Childcare changes put to sleep while super tax mired

Labor has been unable to pass its latest childcare reforms during the February sitting fortnight.

Anthony Albanese in Townsville on Thursday. Picture: Evan Morgan

Labor has been unable to pass its latest childcare reforms during the February sitting fortnight, with the delay in scrapping the activity test for three days of subsidised care eliciting fierce backlash from the Greens and warnings the measure will not come into force until after an election.

The government blamed a lack of time in the upper house for ripping the childcare legislation off the notice paper, citing the same reason for the lack of progress on its superannuation and electoral reform bills.

While Early Childhood Education spokeswoman Anne Aly said the bill would pass during the parliamentary sitting week scheduled at the end of March, the Greens called the delay a ­deliberate “tactic” by the major parties.

“The Greens were ready to work with Labor and get this bill passed this sitting fortnight, which may be the last chance before an election is called,” Greens early childhood education spokeswoman Steph Hodgins-May said. “Instead, Labor supported the Liberals in pushing this bill off to a Senate inquiry that won’t be finished until late March, effectively ruining its chances before the election.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Greens were set to move amendments to the legislation that would call for the activity test to be scrapped for the full five days of subsidised care, but fully expecting such changes to be voted down and the bill to be passed in its current form.

The Coalition does not support the scrapping of the activity test, which it argues must remain in place in order for the $15bn of taxpayer funded subsidies to be spent appropriately.

Labor has also been unable to secure support for other key ­pieces of legislation this week, including a bill that would increase taxes on superannuation balances worth more than $3m and electoral reforms that would see political donations capped.

Both bills have been delayed until next week; while the ­Coalition is in active discussion with Labor to pass electoral reforms, the government is at an impasse when it comes to the super legislation.

Despite cautious support from the Greens, Labor has been unable to land the vote of three other crossbenchers, with only Lidia Thorpe and Fatima Payman open to supporting the bill.

The National Farmers Federation applauded the rest of the crossbench for withholding their support, particularly after moves by Labor to combine the super bill with the scrapping of debit card surcharges.

“It’s a huge relief that the super tax was pulled from the Senate agenda this week,” NFF president David Jochinke said.

“The crossbench clearly understands that taxing ‘unrealised gains’ makes no sense, and would spell disaster for thousands of hardworking family farms and small businesses.”