Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Child care is too expensive. Since 2012, prices for child care have increased faster than those for housing or electricity. The ABS states that since 2002 costs have risen by 74 per cent for couples and 102 per cent for single-parent families. In Brisbane our child care costs are among the highest in Queensland, having increased by up to 6.5 per cent this year alone.

On average, families across Australia are paying $123 per child per day for this crucial and essential service. But families in my home electorate of Brisbane are paying even more. In fact, of the five suburbs where child care in Queensland is the most expensive, four are within my home electorate of Brisbane. In Ashgrove, families are spending $146 per day to put one child in child care. In Paddington, they are spending $144 per day. In other suburbs around Brisbane the figures are much the same.

We're suffering from a lack of skilled workers across many industries, as many parents are forced to opt to stay home and care for their children as the exorbitant costs of child care make it difficult to justify working a shift. For some parents, it actually makes more financial sense to skip a shift than to pay for child care. Many parents feel they are working simply to afford exorbitant childcare costs. They are suffering from fatigue, burnout and the impacts on their mental health, with precious little access to relief. We pair this with stagnant wages and the rising cost of living and it is abundantly clear that more needs to be done to support parents to be involved in caring for their children.

Meanwhile, Australia has among the most heavily marketised and privatised childcare system in the world, and Queensland has the most privatised system in Australia. Around 75 per cent of the Australian childcare sector is privately owned. The private childcare sector and their landlords made $1 billion in profits Australia-wide in 2016. Rental payments to landlords make up a significant and growing portion of the costs, which are ultimately paid for by parents and governments. It is unacceptable that many parents, including single parents, are struggling financially, physically and emotionally in trying to provide care and stability for their families, while the private childcare sector rakes in exorbitant profits, with no credible alternatives provided by the government.

The Greens believe access to high-quality, free child care should be a fundamental right. This will allow parents, especially women, to get back to work if they wish and also ensure every child gets the best start in life. A 2020 report by the Australia Institute revealed that free child care provided a unique economic opportunity, creating an effective fiscal stimulus in the short term, with the capacity to boost workforce participation in the long-term and, as such, the longer term economic growth of our country. We don't have to look very far to see these benefits being played out.

Compared to the Nordic countries, whose universal childcare policies rival those of most nations, Australia's female workforce participation rate drops dramatically at the ages when most people are starting their families. Universal child care allows secondary income earners, who are often women, to re-enter the workforce after the birth of their child without the fear of huge costs, boosting the participation rate in the workforce. If Australia did have a comparable workforce participation rate, similar to the average of the Nordic countries, we could expect the economy to be $60 billion, or 3.2 per cent of GDP, larger—all thanks to universal child care. That figure represents an enormous amount of untapped creative and labour potential and a choice that the government is forcing families and parents to make. You can follow your career ambitions, or you can follow your family ambitions. A universal childcare policy ensures the freedom to pursue both.

A career in child care and early childhood education should also provide good, steady jobs with decent pay, especially since the vast majority of workers are casual, part time and female. During the election campaign, I was lucky enough to visit the Goodstart Early Learning centre in Clayfield. It was incredible seeing the true dedication the staff had to the education of the young children in our community. The staff at Goodstart Early Learning Clayfield and the childcare centres across Brisbane and around the country know all too well the importance of their work and the profound impact early childhood education has on the development of children. It is for that reason that we need to guarantee good pay and job security for these workers. The first years of a child's life are fundamental to their development, so workers in early childhood education should be treated with the respect that they deserve.

We know a policy for universal child care can be done, because it already has been—and not just overseas but here, too. During the initial stages of the pandemic, child care in Australia was made universal, recognising the important and essential role it plays in supporting families and children. Scrapping the stage 3 tax cuts would free up a quarter of a trillion dollars in revenue over the next decade—easily covering the costs for a universal childcare policy. We have the precedent to get it done, both overseas and here at home. We have the resources to get it done. Let's get it done.

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