responsive. There is no doubt there are cost of living pressures. I think there have always been cost of living pressures. I do not know that they are any worse than they were when my mum and dad were bringing up their kids down in Waramanga and struggling with one car and no bus service at that time. I am not sure that they are any greater for families. I think families will always struggle, particularly when they have young children. The job of the government is to respond to those pressures, look to see where we can meet them or offset them and provide that extra support, whether it be through a concessions regime or through our community service system.
On all fair analysis in the cool calm of day, the ACT is not experiencing cost of living pressures over and above the national average. In fact, you would have to say that we are under some of the pressures that are being experienced nationally. We should welcome that, but we should never take our eye off the ball of what we need to do to make sure that everyone living in the ACT can be supported to meet the challenges of the cost of living.
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