Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The President of the ACTU said that we should have 1,000 new long day care centres. Not too many people in this House and perhaps not too many people in the gallery appreciate really how much it costs to set up a long day care centre. It is between $1½ million and $2½ million. Sometimes it is as high as $3 million, depending on where it is. That is the sort of money that it takes to set up a long day care centre.

The ACTU—remember that they are the bosses of the ALP; they are the ones who drive the economic policy—have said, ‘We want a thousand of them.’ That is in excess of $2,000 million of capital. There was no mention of where they were going to get the staff from, yet the member for Sydney comes in here and says, ‘You’re not going to get the staff.’ Let me assure you that, if we were leaving it up to the unions, we would not be able to get the staff. I will guarantee you.  I have great faith in the people who run family day care. They will show innovation to the people who are running long day care—people in churches and other organisations who in the past have been locked out of this. They are coming on board and they will provide quality places.

That brings me to a couple of other initiatives in the budget, one being cost effectiveness and affordability. Mr Deputy Speaker, I tell you who this government is concerned about: those people coming into the labour market for the first time—people who might be saying: ‘Right, we’re going to make that big decision. How am I going to do this? I have to put the children into child care.’ There is a cost there and we acknowledge that. Whilst the government will give them the tax rebate and give them child-care benefit, we will also give those people JET. For those who do not know what JET is, it basically pays the gap. So we say that the government will pick up the tab and give the individual the incentive so they can go forward and join the labour market, become a taxpayer and, in doing so, show a new way to their children that welfare is not the answer but work is.

The Howard government is all about incentive. It is about innovation. It is about driving forward. We have demonstrated that by supporting families 100 per cent in this budget. It is quite different from the Labor Party, which are in a muddled mess going around in ever decreasing circles saying that they want outside school hours care uncapped, complaining when we do it and saying you cannot get jobs. We know why: because there were over one million unemployed under Labor. They are the kings of unemployment. This government delivers for Australian families. It will deliver child-care places and it will drive this economy further forward by ensuring that women have the opportunities that they deserve. Labor will deny them those opportunities.

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