Tasmanian Labor Senator Helen Polley has claimed the federal government’s child care reforms will see 3000 Tasmanian families in the lowest economic brackets worse off.
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However Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the reforms will encourage more than 230,000 families nationally to increase their time spent in the work force.
Senator Polley said families who have a combined family income of less than $65,710 will be hardest hit, with the reforms creating a set of rules that would “knock thousands of low income families out of the system”.
The federal government’s modelling reports 80.9 per cent of Tasmanian families will receive more funding for childcare, 4.3 per cent will see no change, and 14.7 per cent will receive less funding.
Senator Birmingham subsidies would target “people earning the least and to families working the most”.
“We make no apologies for increasing child care subsidies to those Australians working the hardest but doing it the toughest,” he said.
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