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

The Leader of the Opposition, by way of interjection, raises the question of cups of tea. Presumably, a lot were drunk by him and his colleagues in government when they did nothing about childcare fee increases. Presumably, he drank a lot of tea in his six years in cabinet when he did nothing about petrol prices. Presumably, he drank a lot of tea as minister for education whilst he did nothing about our education standards slipping behind the standards of the rest of the world and a skills crisis emerging, including in child care, which has put constraints on supply. Presumably, a lot of tea got drunk whilst they were reading the outcomes of Work Choices and the rip-off of working families which meant it was even harder for them to pay their childcare costs.

But what the Leader of the Opposition cannot seem to understand is that this is a government that is indicating to childcare operators—as a message to childcare operators which we expect to be heard and received—that we do not want to see unfair pricing practices in child care. Obviously, if evidence of unfair pricing practices emerges then the government will canvass all of its options and powers to deal with unfair pricing practices.

I conclude from these questions that, because the government has exhibited a concern about this question, because the government has exhibited that it is going to monitor the question and canvass options to act should that become necessary, the opposition’s view is that a government should sit idly by and do nothing. That is your view. Well, this government does mean what it says, and I mean what I say to childcare operators. We are obviously very determined to deliver our CCTR changes. I do not know whether that is one of the budget bills that the opposition is intending to block—whether it is going to rip those CCTR changes out of the hands of working families and put additional pressure on them, including through its $22 billion smash and grab raid on the surplus—but we are determined to deliver our childcare tax rebates and we are determined to send a message to childcare operators. The opposition might stand for inaction, unreasonable price hikes and tea drinking; we do not.

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