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Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Page: 6298

Ms LEY (Farrer) (19:12): I have two questions for the minister for child care. One I do not expect an answer to because I have written to you about this, but I am concerned enough about it to raise it here. The other concerns the childcare rebate.

Regarding the first matter, I would like to quote from an email from one of my constituents, an email that was received by your department, DEWR, regarding his childcare contracts which are due to expire on 30 June and there is a new funding deed from 1 July:

Further to our conversation a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to let you know that due to some system problems, we have not been able to produce the variations to existing budget based funded services yet. From the information I have on-hand, it is my understanding that we are likely to send variations out mid next week, only if our IT problems are resolved.

Minister, I am sure you would agree that is completely unsatisfactory. The new contract is due to commence in just over 15 days time. I ask you to expedite the process and note that I have written to you. Given that we have members here asking questions, I do not expect an answer to that.

My second question is quite specific. The budget papers appear to make no reference to the childcare rebate. My understanding is that the rebate is now $7,941 per annum. Does the government intend to reintroduce legislation to cap the CCR at $7,500 or will the rebate stay at $7,941 until it is indexed next financial year?