Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

I'm still waiting for my answers—not just for me, but for the families of Australia. The families of Australia are struggling despite what those on the other side say. They say: 'They've never had it so good, that childcare costs are completely manageable and there isn't a workforce disincentive.' They should get out a little bit. They should get out and actually talk to families. They should get out and talk to families about their childcare costs that're going up and up. We know what the minister will do the next time that the details of fee increases are released, he will crow some great achievement. He will be talking about the period where parents didn't have that pay fees. Then very quickly he reintroduced those fees and then also allowed them to continue to go up. As we know from Senate estimates—which the minister refused to answer in question time today—it will go up by 5.3 per cent, well, well in excess of inflation.

As I said before, and this is a myth that keeps getting peddled by those on the other side, the subsidy is pegged to inflation, not the increase of childcare fees, so there's a gap there and parents are having to pay that gap. It's increasing quickly and making it harder and harder to afford. In addition, my question is: what is the government doing about the workforce disincentive rate that exists in the current childcare system? The previous speaker did say that this was a once-in-a-generation reform to childcare centres. That was the talking point from two years ago. You don't hear those on the opposite side usually use those talking points anymore, because parents are doing it tough.

But I haven't got any answer to the question on fees, so I'm going to move on. I'm waiting with bated breath, hoping the minister does answer those questions. But I would like to—

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