Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I did listen with interest to the previous speaker, in particular talking about some of the benefits of the baby bonus, which some of us remember. I do find it curious that the government's position now is that it's okay to offer a cash bonus to have a baby but not to get a vaccine. Apparently that's where politics is at in Australia at the moment. I'm sure people will make their own judgement about that.

Child care is an essential service. It should be free. It should be universal. Every day around this country, early childhood educators work tirelessly to care for, teach and educate our nation's youngest minds. They're a workforce that is underpaid and undervalued. They're a workforce that, through the past 18 months of this pandemic, have provided a truly essential service. They've been on the front line. With two beautiful children of my own aged six and under, I am so grateful that in this country we have such high-quality child care staffed by amazing childcare workers. But the simple fact is that the system is still not good enough because families around the country are locked out of child care because of prohibitive fees and skyrocketing waitlists.

I talk to childcare centres in my electorate of Melbourne and local families who've just had kids and who are daunted by the prospect of getting their kids into the local childcare centre. Parents tell me of rushing their newborns onto waitlists, in the hope that, maybe by the time they're a year old, there might be a spot finally available for their child. This isn't a problem just in inner-city Melbourne. My Greens colleagues campaigning in the seat of Griffith, led by Max Chandler-Mather, have had countless conversations with local families who are locked out of accessing child care because it's simply too expensive. High fees are making our society less equal. Every family should be able to send their kids to child care to give their children the best start in life, in the same way we send our children to public schools, but skyrocketing costs are locking families out.

This is more than just an issue of education for our children; it's a gender equality issue. Women are being prevented from making real choices about their work and their life. Too many families are stuck in this horrible bind. They can take on more work, but the prohibitive cost of additional child care gobbles up any additional pay. Right now, our childcare model is locking women and families out of additional work and preventing children from having the development opportunities that come from being in child care. It's promising to see some movement from this government to make it easier for parents to get child care, but more needs to be done.

The Greens have a plan for free universal child care. We'll expand access to early childhood education and phase out for-profit learning because education of our youngest should not be a business. It's time for both Labor and Liberal to join the Greens in backing truly universal and free child care across Australia. Labor's plans are a step in the right direction, but anything short of genuinely free and universal child care is a disservice to our future generations. At the next election, with just a small change in the vote, the Greens could be back in the balance of power. We'll introduce a tax on billionaires and big corporations to make them pay their share, so that we can make universal free child care available for every child.

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