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Childcare Rebate

27 Apr 2011

Q. The Federal Government currently pays parents 50 per cent of money they spend on childcare via its childcare rebate. Which of the following policies would you support most?

Total Vote Labor Vote Lib/Nat Vote Greens Men Women Age

18-34

Aged

35-54

Aged 55+
Maintaining the child care rebate at current levels 22% 23% 23% 25% 21% 22% 33% 18% 14%
Limiting the rebate to families earning less than $150,000 per annum 42% 46% 41% 44% 42% 42% 38% 42% 47%
Scrapping the rebate and paying the money directly to child care providers to contain costs and improve services 21% 25% 18% 18% 25% 18% 12% 24% 26%
Don’t know 15% 13% 11% 14% 12% 18% 17% 16% 12%

Only 22% favour maintaining the child care rebate at current levels – 42% think it should be means tested and 21% think it should be scrapped and the money paid directly to child care providers. There were no significant differences by voting intention.

Those aged 18-34 were more likely to support maintaining the rebate at current levels (33%) as were people earning over $1,600 pw (31%).  Limiting the rebate to families earning less than $150,000 was supported by 55% of people earning $1,000-$1,600 pw.

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