Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Republic) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] The interesting thing about this pandemic if you watch the nightly news is that the majority of people that you see that are working during the pandemic are women. They are the nurses that are doing the swabbing of patients at our COVID testing clinics, our early child educators that are continuing to educate our kids and the teachers that are doing the work ensuring that our kids continue to learn. Indeed, in many cases, women are the ones who are doing most of the work when it comes to the home schooling of our kids. Women really are our COVID heroes and have helped our economy get through this very difficult period.

One of those groups of workers where the workforce predominantly is female is in early childhood education and family day care. It is a vitally important service that predominantly women deliver for our community. It is very, very important for the productivity of our nation. Ensuring that we have a workable and accessible childcare industry is the key to ensuring that more family members, particularly women, are able to return to work after they have a child and participate productively in our economy. There have been several Productivity Commission reports that have recommended and seen the benefits of making child care more accessible and affordable for Australian workers.

That's something that's been coming through in the consultations that I've been doing in the community that I represent. The cost of living is a huge issue for families not only in my community but also across Australia, and a large contributor to the cost-of-living pressures that families are feeling is the cost of childcare fees. That's why Labor worked with parents, with early child educators and with associations to put together our 'fairer childcare policy', which would see real reductions in the cost of child care and improvements in the accessibility of child care to ensure that more parents, particularly women, get access to the workforce.

Labor, of course, supports the reforms that are contained in this bill, the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Subsidy) Bill 2021, which implements the government's changes to the childcare subsidy that were announced in the budget on 2 May. The main feature of this bill is the removal of the annual childcare subsidy cap which limits the amount of childcare subsidy that some families can receive in a year. The bill also increases the childcare subsidy rate for families with multiple children under six years of age. We know that the cost of child care is a massive restraint on our economy and will remain a significant roadblock to the recovery from this pandemic. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data, last month, showed that 138,700 Australians were not working because they simply cannot access affordable child care. Of that, 92 per cent are women, about 127,600. The data also presents further evidence of the expensive nature of Australia's childcare costs that are preventing parents, particularly women, from working the hours that they want to contribute to our economy.

It is clear that out-of-pocket child care costs are out of control under the Morrison government. Their half-hearted childcare policy falls abysmally short of what's required to provide genuine relief for families. The government's policy will only provide a small amount of relief for a small minority of families for a short amount of time. The vast majority of families get absolutely no additional childcare subsidy support under this government's plan. In contrast, Labor has listened to the concerns of parents, and our plan will bring down the cost of child care and keep it down for 97 per cent of families. The Morrison government's rhetoric and spin around their childcare announcement has been smashed by the new data. Analysis of the competing policies, of Labor's policy and the government's childcare policy, shows unequivocally that Labor's policy provides more support for families and for a longer period of time.

There are 860,000 families—which is 86 per cent of all families with children under six in the system—who would be better off under Labor's policies compared with the Liberals' policies. Every single family with one child aged five or under in child care—that's 727,000 families—and with a combined family income of less than $530,000 will receive absolutely no lift in their childcare subsidy rate under the Liberals' policy, but they will under Labor's policy. Our analysis busts the government's spin that their policy is better at supporting families with two children and better at supporting low- to middle-income families. The vast majority of families with a combined family income of between $69,806 and $174,806 with two children in child care will be better off under Labor. Any extra support the Liberals do provide family with two children will be temporary. It will be ripped away when the family's oldest child goes to school. In contrast, Labor's boost in support will be provided to every child for the entire time that they are in child care. Labor's childcare plan will leave one million families better off than they are now—four times as many as under the government's proposal.

Our plan to provide more support to families for longer will also result in a boost to GDP that is three times larger than it would be under the Liberals. With both policies set to start in July 2022, Australian families will go to the ballot box at the next election with a clear choice between competing childcare policies, with Labor's policy clearly superior on any independent analysis. We know that childcare fees are too expensive and are out of control. These fees are a cost burden and a big contributor to pressure on household budgets for most families throughout the country. Under this government Australian families are paying more in out-of-pocket costs for child care than ever before. The cost of child care is now higher than it was under the previous childcare system. That's an important point to make: the cost of child care is now 0.3 per cent higher than it was under the previous system—and the government spruiked that this was a reform that would reduce costs. It's actually had the opposite effect. Parents need a real plan to tackle the skyrocketing out-of-pocket costs associated with child care.

The Productivity Commission's 2021 Report on government services has also shown that childcare costs are locking Australian parents out of the workforce. The data reveals that almost 300,000 Australians are not in the labour force, due to caring for children. That's a 5.9 per cent increase on previous reporting periods. Notably, the number of parents saying that they're not working 'mainly due to the cost of child care' has skyrocketed by 23 per cent, or 91,700 parents. There is now a mountain of evidence and data proving that the coalition's childcare system has failed to keep a lid on the cost of child care for families. The vast majority of families get absolutely no additional childcare subsidy support under the Morrison government's plan.

Labor's plan was put together after a continuous and serious consultation with families, with early educators and with advocacy groups. Our plan will bring down the cost of child care and keep it down, for 97 per cent of families. Our plan scraps the $10½ thousand childcare subsidy cap, which often sees women in particular losing additional money for a day's extra work beyond the two-to-three day period. It will lift the maximum childcare subsidy rate to 90 per cent and increase the childcare subsidy rates and taper them for every family earning less than $530,000. Importantly, the ACCC will design a price-regulation mechanism to shed light on costs and fees, and to drive them down and keep pressure on them for good. Under our plan the Productivity Commission will also conduct a comprehensive review of the sector with the aim of implementing a universal 90 per cent childcare subsidy for all families.

Only Labor has a plan to bring down the costs of child care for more families, and only Labor is working to ensure that we respect the role that early childhood educators play in our society as well—particularly, as I mentioned earlier, in terms of having to go to work during a pandemic. When Australians are being asked to stay at home, it's our early childhood educators who continue to go into their workplace and ensure that they're providing the support that families need so that parents can continue to work. I think it's important that we respect the role that early childhood educators play and that we reflect that in valuing the work that they do through things such as work value cases in the Fair Work Commission and ensuring that early childhood educators are paid appropriately. It's a shame that, in the past, the coalition government—the Morrison government—has campaigned against fair wages for early childhood educators. They are the key to ensuring that our kids get a decent start in life and a decent education.

See this speech in context