Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Kingston for moving this important motion, bringing this to the attention of the parliament, though it did make me feel somewhat sorry for the minister who's gone from being stalked in this place by Jenny Macklin to being stalked in this place by the member for Kingston. It almost made me feel sorry for him. But this moment before us is an historic moment. It's a time that many, many Australians will be feeling the weight of uncertainty—uncertainty about their healthcare situation, frail relatives, their economic situation, what their community will look like after COVID-19; and what next week will bring, what next month will bring and what next year will look like.

The stress of this uncertainty is not just a bother. It's not just troublesome. It isn't a mere irritation. This uncertainty is corrosive, and its seriousness is reflected in growing levels of mental distress that I'm sure all members of this chamber are seeing firsthand in their electorate. Government's role in the face of this anxiety, this uncertainty, now is to offer support, not spin. It's to offer certainty, not hollow headlines. It's to lessen the chaos and uncertainty that surrounds the people that we represent by delivering responsible solutions.

One way of doing this is to properly fund Australia's childcare providers. Child care is fundamental to Australian families. It's the foundation of so much of our modern economy. But right now the sector is suffering and the social bonds that it offers are stretched very thin. 'Free child care for working parents' read the headlines early last month, which sounded like great news for Australian families. But apparently those headlines should have had an asterisk next to them, because they came with a catch. They came with a bit of fine print. 'It will be a system which means parents will get their children cared for for free,' the education minister said. 'You do not have to worry about trying to look for new child care for your children.' Except almost six weeks later that's exactly what many parents are worrying about as childcare centres struggle to maintain regular hours or even to keep the doors open.

In my electorate, I know of childcare centres that have been forced to reduce their staff because of loss of revenue. They've been forced to make other agonising decisions. They've had to tell some parents to reduce the number of days their children receive care. And, if the parents don't, then they'll have to enforce rationing of days themselves. I know we've heard a lot of wartime metaphors and analogies in this place, but that is taking things too far. It's unnecessary. There's one parent in my electorate even who has told me that they want to be able to pay more so that their child can receive child care but have been told that it's just not possible.

This reality for Australian parents is a world away from the headlines. In April the government announced $1.6 billion in funding to support free child care. This figure was misleading. Without context, it might seem generous, but $1.6 billion is less than the government was budgeting to spend on the childcare subsidy before the pandemic struck. The devil is always in the detail with this government.

The government's funding for childcare providers restricts them to just half of their pre-pandemic revenues, which has had the unsurprising consequence of reducing services and putting great strain on these centres. Whilst some childcare providers can theoretically access JobKeeper and an additional top-up fund, there have been delays and difficulties in doing so. It's hard to overstate the importance of the childcare centre in any moment, but especially now as some of these coronavirus restrictions are being lifted and people are trying to return to going about something of a modicum of what they were doing before the pandemic.

The Prime Minister has emphasised the urgent importance of reopening our society. He's emphasised the snapback. The Prime Minister said:

You can stay under the doona forever and you'll never face any danger, but we've got to get out from under the doona at some time. And if not now then when?

But the government doesn't seem to understand parents can't go back to work if they don't get child care, and they won't get child care unless childcare providers are supported and properly funded. It doesn't matter how many good headlines are generated, if childcare centres are forced to turn children away. It doesn't matter how much rhetoric is deployed about the importance of workers and employment if those with jobs are prevented from acquitting them because they must stay home to look after their children.

This Prime Minister has spoken about the economy snapping back, as if everything was fine before the pandemic. He seems to have forgotten that there can be no snapping back for businesses that fold during this crisis. It was an extraordinary performance from the Prime Minister in question time today when we asked him about his snapback policy. Indeed, it went past snapback and started to sound a lot like 'fight back', complete with the ranting ideology that we saw from the opposition leader in 1993. Ideology is back.

The Prime Minister told anxious Australians, 'Don't look to government to cure your anxiety. Business will save you.' The Morrison government needs to understand that this crisis isn't even close to done, and that Australians expect their government to be there for them in these times of uncertainty. (Time expired)

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