The Abbott government says its childcare package will include an extra $328m to help disadvantaged or vulnerable families to access services.
The government has indicated extra childcare spending and an overhaul of subsidies would be a key element of its second budget to be delivered on Tuesday.
The social services minister Scott Morrison said the total additional funding to support families in greatest need would be $327.7m over four years. He indicated the government would also provide additional funding of just over $500m in the mainstream childcare subsidy.
“So all up, it is a figure well north of $800m that we’re putting in addition over the budgeted forward estimates that will form this childcare safety net,” Morrison said on Friday.
The Coalition, which is banking on its forthcoming budget gaining a better reception from the public than the roundly rejected 2014 budget, plans to scrap previous childcare programs and roll them into new schemes.
“Existing programs that support disadvantaged and vulnerable families are complex, inefficient, poorly targeted and open to abuse, in particular the community support program, special childcare benefit, and jobs education and training childcare fee assistance,” Morrison said.
“These schemes will be wound down, along with the current budget-based funding programs. They will be replaced by the new childcare safety net which will comprise a more integrated and targeted set of funding programs.”
The three new schemes include an inclusion support program to provide more funding to enable services to have skilled staff and equipment to assist children with special needs. It was estimated to provide support to about 11,300 services.
“This will include a significant increase in the inclusion support subsidy, meaning centre-based services will no longer have to pay a ‘gap fee’ to engage a certificate III qualified staff member to assist with children with additional needs,” Morrison said.
A second new program, to be called the community childcare fund, replaces the community support program. It will provide help to about 4,000 services in attempt to reduce barriers to accessing care.
The fund will focus on disadvantaged communities, including remote Indigenous communities and rural areas, to strengthen the integration of childcare services with other community services.
Other priorities will be reducing financial barriers for low-income families in high childcare cost areas. The fund will also assist services operating in low viability markets “subject to clear requirements on how to improve business practice”.
The government has signalled it is willing to make a contribution of up to $500,000 to help a service build new buildings and expansion in areas of demonstrated high demand and low childcare availability.
“It is true that around the country there are areas where the provision of childcare services is just not economically viable,” Morrison said during a visit to a Sydney childcare centre. “What we’ve learnt through the Productivity Commission exercise is the supply, oversupply, undersupply of services is patchy all around the country but it is important that where services are not viable we can get those services in place.”
A third program, called the additional childcare subsidy, will top up the mainstream childcare subsidy. Morrison said the top-up subsidy would target children at risk of serious abuse or neglect, irrespective of family income or activity tests, initially for six weeks and then in blocks for 13 weeks as assessed.
Short-term financial support would also be available to families experiencing temporary financial hardship. Another element would be “a higher capped subsidy for families transitioning from income support to work and undertaking study or training”.
United Voice, a union that represents childcare workers, said it was pleased the government had “come to the table” to deliver new investments in early childhood education for vulnerable and disadvantaged children. The assistant national secretary, Helen Gibbons, took it as “encouraging evidence” that Morrison was willing to fight for more money for the sector.
“These new measures will help children access the services they need and reduce childcare waiting lists,” she said. “The next step is for the government to reveal what the total funding package is so every family in Australia knows where they stand.”
The Australian Childcare Alliance, which represents privately owned services, said the increased investment for vulnerable and disadvantaged children was “a welcome move”.
But its president, Gwynn Bridge, said the alliance was still concerned about the possibility of families facing substantial out-of-pocket expenses depending on the national “benchmark price” that could form part of the broader package.
“We know that many families out there are doing it tough right now, so the broader childcare package is critically important for us in determining whether this will address the immediate affordability crisis facing families across the country,” she said.
Early Childhood Australia, a peak body, said it agreed the current system was too complicated, too expensive and lacked clear objectives.
“This move will help to simplify the system, make it more inclusive and is a step in the right direction,” said the group’s chief executive, Samantha Page.
But Labor zeroed in on Morrison’s insistence that the childcare package was conditional on the passage of stalled changes to family tax benefits in last year’s budget.
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said childcare should be affordable and high quality but improvements should not be tied to “unfair cuts to family payments”.
“Only the Abbott Liberals could propose paying Peter’s family by robbing Paul’s family,” Shorten said.
“This isn’t a solution for child care. When it comes to child care all Scott Morrison’s interested this is using child care to get Joe Hockey’s job and when it comes to child care all that Tony Abbott’s interested in is saving his own job until the end of this year.”
The childcare measures were the latest element of the budget to be announced by the government in advance of Tuesday’s speech by the treasurer, Joe Hockey.
The prime minister, Tony Abbott, travelled to north Queensland on Friday to promise help for the beef industry in the budget. He pledged $100m to a fund to upgrade key roads used to transport cattle.
