Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

As you should be. The people of Hillston were very appreciative of the $6 million that was part of the Health and Hospitals Fund that they received in the 2012 budget for a multipurpose service redevelopment. I acknowledge that. The people of Hillston are remote. They deserve the very best medical services that they can receive and they, like anybody else in regional Australia, deserve to have as good a medical service and facilities as anyone living in a metropolitan centre. I know the minister knows that. I know the member for Bowman, who has a shadow portfolio area in that respect, knows it as well.

At Hillston, I visited the Billylids childcare centre, which is having difficulty meeting costs since the establishment of a second centre in the town. Hillston Billylids is a not-for-profit community-owned organisation that is licensed to operate as a 33-place long day care centre in Hillston. It has done so since 2000. Indeed, it was opened by my predecessor Kay Hull, and I know the minister would acknowledge the work that she did on behalf of the Riverina and especially on behalf of healthcare services in rural, regional and remote Australia. She is still doing it. The minister knows that she is still doing it as an executive member of Can Assist as well as in palliative care, to services for Wagga Wagga, and in an effort—and I know the minister knows this because I am on that committee as well—to get a rural medical school at Wagga Wagga where one is very much needed.

Let me go back to Billylids, which has been receiving funding through Long Day Care Sustainability Assistance from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The centre has relied heavily on this funding to support the vital community service it has provided to the Hillston community and surrounding region. Hillston Billylids provides the bulk of care to the community as it is licensed to have 33 children on one day. Currently, this is restricted to 29 as they do not have, and could not afford, an early childhood teacher. Currently, utilisation of the centre is 52 per cent and, unfortunately, with changes to fees which need to occur within the centre it is anticipated that the utilisation rate will drop even further, and that is a great shame.

The only way Hillston Billylids can see itself to be financially viable is to increase the fees by about $20. If fees are to be increased by this amount, a large proportion of families will not be able to afford the child care offered by this organisation and that will inevitably result in the closure of the community-owned centre. That is a great shame, particularly for a town the size of Hillston in a locality as remote as Hillston. The alternatives are few. With children split between the two centres, Hillston Billylids in April lost the support it had through the Community Support Program.

The President of the Hillston Billylids Management Committee, Shaina Peters, wrote to me and asked me to approach the Minister for Early Childhood and Childcare to request an extension of the funding arrangement, given the realities of alternative employment for workers who would lose their jobs after this funding was taken away. But the minister has deemed that the Hillston Billylids childcare centre is ineligible for sustainability assistance under the Community Support Program. Now, as if to rub salt into the wounds of the employees at the Hillston Billylids childcare centre, whose future is in jeopardy thanks to the removal of support funding from the federal government, Labor is trying to demand at the behest of the unions that childcare workers enter into an enterprise bargaining agreement.

I will read a little from a letter of 2 April from the General Manager of the Carrathool Shire Council, Ken Croskell, in relation to the Hillston Billylids Early Learning Child Care Centre. The letter states:

The Centre, which is solely operated as a community owned venture, is currently under threat to its long term sustainability …

…   …   …

The loss of funding equates to $47,000 annually and the Hillston Billylids will need to seek options to remain viable in the future. The most likely option is an increase in fees which may well drive many of their patrons to the privately operated centre and which may ultimately result in the closure of the community based centre which would be disastrous for Hillston and its ability to provide adequate long day care and child care (33 places down to 16).

The Mayor of Carrathool Shire, Peter Laird, was here in Parliament House only last week. He is a good man; he runs a good council. The Hillston community deserves the very best it can receive.

Let us be clear about this bill before us. This is not an attempt to ensure more families can access quality child care with skilled and highly qualified carers. This is an attempt to put the unions' stamp back on this sector. Why else would United Voice be approaching centres requesting they enter into a memorandum of understanding requiring paid staff meetings and an ongoing commitment to the Big Steps program? Why indeed? Why else would United Voice have also been going around childcare centres informing owners they require 60 per cent union membership if the owners want their enterprise agreement given priority treatment? Because this is not about the cost of living and it is not about families. This is about restoring the power of the unions, which brought most of those opposite to this place. We can hear them backwards and forwards about this because this bill is important, and Labor is very insistent on getting to the forefront its union power in these last few remaining days of parliament.

This is a plan from the same party that espouses the virtues of governing in the interests of working families. There is no argument from this side of the House: working families are very important. They keep small business running and small business is the engine room of the economy. But we cannot keep hitting working families again and again and again. Doesn't Labor think those working families would want child care to be affordable? Of course they do. Doesn't Labor think that community-owned not-for-profit facilities such as Hillston Billylids should be able to access funding from the government to ensure it can continue to provide such a vital community service to such a good community? Hillston certainly is a good community.

On 12 July last year I was very pleased to have the shadow minister for childcare, Sussan Ley, who is the member for Farrer—a neighbouring electorate to mine—visit Wagga Wagga. The member for Farrer knows the demands which are placed on rural and regional families. When it comes to childcare needs, and particularly how the rising cost of living is placing additional stresses on families who need to access affordable care for their children, the member for Farrer gets it. She understands regional areas and she certainly understands how difficult it is for families to access childcare. She knows the strains that people are under, let alone when people are hit again and again with higher and higher costs, which is what is going to result from this legislation.

Forcing childcare providers to fund additional spending on wages when government support is cordoned for those who ensure their staffroom is filled with union members is not addressing the rising cost of living, nor is forcing childcare providers who do not receive this funding to pass on the same pay rise to families of the facilities. This is the Labor Party giving in to the bullying tactics of the unions. This is the Labor Party giving in to these bullying tactics. We have seen it all too often. We have seen it time and again—

Mr Frydenberg interjecting—

I hear the member for Kooyong cry out, he knows of the folly of having unions running the government. He knows the folly of having unions running policy and legislation. This sort of behaviour should not be condoned. This is why I join my coalition colleagues in opposing this bill. It does need to be opposed. It is bad legislation and, like so many other things in these last sitting days of this 43rd Parliament, it is being rushed through. We have heard the Senate bells going again and again tonight as senators are scurrying about trying to get through legislation. We have got so many pieces of legislation that still need to be passed and speakers are being gagged. So many pieces of legislation are being guillotined.

Honourable members interjecting—

It is a shame and, as I heard the member for Flynn say, the public deserve better. They expect better. They demand better. I certainly do hope that after 14 September they do receive better government because we need better governance.

Honourable members interjecting—

I am surprised that the minister is calling out because I know she knows how important families are. They do not need to be hit with higher and higher costs. They certainly do not need to be hit with more costs at the behest of union members. As I said previously, I was a member of a union. There is nothing wrong with being a member of a union. But union fees need to be used wisely. Certainly union members need to know that their fees are going to go where they are intended.

The coalition have serious concerns with this bill. We do not dispute that childcare workers, childcare educators, are low paid. Any wage increase should come about through the ruling of the Fair Work Commission, the body that this government established. It set it up with the responsibility for determining appropriate levels of remuneration. This is not good legislation. It needs to be rejected. Certainly the people of Hillston think that, certainly the people of the Riverina think that and I hope this parliament thinks the same.

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