Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

He is getting above his station, Mr Deputy Speaker. I just want to step ahead to the area for which I am responsible. It is an indication that the member opposite is being a smart politician, but he does not actually care about putting forward policies for the future, particularly for our young children. In one of the policies that Labor have put forward, we have made a commitment that every single four-year-old child in Australia will have the right to 15 hours of early childhood education a week, for up to 40 weeks a year, delivered by a qualified teacher. We have made a commitment of $450 million a year to cover this investment. Do you think there is anything in the budget that reflects that sort of investment in the future—a future that will only come about by us investing in our little children? We see no measure coming from this government that would cover all of Australia’s four-year-old children. Once this parliamentary secretary thinks about the future, and particularly about a future that requires an investment in our small children, he might have another think before he makes the sort of smart interjection that he did.

A critical reason for improving the availability, affordability and quality of child care is to help lift our workforce participation, especially amongst women. We all know on this side of the parliament that meeting the participation challenge will be a key ingredient in maintaining our economic prosperity. We do not have anything like the participation rates for women that many of our competitor countries do. In Australia, of those mothers who are part of a couple, about 55 per cent have returned to work by the time their youngest child is three, and 65 per cent by the time their youngest child is five. Of course, to do that they need and want high-quality, accessible and affordable child care. The Productivity Commission recently reported that the cost and quality of child care were barriers to workforce participation for about 30 per cent of women aged 25 to 44, while a further 10 per cent could not access child care at all. The Bureau of Statistics said that 100,000 women are not in the workforce because child care is too expensive, not available or of low quality. Research estimates that, if Australia’s expenditure on child care were increased up to the OECD average, the participation rate of women aged 25 to 54 would increase by three percentage points. At a time when we need to lift our productivity and our participation rate, a key theme of Labor’s for sustaining our economic prosperity is to recognise the need for affordable, high-quality and available child care.

As I said before, one of the great concerns about this budget is that it did not have a plan for the future, and that was particularly evident in its inability to invest broadly in early development and learning for our children. We certainly welcome the money that is being provided to child care and early childhood services for Indigenous children, but the only other budget measure on early childhood education was to establish a $1.4 million committee to look at an intergovernmental agreement on quality assurance and regulation. Those sorts of measures are important, but they do not measure up to investing in our children’s future. As I indicated, Labor have put forward a very comprehensive and significant commitment, especially to our four-year-olds. We do that not because we are in the lead-up to an election but because we have demonstrated year in, year out our ongoing and deep commitment to the value of education. Labor understand, as parents understand, and as all the experts from the World Bank, the United Nations and many others understand, that investment is of the greatest value when it is done in the early years of a child’s life. So, as far as I am concerned, the debate is over. Unfortunately, it seems that the government is not even engaged in the debate, let alone able to recognise the enormous benefits that come from investing in early childhood education.

Labor have also recognised that we will not be able to deliver this increased commitment to our children unless we do more for the childcare and preschool workforce. Once again, this is another area on which the government were completely silent in the budget. There was no extra money for training childcare workers or early childhood teachers. By contrast, Labor have committed to fully funding 1,500 new university places in early childhood education and to paying half the HECS of up to 10,000 early childhood graduates who agree to work in areas of need. We have also said that we will pay the TAFE fees for childcare trainees to make sure that we encourage them into this very important area. Labor, unlike the government, recognise that some parents also have considerable problems accessing child care. Unlike the government, we do not deny that there is an accessibility problem, and that is why we have committed to investing up to $200 million to build 260 childcare centres on primary school sites and other community land. This is another commitment that the government have failed to match.

One good community initiative that Labor have agreed to support in our New Directions for Australian Children policy paper, which was released by the Leader of the Opposition in April, is a national roll-out of the Australian Early Development Index. This index is a measure of children’s development. It provides data for teachers, schools and communities to identify the support that children will require if they are to succeed at school. Given the enormous benefits that flow from the information provided by the results of the AEDI on a community level as well as in helping individual teachers understand the development of their pupils, we want to make sure that every single Australian child who is starting primary school is able to access this measure. The government recognises that there are benefits with this index. Unfortunately, it does not seem to think that it should be available across the board. So what the budget does is extend the index to 14 communities on top of the 61 that have used it since 2004. As far as it goes, that is a good thing; but, unfortunately, I think it would have been better if the government had followed Labor’s lead and ensured that all Australian children would benefit from this assessment so that their teachers could put in place the programs at school that the children need.

During the last sitting week I spoke in the chamber about the special bonus payments that will be provided to seniors, carers and veterans. Labor welcomes these bonus payments because it recognises the ongoing financial difficulties faced by pensioners and carers, especially in meeting their cost-of-living expenses. We know that a lot of pressure is being put on their budgets. These people—our pensioners and the people who are doing the very tough job of caring for their family members—certainly do deserve these bonus payments and Labor welcomes this initiative.

The budget also contained a number of positive initiatives in the Indigenous affairs portfolio. The opposition is pleased to see funding for Indigenous housing, childcare services, early childhood programs, home visits for children, scholarships for students, youth leadership programs and the conversion of Community Development and Employment Project positions into real jobs. We recognise that all of those things are improvements. Labor also supports the additional money for Indigenous health initiatives, although it certainly will not be up to the level that will be required to meet the 17-year life expectancy gap that exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. I want to emphasise here tonight that Labor thinks the priority has to be in the creation of more jobs and economic development opportunities for Indigenous Australians. Indigenous people cannot lift their standard of living without jobs.

Even in these good economic times, Indigenous unemployment levels are still shocking. In the Elizabeth area of north Adelaide, Indigenous unemployment is as high as 34 per cent. In Macquarie Fields, in Sydney, it is 30 per cent. In Brisbane, Inala recorded an Indigenous unemployment rate of 35 per cent. In some remote parts of Australia the level of unemployment remains high, even in those Indigenous communities that neighbour major resource developments. We all need to work very hard together to train more Indigenous people—to get them work-ready and to make sure that they are able to take the jobs that the economy is providing. We need to work with business to make sure that we address these shocking levels of unemployment.

I noticed in the government’s suite of budget measures that, even though individually some of them are good, there is an absence of a consistent theme. There is no coherent agenda that ties together the government’s work on Indigenous affairs. Although there is a wide range of initiatives, no sense of direction is being articulated by the government. Labor’s agenda in Indigenous affairs begins with an understanding of the extreme disadvantage faced by Indigenous Australians, and that is starkly illustrated by the life expectancy gap. Across the political spectrum, it is our role to focus on redressing this disadvantage. However, we will not address it without Indigenous people themselves being self-reliant. I do think that reconciliation and mutual respect require self-respect and, from Labor’s point of view, that does not come without self-reliance.

Our Labor values have been formed by more than a century of struggle for the betterment of working Australians so, for us, self-reliance and self-respect grow from employment and economic opportunity—from taking pride in the value of work and in working for the future of our children. These are core Labor values. Having work, receiving a fair day’s pay and the ability to get a job are, for us, fundamental. We know that you need a good education to get a decent job, and you need to be healthy and safe. If you cannot get that job, it is hard to get ahead in life and even harder to give your children the best start in their lives. And so it goes.

We think it is time to take a new approach: to work with Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders to help them take control of their lives and to combine that with finding purpose through work. I think that leadership also means acknowledging past injustices and finding future solutions. I do see that leadership being taken today by many in both the Indigenous and business communities. Companies such as Argyle Diamonds and the ANZ Bank have worked so well to set goals and employment targets, and they are meeting those targets. Labor wants to join with those private sector leaders in setting real targets, making sure they are met and then being held accountable. I want to finish by saying that all of this will only work if it is done in partnership with Aboriginal people. Our policies have to promote self-reliance and independence and support the right of Indigenous people to take responsibility for themselves. (Time expired)

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