Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Lilley retired hurt. They were missing in action. They retreated and returned to the pavilion because they knew that they could not mount a meaningful, relevant attack against this year’s budget, the pinnacle of economic achievement. The member for Sydney has accused the government of giving the appearance of creating child-care places. I have spoken before of the hypocrisy of the Labor Party sisterhood, but this statement by the member for Sydney less than two months ago absolutely reeks of it. She said:

We are worried that the system for allocating and reallocating places is rigid and slow ... Parents around the country might be without a child-care place simply because the allocation system lags behind new demand.

She went on to say:

... they—

referring to the department—

do not know where the shortages are.

This budget has solved that problem. Parents know where the shortages are and demand will decide where new child-care places will be created. Parental demand will decide where outside school hours care places will be created and where family day care places will be created, just as family demand currently dictates that for long day care. But do we hear any reminder from the member for Sydney about what she really wanted, given that she repeated those statements even this week? We heard nothing because, quite conveniently, the member for Sydney cannot find it in herself to say anything positive. The Australian public know that there is something wrong with even a whining, whingeing opposition when it cannot find a single good thing to say about this budget and its extraordinary new reforms and additional funding for child care. While the Australian public—or some of them—were glued to their televisions watching the budget speech and cheering it on, the opposition were thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, what are we going to do now? How are we going to respond to this?’

The member for Hindmarsh talked about the costs of child care. In real terms, the costs are lower than they were under Labor, as recent reports have shown. But that is not going to be admitted by the Labor Party, although it would do their credibility a lot of good if they were to do so. It would do the member for Sydney’s credibility some good if she were to admit the truth that many Australians know. Everyone else says the emperor has no clothes, but the member for Sydney still thinks that the Labor Party has credibility.

What this government is doing, particularly after Tuesday night, is allocating more places for child care flexibly, to cater for the demands and needs of families. That means that 99 per cent of child-care places will remain uncapped. It is quite simple: where there is demand that demand will be funded by the federal government. This is an extraordinary improvement in child care. This is something that was not expected by families, and I know and hope that it will be embraced by many families around the country. Services will be able to be set up or be expanded to meet demand where it occurs, provided of course that they meet all the licensing, quality and other requirements in each state.

If the member for Sydney is so concerned about a lack of capital investment in child-care places, perhaps she should suggest that state Labor governments, who control the planning laws in their respective states, come up with some sort of developer contribution for new housing estates to cater for community based child care. But, no, there is never any criticism, there are never any calls for assistance and there is never any vision on that perspective shown by the member for Sydney to try to involve state governments in any way. We have heard about some of the current problems and restrictions with outside school hours care and family day care places. These will exist no longer, and I call on the member for Sydney to actually admit that there is much good news in the budget on child-care places.

The Labor Party talk a lot about child care and women, but they have absolutely no concrete plans for child care in the future. What an absolute disgrace that reeks of unashamed hypocrisy. They talk about caring about women in the workforce, but they even relegate their women politicians to the pathetic category of tokens through quotas. Sadly, that is what we have come to expect from the main opposition party in this country. Where was the child-care benefit under Labor? Let us look at their past. It is nowhere to be seen. Where was the child-care tax rebate under Labor? Nowhere to be seen. Yet they still cannot bring themselves to say, ‘This 30 per cent child-care rebate of up to $4,000 per child per annum on out-of-pocket costs will be a terrific help to families in meeting the costs of child care.’ The Labor Party actually opposed legislation that would have enabled unused child-care places in the previous system to be reallocated to ease bottlenecks in areas of need. So they can whinge and whine and complain, but it is all empty. It is all aimed at filling in the gap of a lack of policy. It is all aimed at filling in the gap of a lack of an alternative budget that the Leader of the Opposition will struggle to deliver tonight. The facts are on the table. This government has committed an extra $120.5 million over four years for the child-care package. (Time expired)

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