Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It is interesting we are talking about child care, because the behaviour is bordering on the childish—this from members opposite who in government did what? Remind me. What did you do about childcare fee increases? The answer is nothing. Absolutely nothing was done by members opposite in the cabinet room. So against a government that did absolutely nothing on this question, what is this government signalling? It is signalling to operators that it will be seeing what happens with prices and, if there is evidence—as opposed to press reports, which are different from one day to the next—of unfair pricing practices, the government will canvass the options at its disposal to act. We want childcare operators who, at this stage, would be considering their fee settings to understand the government’s policy predisposition in this area. We want to be very clear with industry about that. We will be working with industry and it is our policy intention to not see unfair pricing practices in the area, to see CCTR increases passed on. We do understand that, as there are cost increases in child care, there are naturally changes that flow through. We are talking about unfair pricing practices.

I compare that with what happened with members opposite. Presumably, if members opposite were still making the decisions today, we would have CCTR still at 30 per cent, not increasing to 50 per cent on 1 July. We would not have working families benefiting at all from an increase in CCTR. We would see, if there were childcare price increases on 1 July—if members opposite were making the decisions—working families go backwards whereas under this government, because of the changes in CCTR from 30 per cent to 50 per cent, working families are going to get relief from the pressure of childcare costs. We on this side of the House think that is appropriate; on that side of the House they are playing kindergarten games about some words, but they have no policies, no plans.

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