E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Topics: Labor’s Childcare savings; Pauline Hanson’s tax policy.
JOURNALIST: Let's just start with the childcare policy. A significant saving has been delivered for families. What can you tell us about the new analysis which has showed that families are up to $2,700 better off as a result of our cheaper childcare policy.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: This is real cost of living relief for so many families out there, and this is the type of relief that Peter Dutton and the Liberals have opposed. My message to the Liberals and Peter Dutton is this type of relief makes a difference for families. It would be welcomed by many, many families. But of course, we can continue to make a difference through our proposal to ensure that there is access to childcare for every child in Australia of three days. That's a key policy that we have, along with our commitment to make sure that we're paying early educators that do great work in early education a decent salary with our increase in their wages.
JOURNALIST: It would appear that these policies actually have had cut through with voters, women and young women in particular, are far more favourable towards Anthony Albanese than they are Peter Dutton. Do you think it is policies like this, or do you think it's also personality?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I think policies like our cheaper childcare policy make a real difference to people's lives, and what that means is people can see the difference that these type of really important policies make. People like the Liberal Party and Peter Dunn have dismissed this policy, but when you are talking about $2,700 that makes a real difference to the budgets of so many families.
JOURNALIST: Do you think women are also potentially turned off by negative and nasty politics that we are seeing quite early on in what is sort of a pseudo election campaign being run?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, look, our Government is governing for all Australians, and our job is to support people with cost of living pressures, because we know people are under pressure, but also build Australia's future. These are the two key areas that our government has been focusing on, and we're delivering it with real policies. I think that is the key to this. We're seeing real policies on the ground, whether that's fee free TAFE, whether that is a cut in HECS debt, which helps many women, because they've taken time out of the workplace and have a larger HECS debt. We will see policies like our cheaper childcare policies having a real difference. I think many Australians will be looking at what is actually on offer and see that our Government is delivering real, practical cost of living relief, while setting our country up for the future.
JOURNALIST: Just in terms of an idea that's been put forward by Pauline Hanson, she wants people to be able to split, or couples to be able to split their tax and do a joint tax return, so that they even out that income tax on their share. It could actually help a lot of women who, as you say, are out having children or out of the workforce. Is that something that Labor would look at or consider?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I haven't seen that policy, so I'm not able to comment and I'll leave that to others. What I would say when it comes to supporting women's workforce participation, we are seeing a reduction in the gender pay gap under our Government. We are seeing really practical measures like an increase in paid parental leave and superannuation being paid on paid parental leave. This is a critical measure that supports women, men and families at the time the birth of their baby. Whether it's tax cuts for all Australians, our improvements to tax cuts have meant they did benefit many women who would have missed out. Our focus is absolutely on supporting people with cost of living measures, supporting families with cost of living measures, while investing in the future. Of course, childcare, those savings now make a big difference now, but early education makes a big difference to those young children who are who are partaking in it.