Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

In the interests of time and following on committees and considerations, can I say to the member for Eden-Monaro that I congratulate him on his representation of a diverse rural seat and acknowledge that the numbers of rural and regional members on our side of the parliament mean that we do understand the needs of rural and regional child care. It is going to be extremely important with our Productivity Commission review. I will specifically tasked the Productivity Commission to look at rural and regional models of child care that work.

Yes, it is a shocking legacy and really summed up, and really summed up as the before Eden-Monaro has in one sentence: costs went up 53 per cent coupled with out-of-pocket expenses for families that went up 40 per cent. What a shameful legacy left by Labor. I am already working with my state and territory counterparts to reduce the regulation and red tape that surrounds child care operators and surrounds family day care, surrounds out-of-school care and adds to cost but does not add to quality. We are focusing on the relationship between the educator and the child, the early learning, the nurturing, the care but not all the book work. We believe that that will help relieve the upward pressure on costs. We look forward to your participation in the consultations that the Productivity Commission will have in the weeks and months ahead.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Environment Portfolio

Proposed expenditure, $1,723,004,000

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