Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I apologise, Mr Speaker. There is no research which says that four to one is better than five to one. Even if there was research, why does the federal government have to mandate to these childcare centres that it must be four to one and not five to one? Why can it not simply be up to parents and childcare operators to determine what the appropriate level of quality is? At the end of the day, the parents are the people who have the most concern for their child, and if the parents think that five to one is okay for their child what is wrong with that? Why do we need the big arm of a Labor government to tell the preschools in my electorate and across the country what the ratio needs to be?

I have a letter here from a constituent. She says that the preschool fees at the Magic Garden Childcare Centre have gone up by 21 per cent this year. She says, 'All of us were very happy with the care being provided before.' So why the change? This government just want to mandate things without any evidence. They have to be the big arm of government, impacting on everyday families, putting prices up and causing three-year-old kinders to close. It is time they had a good hard think about these policies and changed them. (Time expired)

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