“Not all of us are capable of or want to sit at home with our three-month-old watchingBluey,” she said.
However,one senior government source said hedidn’t view Tuesday’s debate through a gender lens.
Coalition sources said the Nationals MPs opposed to the measure told the meeting they couldn’t back the legislation without the government providing additional support for those who looked after their own children.
But following the debate,the party room did give the nod to the legislation to increase subsidies and it is expected to be put to Parliament on Thursday.
Shortly after the childcare package was announced last month,Senator Canavan said ithelped only some types of families.
In 2015,Mr Joyce and Senator Canavan were behind a push for then-Nationals leader Warren Truss to includemore support for families where one parent was at home with children in the Coalition agreement. Mr Joyce,who didn’t contribute to the debate at Tuesday’s meeting,is in the midst of negotiating a new Coalition deal after he waselevated to leader of the Nationals on Monday.
One MP,who also didn’t contribute to the debate,said Senator Canavan and Mr Christensen were “completely out of touch” and should be brought into line.
Women’s Economic Security Minister Jane Hume reminded colleagues of a study last year that showed nearly 100,000 parents weren’t in the workforce because they couldn’t afford childcare.
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Opposition childcare spokeswoman Amanda Rishworth said the existence of debate within the government over the importance of childcare beggared belief.
“Australian women do not need male members of the Coalition shaming them for how they’ve chosen to balance their work and family life,” she toldThe Sydney Morning HeraldandThe Age.
“It must be incredibly frustrating for the female members in that room who were left to defend the choices of women.”
Liberal MP Jason Falinski asked Mr Tudge during the party room meeting how many more spaces in childcare centres the package would create and what the government was doing in a structural sense to reduce the cost of providing care.
“How do we provide more opportunity for working parents to make their lives better? It’s about availability and prices. These measures go some way to doing that,” he later told this masthead.
The government expects the proposed changes to childcare subsidies will encourage 40,000 parents to work an extra day,however,Education Department officials were unable to tell a recent Senate estimates hearing whether that would be people taking on more hours or new workers entering the workforce.
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