Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Budget Measures) Bill 2010 is extremely important legislation. It is a timely reminder of the Rudd government’s commitment to child care and to working families across Australia, particularly in my electorate of Blair in South-East Queensland. We have many fine childcare centres in my electorate—wonderful community centres such as Cribb Street Child Care Centre at Sadliers Crossing, which has been there for a long time; the childcare centre in inner-city Ipswich, which I know is struggling for numbers because of the demographic changes in the area; and the One Mile Community Child Care Centre in Leichhardt, which is staffed by very strong communitarian people and is devoted to the children in that community.

There are for-profit childcare centres such as Bush Kids. Why do I mention Bush Kidz, which runs the childcare centre at Brassall? Because Bush Kidz took over the ABC Learning centre at Brassall in the electorate of Blair. Brassall is the largest suburb in Ipswich in the electorate of Blair and, as a result of the debacle of the ABC Learning collapse under the watch of the previous government and the let-the-market-rip attitude that was permitted,  ABC Learning centres across Ipswich were in dire need of support and assistance. Hundreds of young people were in a position where child care was at risk, which meant pressure on families across Ipswich. The reality is that the coalition government took little opportunity to provide for child care for working families. The truth is that, when it comes to child care, they saw no responsibility on the part of the federal government. Their attitude was: ‘It’s not our responsibility. We should take no action. We should let the market operate.’ That allowed one particular company to develop into an oligopolistic position in the market. When that company fell into receivership and liquidation then the consequences to about 62,000 families across the country was dire, including in the electorate of Blair—in Ipswich and the rural areas outside.

The truth is that the coalition has never been a friend of the childcare sector. The truth is that the coalition harks back to some sort of 1950s mythical, nostalgic moment when women had no choice—or by economic necessity did not have to work. It was a sort of ‘leave it to Beaver’ attitude that infests and operates on those opposite. The truth is that, because of the economic circumstances of families across my electorate and across the country and by reason of women wanting to fulfil their potential in life, women actually engage in the workforce. Those opposite, for nearly 12 years, let this sector down. That is the truth. In 2006 Australia was one of the worst ranking countries in terms of public expenditure on early childhood education—13th out of 14 in the OECD.

The Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, the member for Curtin, the then education minister, had this to say. She admitted it was:

… unacceptable in a country with Australia’s relatively small population to have a fractured and inconsistent system that can change dramatically between States.

What a disgrace, what a failure, what a fiasco. The attitude of the coalition when it came to child care was: do nothing, say nothing, let it go, and blame others—claim child care was the responsibility of the states and territories and claim there was no national responsibility. We know adequate, accessible, affordable child care does not just benefit families, particularly those with young children, but it helps business. It is good for business. It is particularly good for small business and the nearly four million people who work in 2.4 million small businesses across the country. The coalition do not get it when it comes to child care. They claim they support small business, but if they did they would support child care and would have done so for nearly 12 years. Instead, they did very little indeed.

I heard the member for Murray talking about this matter yesterday. It was 30 minutes of hyperbole, hysteria and hypocrisy on this topic. This is the mob that refused to bring in paid parental leave. Their current leader said in 2002 it would be brought in over his dead body. They have this mythical, fictional policy at the moment that they are never sure when they can do it. At some stage in the dim, distant future they might do it. That is their policy. I have read it. I have read the transcripts of what their leader has said and their spokesperson, the member for Murray, has said. It is esoteric, it is obtuse, and it is vague—it is just nonsense. No-one could possibly believe they would ever be committed to this stuff. They certainly never in 12 years brought in paid parental leave in this country—not understanding how important the link was with child care; not understanding at all.

That is the legacy of the coalition government. They thought perhaps when it comes to child care a nanny might do, a babysitter might do. That is their attitude—without realising how important education is to the development of a child. We were spending one-fifth of what our OECD partners were on early childhood education. That is the legacy of the coalition government. That is why we have invested massively when it comes to early childhood education. Giving a young person a chance in life in those very young developmental years is so crucial to educational attainment in primary school, high school and tertiary education. They did not understand that. It is not just about equality of opportunity; they also did not get the link with business, and they claim they are the party that supports business. They did not understand that as well. That is the legacy of those opposite.

The new reports which the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare and Youth, who I see is at the table, welcomed on 22 April this year, the Child care vacancies quarterly snapshot and the State of child care in Australia, demonstrate that we are making progress. We are catching up after the failures of the coalition government. We are dealing with the apathy and the inaction of those opposite. We are seeing more affordable, accessible, stable and high-quality child care in the Australian community. It is good for business and good for families.

The State of child care in Australia report makes it very clear. It undertook a statistical analysis of the Australian childcare market over the past five years. We have been in power for 2½ of those years, so it is a snapshot of us and them. What did it find? Amongst other things, out-of-pocket costs for families have fallen across all income levels. In 2004, families earning $55,000 a year—the average Australian would probably think that is a middle-class family—spent 13 per cent of its disposable income on child care. That had fallen to seven per cent by 2009. That is pretty clear: it fell by nearly half. So we are making progress. It is painstaking, but we are making progress. The report found that the Australian government’s funding for child care more than doubled in the past four years, up from $1.7 billion in 2004-05 to $3.7 billion in 2008-09.

That is clear, independent analysis of the achievements of the Rudd Labor government. It is not from a body or report of an internal Labor Party mechanism or organisation; it is independent analysis of the childcare sector and of the government’s commitment and the previous government’s lack of commitment when it comes to child care. We committed $114.5 million to deliver 38 early learning centres and care centres in the 2008-09 year, and we have provided that in my electorate. We have fulfilled our commitment. Recently the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare and Youth was in my electorate and we opened the Early Learning and Care Centre at Yamanto. I am pleased to say that that is the fulfilment of a commitment that we made at the last election. We invested $1.6 million in this new facility. It is a great facility. The minister and I were there, reading about the Billy Goats Gruff and all kinds of things and entertaining the children. I am not sure whether they were entertained more by me than by the stories. One little boy, Sam, had the good sense to be a Broncos supporter and was wearing a Broncos outfit. The Brisbane Broncos are a great team. Sam was there and said hello to us as we both walked in. It was great to see the delight on the children’s faces.

That is part of a new education precinct at Yamanto. We fulfilled our election commitments to the people on the south side of Ipswich—around Yamanto, Amberley, Walloon and Flinders View—when we said we would transfer Amberley District State School over to the Yamanto and Amberley District site. We said that it was up to the state government to determine the actual location. We paid nearly $28 million to the Queensland government while undertaking the expansion of the RAAF base at Amberley and for the relocation of Amberley State School to that site. We also said that we would provide sufficient money to relocate the C&K located at Amberley, and we have done that. In addition to that, Amberley District State School got BER funding. We are talking about an education precinct there at Yamanto—Amberley District State School—which received well above $30 million of federal government money to be built, and it is a wonderful facility. Numbers in the school have gone up from the low-300s to nearly 500. That is an indication that people are prepared to support the new school. There has been a very small reduction in the number of students just up the road at Churchill State School—only 12. There has been no loss of teachers there. So the alarmism and the criticism of my predecessor and some in the LNP in Queensland have not proved to be accurate.

The Early Learning and Care Centre at Yamanto is simply a fantastic facility. It cares well for babies and toddlers and will help them progress all the way to primary school by just going next door in the same precinct. I congratulate the C&K Amberley family. They have been passionate about their support of child care in their area. With their advocacy and the listening ear of the Rudd Labor government, they have facilitated a wonderful community resource which has been highly prized and valued by local families and, of course, their children. I am very confident that that facility at Amberley District State School will continue to educate our young people very well in the Ipswich community.

Government is about making some hard decisions. I know that this legislation before the House sets a cap on the amount of the childcare rebate—an annual maximum cap of $7,000 to $7,500 per child per year. But this government fulfilled its commitment by increasing the CCR from 30 per cent to 50 per cent. The member for Capricornia accurately stated what that increase means to families across the country—thousands of dollars per year on average. This budgetary measure saves $86.3 million across the forward estimates. This government is committed to economic discipline and responsibility. Those opposite talk about that stuff, but we have seen nothing except gutting Roads to Recovery Program funding, gutting computers in schools, getting rid of trade training centres and getting rid of the National Broadband Network, and there are so many more things that they would do if they sat opposite. We are about making sure that we bring the budget back into surplus. We have a good and steady record with respect to child care. It stands in direct contrast to that of those opposite, who should hang their heads in shame for their apathy, inaction and procrastination in this area for so many years.

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