The Liberal Government has shown it does not care about local families, with its new child care package leaving more than 2,000 local families worse off come July 2.

Local Member of Federal Parliament Madeleine King MP said it was extremely worrying that most of the families affected by the changes had a family income of less than $65,710.

“This Government is making life harder for everyday people who are already struggling with rising living costs and low wage growth and now it is targeting child care,” Ms King said.

Under the Government’s package, families will have to satisfy a complex set of rules to qualify for government assistance – with a work test and a means test set to hit vulnerable families the worst.

The work test will knock thousands of low income families out of the system. The new slug on families is on top of the 18 per cent growth in fees (to March 2017) since the election of the Liberal Government – which means families are on average paying over $2,000 more a year.

Ms King said Labor was proud of its early education and child care record, including:

• Reducing the financial burden of child care on families with increases to the child care rebate from 30 to 50 per cent of out of pocket costs;
• Increased the child care subsidy to $7,500; and

Invested $970 million to create universal access to preschool for four year olds in partnership with the States and Territories.