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Media Releases

More Local Children to Access Childcare thanks to Federal Gov’t $2.5billion Funding Increase

While visiting Belmont Goodstart Early Learning Bonner MP Ross Vasta and the Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham were thanked for encouraging more local children into early education.

Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham said it was great to visit Belmont and hear how parents are using the online estimator to see how much better off they are going to be under the Federal Government’s Community Child Care Fund (CCCF).

“The focus of the CCCF is ensuring that access and viability aren’t barriers for child care and early learning,” Minister Birmingham said.
“We’re committing $124 million each year through the CCCF to reduce the barriers in accessing child care, particularly for vulnerable families in disadvantaged communities. Eligible child care services will be able to apply for supplementary funding to support their operations, which will particularly help services that may be experiencing viability issues.”

Belmont Goodstart Director Amanda Underwood says the Federal Government’s $2.5billion boost to childcare has already had a direct impact on families in the area.

“This additional funding will benefit children greatly. Families in the area are already enquiring about accessing additional days of education for their children.”

Local MP Ross Vasta said early education is vital for all children and no one should be missing out.

“Investing in early education is an investment in the future of this country.”

“Making sure every single child has access to early education is a key goal for the Coalition government,” said Mr Vasta.

The CCCF is one part of the Turnbull Government’s $2.5 billion additional investment into child care and early learning and broader reforms to the system that will:

• Better target subsidies to people working more hours and to those earning lower incomes
• Abolish the cap on child care subsidies for all low and middle income Australians
• Put downward pressure on incessant fee increases with an hourly fee cap
• Slash red tape so services can be more flexible in the hours they offer
• Deliver stronger compliance powers to ensure taxpayer funds aren’t abused

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Media Releases

ONE THIRD OF NBN ROLLOUT NOW COMPLETE IN BONNER

Federal Minister for Communications, Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield, today provided locals from Mount Gravatt, Carindale, Wynnum and surrounding areas with an update on the NBN rollout across Australia.

Residents had the opportunity to ask nbn-related questions to the Minister, as well as representatives from nbn co and Telstra, at a community information session hosted by Member for Bonner, Ross Vasta.

“The nbn rollout is now one-third complete in Bonner, and I’m pleased to say a third of premises with access have taken up an nbn service,” Mr Vasta said.

Minister Fifield said the nbn was now available to over half of all Australian premises, with 75 per cent expected to have access by June 2018 and all premises to have access by mid-2020.

“The nbn is one of the biggest infrastructure projects ever carried out in Australia. With such a massive undertaking there’ll inevitably be a small percentage of people with issues. This is not to diminish their experiences and nbn co is working hard to improve the consumer experience as the rollout is completed,” Minister Fifield said.

“When the nbn falls short of people’s expectations, often it’s an issue of retailers not purchasing enough capacity to service their customers. The Government is ensuring accountability and has funded the ACCC’s Broadband Performance Monitoring and Reporting program.”

“Under this program, the ACCC is implementing real-time speed testing at 4000 volunteer sites across the country. This will provide invaluable information on broadband speeds to consumers and motivate retailers to provide the best speeds possible.”

Minister Fifield said the ACCC had published guidelines for retailers on how they should advertise their NBN service speeds. The guidelines advise retailers to clearly advertise the minimum speeds consumers can expect to achieve during peak evening periods, rather than the maximum speeds that may be delivered during off-peak periods.

“The ACCC has made it clear that if retailers fail to meet these guidelines, more formal action will be taken,” Minister Fifield said.

Mr Vasta encouraged people to sign up for broadband performance consumer updates on the ACCC website. 

He asked those with further issues or questions on the NBN rollout to contact his office or visit the nbn co website.

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