Page 2602 - Week 12 - Thursday, 16 November 1989
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largely by the high spending policies of this current Federal Labor Government.
The tax reforms that Mr Peacock outlined give priority to providing incentives in assisting families, particularly those with children, those that have suffered most under the Hawke Government. These reforms include the provision of a substantial child tax rebate, an increase in the eligibility threshold for the dependent spouse rebate, a reduction of the rate at which it is withdrawn, and assistance to working mothers with tax rebates for child-care.
The child tax rebate recognises the increased cost to families bringing up children, and it will be paid out at varying rates for first and subsequent children. For the first child under 13 years of age the rebate will be $250 a year, and for the second and subsequent children under 13 years it will be $200 a year. For the first child between 13 and 15 years of age the rebate will be $350, and for the second and subsequent children from 13 to 15 years it will be $300. They are very substantial amounts, Mr Speaker, and hardly deserving of ridicule, as the Minister has asserted.
The coalition will also introduce a child-care tax rebate to help those families in which both parents are at work and to help sole parent families. This will be at the rate of $20 a week for the first child under five years of age and $10 a week for other children under five and children between five and 12 years, something which this Labor Government could have done but which it has flatly refused to do.
Both these initiatives recognise the increasing costs of raising families. The child rebate particularly acknowledges the participation rate of women in the work force, which has risen to 52 per cent, and the fact that women in the paid work force are becoming the norm rather than the exception in Australian society. Again, it is something that this Hawke Labor Government refuses to acknowledge. This is particularly true in the ACT where a very large proportion of women make up the work force. These initiatives will be of immense benefit to women in Canberra, where child-care costs are so great.
Importantly, both are provided on a per child basis, reflecting the cost of each child in the family. The child-care tax rebate is a clear indication that the coalition has adopted the principle of funding the child, directing funds at those who are in need of assistance rather than pouring money into capital works, to which the Federal Labor Government has an overcommitment, on the face of it. The rebates will also promote choice and diversification, as they are to be applicable to expenditure in both formal and informal care, unlike the Government's current fee relief scheme. All this will be achieved without cuts to current children's services programs.
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