The Australian Government has an ambitious agenda to improve the quality, affordability and accessibility of child care because the research is clear that a child’s experience in the early years sets the course for the rest of their life.

Overall, we have committed more than $20 billion in funding for early childhood education and child care over the next four years - over $12 billion more than provided in the last four years of the former Coalition Government.

This includes more than $16 billion to help 800,000 Australian families annually with the cost of child care, through Child Care Benefit and the Child Care Rebate.

We have also increased the Child Care Rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of all approved out-of-pocket child care expenses up to a maximum of $7500 per child per year and changed the Child Care Rebate to a quarterly payment, so parents don’t have to wait until the end of the year to receive this crucial assistance.

As a result of this assistance, since 2004, out-of-pocket costs for families earning $75,000 have reduced from 13 per cent of their disposable income to 7 per cent in 2010.

To help further ease cost of living pressures being faced by many families we are also providing parents with the option to receive Child Care Rebate payments fortnightly from July 2011.

We are also raising the quality of child care and early education by improving staff to child ratios, so each child gets more individual care and attention; and boosting staff qualification requirements, so our hard working and dedicated child care workers can lead activities that help kids learn and develop.

We are doing this because while many child care centres across Australia are doing well, the National Childcare Accreditation Council’s latest report shows that sadly, too child care centres are failing to meet basic safety, hygiene, educational and wellbeing standards.

We believe that we can and must do better when it comes to the safety, wellbeing and early learning of our children.

That is why we are working in partnership with State and Territory Governments to implement a National Quality Agenda that will lift the standard of child care across Australia and deliver a new rating system so parents can make informed choices about what is best for their kids.

When it comes to supporting high quality, affordable and accessible child care this Governments record is clear and we will continue to support Australian families in this critical area.