Access to affordable, quality child care is essential to many
working families.
The Government is taking steps to make sure the costs
of child care are affordable and there are more child care
places available.
Supporting parents with child care
Child Care Tax Rebate
After taking time out from work to raise her two children, Alison is offered a part‑time job with the local newspaper. Alison's husband Brendan already works full time.
Brendan and Alison need to be able to access affordable child care to ensure they both can work. The Government is increasing child care assistance to help working families, like Brendan and Alison's, with the cost of returning to work.
Brendan currently earns $60,000 a year. With Alison returning to work, their family income will increase to $87,000 a year. With their two children in long day care while Alison works, Alison and Brendan will receive more than $12,400 in child care assistance. This accounts for around 70 per cent of their gross child care costs.
Alison and Brendan will now receive over $2,000 more in child care assistance thanks to the Government's Working Families Support Package.
The Government recognises the challenges working families face in finding affordable and accessible child care, and will help families with these pressures.
The Government will increase child care assistance, lifting the Child Care Tax Rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of out‑of‑pocket costs, and increase the annual cap from $4,354 to $7,500 per child. The rebate will also be paid quarterly to give parents assistance closer to when they incur out‑of‑pocket expenses. This assistance is in addition to any Child Care Benefit payable.
To further assist parents, the Government will expand the number of child care places. The Government, over the long term, has committed to ensure 260 child care centres are built in priority areas.
To drive improvement in the quality of child care, the Government will develop rigorous new standards for child care. A new five category quality rating system will be introduced to give parents more information about their child care centre.
