Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

I join with the Leader of the House in welcoming this motion. I congratulate him on bringing it to the attention of the House and indicate that we on this side of the House strongly support this motion. Since I was elected in 1996 it seems as though this has been an ongoing saga without resolution. It seems quite odd in 2008 that we should indulge in a motion before the House about the provision of child care in this building, but obviously the building has quite extraordinary work practices.

From a historic perspective, when I first came into this chamber in 1996 I occasionally sat next to the last Right Honourable, the last Privy Councillor, who sat in this chamber: Ian Sinclair, the member for New England. In my first division I said to him, ‘How long have you been here?’ He said, ‘Well, I first came here when Ming was at the dispatch box.’ He told me a brief history of some of the former members for North Sydney—one of whom was Billy Hughes, whose life and achievements I am celebrating at Old Parliament House tomorrow. All the members for North Sydney have been men. Another one of my predecessors was Bruce Graham, who was quite a colourful character. He apparently did not mind the odd drink. Of course, that would be unacceptable in the new parliament with the new health minister. But he had the occasional drink and I understand he had a wooden leg, and because he was unable to detach his wooden leg from his body after a few late-night drinks there was a roster system amongst his colleagues to make sure he got to bed and removed his leg.

In those days, because members used to live down here for the entire session away from their families or their families came to live with them in Canberra, it was a very different environment. Workplaces change. The question is whether the legislators keep up with the changes, not only in the workplaces of everyday Australians but, importantly, in the workplaces of the legislators themselves. It was quite obvious to me when I came here, at the same time as the Leader of the House, that I would not in any way be a beneficiary at that time of childcare services, but I thought: one day I might be a father and therefore why wouldn’t you as a parent want to see more of your children if you had the opportunity? This building, with such significant facilities, failed to recognise the fact that members of parliament are also parents. The hours of the parliament have changed dramatically over the years. Governments often start off with long sitting hours and, as governments go on, they tend to narrow the sitting hours, thankfully, to more family friendly practices.

I want to recognise the fact that when I was Minister for Human Services I took a very strong view about child care. As the biggest employer in the Public Service outside of Defence, Human Services, through Centrelink, employs more than 30,000 people, most of them women. If I can just drop the veil of bipartisanship for a moment, I was subject to criticism by the Labor Party at the time because I was entering into a contract through Centrelink for the provision of childcare services at Centrelink offices. One of the reasons we did that—and Jeff Whalan as chief executive helped to drive that initiative—was that overwhelmingly, the workforce at Centrelink is made up of women and you have to have family friendly provisions in Centrelink offices, or any other offices for that matter, if you want to retain good staff. One of the benefits of having low unemployment is that employers are driven to think more about the interests of their staff rather than the bottom line. But I was criticised by the Labor Party at that time for ensuring that we could have guaranteed places for Centrelink workers at childcare centres so that we could retain the female staff.

Having said that, I have to say there has been strong bipartisan support by a new generation of members of parliament for childcare facilities in this place. I agree with the Leader of the House that there was some resistance from an older demographic on both sides of the House, or should I say from Speakers and Presidents, through to party leaders. There was a grudging reluctance to go down the path of having a childcare centre in Parliament House when, in their view, every worksite in Australia could not have the same facility. That is true, but it does not mean that you should not start.

I was reminded of that only this afternoon when I saw the member for Flinders and the member for Ryan at Aussie’s cafe with their wives and their two young children—in the case of the member for Flinders, a three-year-old, and in the case of the member for Ryan, a two-year-old. As I have said to my colleagues on this side of the House, you need to keep in touch with your family and do everything you can with your family in order to maintain some civility in this place and, importantly, to understand the challenges that Australian families go through. Parliamentarians are no different from long-distance truck drivers or defence personnel or many others who might not have the opportunity to have their families in their workplace from time to time. But given that parliamentary life is a matter of years—for some, decades—it is a long time to be away from your family, on occasions for 25 weeks a year, without having the opportunity to spend a bit of time with them. So, without going into the details of this facility, I think this is a symbolic moment: the parliament is suddenly coming into the 21st century and recognising that you have to provide these sorts of facilities to help parents see more of their children.

We tend to moralise a lot in this place about the relationships between parents and children. I remember standing at this dispatch box with a former member for Werriwa asking question after question about whether the former Prime Minister read to his children and whether it is a good thing to read to young children. Of course it is, but if they are in a different city for 25 weeks a year, it is pretty difficult to do. We have the benefit of Skype and we have the benefit of 3G, which I use to try and speak to my two young children under the age of three twice a day. But, at the same time, there is nothing that is going to ever replace the opportunity to spend a little bit of time with them when you can.

I think it is also the case that when the issue was first raised in parliament in 1981 there were only 14 women in parliament. Today—and I welcome this—there are 68 women, representing 43 per cent of all federal politicians. There has been a dramatic increase in the numbers particularly of young women and young men. Just for the record—and it is something that I think is very important—the former member for Lindsay, Jackie Kelly, was the first minister to take maternity leave in the Australian federal parliament. Ros Kelly, at the time when she was the minister for sport, said that she did not feel that she could take maternity leave, which was an indictment on the system at that time.

Jackie Kelly was the first minister to take maternity leave, and I know, because I filled in for her as Minister for Sport and Tourism when she did that. I was the first male minister, obviously, to take paternity leave. This happened in the last 10 years, and to me it was the pretty obvious thing to do. So ministers, shadow ministers and all members, for that matter, should not be afraid to break new ground when it comes to spending time with their families and helping families through some of those difficult times. If you are not compassionate towards your work colleagues, if you are not compassionate to each other, then you are hardly going to be compassionate towards the people whom you represent right across Australia.

For that reason, this is a very good initiative. I congratulate the government on getting it through. I welcome it and, quite frankly, I really look forward to the opportunity, perhaps at another moment, to thank those people who did break new ground. The member for Sydney is one, as is the member for Lindsay. There are a number of senators who also worked very hard on this and I hope that, during the course of all the discussions, they are properly recognised for their pioneering efforts in helping to make this place a little more family friendly.

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