The budget is a good outcome for children and families. It opens up real choices for parents to stay at home with their newborn baby in the early part of its life.
New parents (presumably the mothers) will receive a $3000 maternity payment (adoptive parents included) rising to $5000 in 2008 and most families will get an immediate one off payment of $600 for each child. As well, the basic family tax benefit will increase by $600, paid at the end of each financial year. This will be used to offset debts some families accrue because of failure to accurately predict their incomes.
Disincentives to return to work have been reduced through more liberalised income testing and phase out arrangements for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) As a result families will not have to repay Family Tax Benefit (FTB) received in the year when the parent returns to work.
There are 1500 new Family Day Care places and 30000 new Outside School Hours Care places for new and existing services. The FDC places include the operational subsidy. These places will make a real dent in the high demand currently being experiencesd
As well as this there is an additional $16.4m over four years in the new Child Care Support Program which replaces the Broadband. We believe this will focus on the needs of children and families in regional and rural australia and on children with additional needs. The details will be announced by Minister Anthony on June 2.
All families benefit from these measures. The only downside is that there is no tax relief for low income families.
These measures are in addition to measures announced in the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy.
View Early Childhood Australia's Media Release by following the link.
Budget 2004 Media Release
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Last Updated ( Monday, 29 August 2005 )
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