Peter Garrett MP
Federal Member for Kingsford Smith

Child care is a huge issue for thousands of working families in Kingsford Smith, with costs spiralling in recent years.

Under Labor, parents and child care centres will benefit through measures to make child care much more affordable while standards will be lifted through better trained staff and a star rating scheme to assess quality.

A Rudd Labor Government will:

• Lift the Child Care Rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent for out-of-pocket child care expenses;
• Increase the maximum payment from $4,354 to $7,500 per child each year; and,
• Introduce tough quality standards for child care centres.

Kingsford Smith families will be safe in the knowledge that from 1 July 2008 a Labor Government would ensure a new five category quality improvement system to provide parents with a simple, clear and independently assessed system of child care.

Further, Labor’s plan includes:

• Creating additional early childhood university places each year, rising to 1,500 commencing students by 2011;
• $73.5 million in incentives and opportunities to improve the qualifications of child care workers to ensure our children receive expert early learning and care; and,
• Investing $3.5 million over four years to develop and distribute guidelines on healthy eating and physical activity in early childhood settings.

Federal Labor has listened to the concerns of working families in Kingsford Smith and we’ve got a plan to help reduce the financial burden of spiralling child care costs.

For more information please contact Ryan Heath 0449 141 398