Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise today to speak on the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Building on the Child Care Package) Bill 2019, and I too support the amendment to be moved by the shadow minister, the member for Kingston. This bill seeks to make a number of changes to the current childcare system to reduce some of the administrative burdens on families, including increasing the number of weeks at which enrolments automatically cease due to nonattendance, removing the 50 per cent limit on the number of children that a provider can self-certify for additional childcare subsidy and improving the application of the third-party contributions to fees, such as state and territory payments.

As others on this side of the House have stated, Labor supports the aforementioned amendments in this bill. However, we oppose one amendment that could potentially have negative impacts on families who already face difficult circumstances. The proposed removal of the 28-day period in which applicants have to provide personal information, including their tax file number and bank account details, could reduce access to early learning and make it much harder for vulnerable families to register for the childcare system. We do not support this aspect of the bill. Indeed, we seek to protect access to early education and eligibility for the childcare subsidy by retaining the 28-day period for the provision of bank account and tax file numbers.

Labor has always invested in education because we believe that education is the greatest investment we can make to the future of our children and our country. On this side of the House, we know that quality early education leads to a range of so many better outcomes, whether they be education, social or health outcomes. Quality education literally lays down the foundations for life.

It's not just Labor that's telling this story. There is widely published research that clearly states that investing in our children's early years leads to a significant return later in life. Studies have shown that children who attended preschool had significantly better reading and maths scores in primary school and better results at age 16. We also know that those children who receive quality early education have higher language and cognition NAPLAN scores in year 3. Children who attend early learning have better success, are more likely to graduate from high school and have better social outcomes. The research confirms that the benefits are, indeed, higher for those vulnerable children.

That's why, on this side, we're very proud of our history of investing in early education. Two of the many critical policies that we implemented in government were the national preschool program for four-year-olds and the national quality framework. The preschool program has been a critical policy achievement. Indeed, universal access led by the Labor government has seen enrolments of four-year-olds in preschools increase from 77 per cent to 93 per cent. We backed this preschool commitment with a national quality agenda in order to lift educational quality and safety standards in those early years. The quality framework is also a success story, with 57 per cent of services having improved their quality rating when reassessed, and 75 per cent of services now meeting or exceeding the national quality standard. Australia's four-year-olds are now enjoying the benefit of universal access, and children attending early learning centres and preschools are enjoying getting so much out of the play based learning environment and being educated by qualified early learning educators.

I, like many members here, am always able to visit many of the wonderful preschools and childcare centres in our areas. I was pleased recently to visit Gumnuts Early Learning and Preschool in Pottsville as part of the Early Learning Matters Week. I saw firsthand the positive impacts of what we feel is our legacy and our investment in preschool and child care. I want to take this opportunity to applaud those early educators at Gumnuts and, indeed, at childcare centres right across the north coast. I have visited many over the years. They provide such valuable care and support to families in our community. I'd like to recognise the important work they do in laying down the foundation for our children's future. Every day, early childhood educators across the country are carrying out the extraordinarily important work of teaching and caring for our children. It's thanks to them that families can really feel secure that their children are not also being properly cared for but also that they're receiving a very high-quality early education.

We know that 90 per cent of a child's brain develops in those first five years, so the quality learning experiences provided by the early educators can have such a positive impact on a child throughout the rest of their education and their life. We recognise early educators as very skilled professionals and we value the important work they do in laying down that foundation. As I said, Labor has been and will always continue to be committed to early childhood development. In contrast, though, we see a very shocking record from this government—which continues to get worse—when it comes to early education and early childhood development.

In terms of this bill and the concerns that we've raised, as we've said, it does improve some of the technical design and some of the flaws and problems in the system. As I said, we look forward to supporting the parts of this bill that can make the system better by reducing some of those administrative burdens on providers and families. However, as I mentioned earlier, there is one part that does raise very serious concerns. The government argues that some of the items will simplify the system for families and providers. Amendments require bank account and tax file number details to be provided at the time that a claim is made and not at any other time. Currently, parents and caregivers have 28 days after they've submitted their CCS claim to provide their details. In fact, the government's changes will remove the 28-day time frame. This really does raise concerns about the ability of some families to provide this information. It raises concerns about the impacts it may have on families who are facing difficult circumstances and who, for a whole host of reasons, may not have access to their personal documentation. Families and caregivers who may be experiencing domestic violence or who may be victims of a natural disaster should not be disadvantaged. Removing the 28-day period is unreasonable and lacks compassion. It does not understand the circumstances that many families may find themselves in. The fact is, some families may not be able to access the urgent care that they need for their children, because they just don't have access to that personal information. This aspect could also result in a debt to families when CCS payments are made without information being provided within the required time frame.

Indeed, a number of submissions to the recent inquiry by the Education and Employment Legislation Committee into this bill make the point that this change will actually remove flexibility currently in the system, and that it is designed to reduce complexity in the system for the government but not for the families or the providers. The proposed changes might reduce the administrative burden for the department, but they will increase the administrative burden for families. In fact, it will make it very difficult for families to provide that information. The reduced flexibility will also have a disproportionately negative impact on families experiencing vulnerability or disadvantage—in particular, women and children escaping domestic and family violence who, as I said, absolutely cannot access that personal information. Removing the 28-day period and blocking families from registering for the CCS without their bank account or tax file number details immediately available will also reduce access to early learning that is so vitally important. So, as I said, it is, first and foremost, unreasonable and does really lack compassion for the circumstances that many vulnerable families find themselves in. Labor doesn't believe the administrative convenience of the government should be above the needs of families and providers. Those families should come first; those children should come first and get access to that care. We believe the bill should be amended to retain the current 28-day grace period for providing personal information to better meet the needs of families and providers.

In talking about the current childcare subsidy system, this government's unfair system was introduced with a multitude of problems, and months on from that introduction of this government's unfair childcare changes the evidence continues to mount about the negative impact that it's having on families right across the nation. According to the government's own figures, we know their childcare changes have left one in four families worse off. We know that vulnerable and at-risk families are finding it harder to access early learning. We know there are so many systemic design flaws and administrative burdens on families, and burdens on providers too have become apparent. There's a very long list, including software glitches leaving families and providers in the dark, two out of three providers saying the transition has been poorly managed, educators going without pay because of problems with the system, an exodus of providers from in-home care, childcare providers being forced to act as debt collectors for Centrelink, the number of vulnerable and at-risk children accessing care dropping more than 20 per cent and, of course, childcare fees going up under the new system. They've increased a staggering 30 per cent under this government. There are so many problems from technical glitches right through to the really concerning aspect of childcare fees going up.

We know that the system itself is essentially very confusing. It's buried in red tape for many of the providers, and it has a lot of problems. Families and providers have experienced significant delays, confusion and additional paperwork to register for the CCS. This has often resulted in families' entitlements being over or underestimated, resulting in overpayments and debts for those affected families. So, in addition to leaving one in four families worse off, reports have revealed that families have received payments intended for providers, leaving many parents and caregivers with huge debts.

Under the government's complicated new system, when families change their details in myGov, such as updating their income or activity, this changes their CCS payment amount. Providers, unaware of this payment change, are therefore billing parents incorrectly, creating a debt. As a result, Centrelink is then issuing a debt to providers, expecting them to seize this from families. There are even instances where centres are still having CCS withdrawn from their accounts by the government after accounts have closed and been reconciled after families leave providers. So it really is creating such a difficult situation right across the board both for the families and also for the providers. When we look at the impact on those in the regions, when we see the cost of living going up and childcare costs going up as well, it is quite extreme. As I said, a 30 per cent increase in childcare fees right across the country has had a major impact on families.

In my electorate of Richmond, recent data shows fees have increased by up to 9.5 per cent over the last year to March 2019. That's a staggering amount. It is well above the average of 4.9 per cent. So it means those families in the regions who are already doing it tough are paying significantly more out of pocket for child care. This is, of course, at a time when we're seeing cost of living increasing and wages stagnating, and now families are finding it really difficult under ever increasing childcare fees. It's an issue they've raised with me many, many times.

All of this evidence is overwhelming—the government's childcare system is, indeed, failing Australian families. Yet they continue to do nothing in terms of reining in those increased childcare costs—as they should be doing—and addressing all those systems. So we know those families are worse off, we know vulnerable and at-risk children are finding it harder to access early education and it seems the government is choosing to ignore a lot of the evidence and not act on it. We call on them to act to make child care much more affordable and much more accessible. It's so important for our children's future. We need to have the whole system improved. As I said, in terms of this bill, we support some of the measures the government has introduced but not the measure around removing the 28-day period. We want our vulnerable families to still get access to child care despite the very difficult circumstances that they find themselves in.

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