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Minister for Education Simon Birmingham has blamed Labor, the Greens and the crossbench for refusing to pass the savings needed for the government’s $40 billion childcare package.

Speaking to Sky News, the minister said he was shocked the reforms, which would provide affordable, accessible and fairer childcare, were not being supported.

‘We are proposing the biggest recalibration of childcare subsidiaries and payments in the nation’s history and dramatically reengineering them to steer them towards those who earn the least and work the hardest.

‘That’s the type of reforms I would have thought everyone would welcome.

‘Shadow Minister for Families Jenny Macklin told Sky News that Labor has made it clear it supports additional investment in childcare and would back the government’s legislation if it was brought into parliament.

‘They had three years to do something about the cost of childcare and the availability of childcare but what have they done? Nothing.

‘Now they’re trying to say they’ve run out of time.

‘They’re not doing anything about it, they’re not even bringing it on for debate in the House of Representatives.’

However, Mr Birmingham said the Turnbull government is hesitant to put the reforms forward because the opposition is against the saving measures that the package is contingent upon.

‘We do need to fix the childcare system, but it has to be paid for and the Turnbull government has clear plans that for ordinary working families would make them around $1500 a year better off,’ he said.

If the numbers in the senate are not in the Coalition’s favour, Mr Birmingham told Sky News the reforms will be taken as policy to the election.

‘We can either put it to the parliament, have it defeated and abandon it or we can accept that it’s not going to pass the parliament and try and seek a mandate for the entire package and hope we can have more success in the next parliament.’

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Image via Shutterstock

Original story on Sky News

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  • I hope not! its already expensive as it is

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  • The whole system is a mess and this will not help in the slightest. Childcare should not be in the hands of the for-profit sector. The government should properly fund quality community-controlled child care for all.

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  • Childcare costs should not be a revenue raiser what’s so ever. It is a need for young developing children that are also learning so many skills there!!

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  • The headline appears to have little connection to the story.

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  • This makes me nervous. Our youngest is reaching kindy age and we were thinking of childcare as an option to socialise since it is hard to get into our local kindy.

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  • If Childcare Fees are going to double parents will be out of pocket if they return to work, especially if the have more than one pre-school age child.
    For a Family or single Mum there will be a lot more Family benefits claims.
    Children who don’t have others they can interact with at all will probably miss out too. Childcare isn’t just about others caring for your child, they also learn a lot from activities, having books read to them, social interaction and learning to communicate with others besides parent/s and other relatives (if they have any available to visit) In many new housing development areas the often isn’t other children the same age as yours. Fences are so high you don’t see and communicate with your neighbours as much as if you had lower fences. Therefore children are also less likely to communicate even with other ages.

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  • Lke hg

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  • I can’t believe there is still room for childcare costs to increase.

    Reply

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