Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood and Childcare) Share this | Hansard source

I am answering the question. The member opposite might be interested, and I think the families of Aston deserve to have the very best start for their children. The member has stood in the chamber and said that there is no discernible benefit from increasing the quality of care, which is rubbish, frankly. That is absolute rubbish. We now have a body of evidence which shows us that we have more children in care than we have ever had before in this nation's history. We have over 1,321,00 children who will be using care in the next year. We also have all of the evidence that shows that this is when 90 per cent of brain development occurs. What happens in the critical early years will affect children right throughout the course of their lives. It will affect their educational outcomes, it will affect their social outcomes and it will affect their development outcomes. All of the research shows that the best way we can foster the best start in life for these children is by ensuring that they have well-trained and qualified staff who know how to get the best out of their learning and who have the ability to give them supervision and attention. That is why we are proud of these reforms. That is why every government, including his state Liberal government, has signed up because we know it is important to Australia's future that we give kids the best chance.

In terms of what we believe the increase will be, we have done extensive modelling on this. We know that we expect the national average peak increase to be $8.67 per week. Of course we recognise that that varies from centre to centre and it varies from state to state, but that is the best independent economic modelling advice that we have on what the cost of these changes will be. I believe that the children of Aston are worthy of this. I believe that the government has invested triple the investment of the Howard government to ensure that child care can become more affordable. We have committed to continuing to do that, and we have been upfront about the costs of it.

There is a case in terms of child development, there is a case in terms of child safety, but there is also a case in terms of national productivity. We know that if we want the best developed workforce of the future and the best educated children coming through we need to invest early and save money later on, and we are very, very proud to be working in partnership with our states and territories to be delivering just that. I would say that it is about time the member for Aston stood up and told his electorate the truth and also stood up for the families— (Time expired)

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