Sky News, PM Agenda
E&OE
DAVID SPEERS:
Scott Morrison, thank you for your time, this trial is going to cover about 10,000 children. Do you suspect there will be stronger demand than that? How will you chose those who are going to take part?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well the priority for this programme are those families who are currently unable to access mainstream childcare and early childhood learning services. Those particular in key worker occupations, doing shift work, whether it’s police officers or nurses or even back to my old portfolio Customs officers, soon to be Australian Border Force officers, who are involved in those occupations where there is not only shift work but sometimes very uncertain working hours. That often makes it very difficult for them to plan their childcare arrangements and access them, so that is the priority of the scheme. I should stress also we’ll be focusing on regional areas and rural areas where often the location reduces the range of services that are available to families, and also families who have children with special needs, whether it’s something like autism or other forms of disabilities that can make it very difficult to access those mainstream services.
SPEERS:
But again even amongst those groups I would expect that you’re going to have more than 10,000 applicants, do you just chose the neediest?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well that’s right, this will be based on need and of course there will be an income means tested layer that is added to this as well to make sure that we are helping those families who are in the most neediest circumstances. But this is a pilot programme it is not a full blown implementation programme. The reason for that is we need to get the processes and the integrity measures right, we need to get the systems right, before taking it beyond this. We need to assess its success over that period of two years before committing to something more broadly.
SPEERS:
Now the nannies will have to be approved first through the provider, what qualifications will they actually need?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well we require them to have first aid qualifications and also a certificate in relation to working with children. Obviously service providers, I’m quite sure, will provide services with nannies who have other educational qualifications, but we’re going to leave it to the family to make the decision about what level of qualification they require in those areas. We need to keep this as flexible as possible David, I mean we have those requirements through the National Quality Framework in the mainstream services, but what we are delivering here are non-mainstream services and we need to keep it as flexible as possible.
SPEERS:
A lot of – well caring for young children is done by grandparents at the moment, would it be feasible for a grandparent to access these payments in any way even if it means registering with an agency?
MINISTER MORRISON:
No, I don’t believe so, and that’s not what this programme is designed to do. This is meant to supplement existing levels of support that are out there, whether informally through family, or that are available formally through the mainstream services. This is a professional service that is being provided; it will need to be done through registered providers. Some of those providers may well be already operating in the formal day care environment and that I think will provide an added level of quality and certainty in terms of making sure the arrangements work efficiently and effectively.
SPEERS:
Now at the moment childcare can cost around $100 a day, the government rebate covers half of that, so $50, you have indicated this subsidy for nannies will actually be a bit less than that?
MINISTER MORRISON:
No, what I’ve said is that the benchmark price upon which subsidies will be based, and the Productivity Commission recommended the use of a benchmark, while we don’t necessarily agree with the median being used to set that, the bench mark is a very good idea. They will be set at different levels for different types of care, and so the benchmark for long day care will be at one level, for occasional care at another and preschool care, and of course care provided through in-home services by nannies would be at another level. That’s all a function of the level of overheads and the cost of service delivery, so we’ll be ensuring that that benchmark price for the in-home care provided by nannies is commensurate with that cost of provision.
SPEERS:
And where will the $246 million come from?
MINISTER MORRISON:
It will be offset by the savings that are currently unlegislated in the Parliament relating to Family Tax Benefit initiatives, and there are a range of measures there and this will be spelt out more clearly in the budget for the entire package, which I’ll be announcing with the Prime Minister as well between now and the budget. Those offsets will be clear. It’s important that people appreciate that yes, we will be investing more here, but we will be ensuring it washes its face in terms of the savings that are necessary to support the increased investment. I think that’s the right thing to do by taxpayers.
SPEERS:
Some of those savings announced in last year’s budget by the Government, include the cuts to Family Tax Benefit part B for single income families, that includes limiting it to those earning less than $100,000 a year and cutting off the payment when a child turns 6 rather than 16. Now a lot of your National Party colleagues, as you know, are uneasy about that. They say that mums in regional areas in particular often do chose to stay at home, look after the kids, and get no support. What do you say to them?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well some of the measures you mentioned there, one of them has actually already been legislated, that’s the reduction of the threshold from $150,000 down to $100,000, that comes into effect on the 1st of July of this year. The other ones that I’m principally referring to are the payment freezes for two years and matters relating to the indexation of thresholds and the supplements. The previous Government put through around $15 billion worth of savings and changes to Family Tax Benefits of that nature. So really I think these types of savings measures should sit comfortably with an Opposition which were doing the same thing when they were in Government. The only reason I could think they have not supported them until now has been for fairly capricious political reasons.
SPEERS:
Joe Hockey has said again today that the budget challenge is on the spending side not the revenue side; in other words the Government is spending too much. However worthy this initiative you’ve announced today may be isn’t it opening up a new spending front, providing a subsidy where one previously didn’t exist?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well that’s why the offsets are so important, David, and the offsets go off into the future as well just like any initiatives here also extend beyond the budget and forward estimates. So I think you highlighted a very important principle and that is…
SPEERS:
Sure, but if you can find a saving isn’t it better to put that into fixing the budget bottom line rather than opening up a new spending front?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well in some cases that will be exactly what is occurring and in other areas where the Government sees a priority to increase investment we won’t be just doing that by adding to the taxpayer’s burden. We’ll be doing that by offsetting those costs as we have in this case and that’s a rule that I think should apply to the Government. It’s also a rule that should apply to the Opposition and the Crossbenchers as well, people want to spend more money then they have got to find more savings and that is what this Government is doing.
SPEERS:
Ok, the final question, if the $250,000 income limit that you’ve set on this programme, the subsidy for nannies, is that also the income limit that will apply for the childcare rebate more broadly?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well we’ll be making further announcements on the broader mainstream packages between now and the Budget and so I’m not going to be drawn on that at this point. That’s what we’ve put in place for this measure, I think it’s highly unlikely we’ll see many, if any, cases that extend up to that level of income and that’s something we’ll review over the course of the pilot. The overwhelming majority will be focused on low to middle income earners many of which will be less than $120,000 family income and when you’re talking about two parents working in key worker occupations in a place like where I’m standing right now, in Penrith, we are not talking about people on barren salaries here we’re talking about people who are working in some of the most important jobs that we have in our community, who have been missing out on the support that is provided to other families to help them stay in work and these are families we really do need to be in work because they are doing some of the most important jobs in the country.
SPEERS:
Ok, Social Services Minister Scott Morrison thanks for joining us this afternoon.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Thanks very much David, good to be with you.