Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to see that the Albanese government's cheaper childcare policies have come into effect since we last sat in the House. Over 1.2 million families will benefit from this policy across the country, with 100,000 of them in south-west Sydney and almost 10,000 in my electorate of Macarthur.

I don't want to get into an argument about the previous government. Their policies were ad hoc. They were poorly thought through, and some of the most disadvantaged families in my electorate and around the country missed out on appropriate child care for their children, and it was a real tragedy for their education. The previous government ignored the pleas of developmental paediatricians, paediatricians like myself, calling them out on this lack of support for some of the most disadvantaged kids in our society.

Under our plan, the Albanese government's plan for cheaper child care, our government have lifted the maximum childcare subsidy rate to 90 per cent for families earning under $80,000 a year and increased CCS rates for families earning less than $530,000. So pretty much across the board there are increases but particularly targeting those from the most disadvantaged families. I'm very proud to be part of a government that has done that and understands and acts on the importance of early childhood education and early intervention in child care for those most disadvantaged and those who may be having problems.

I've had our ministers, Anne Aly, the Minister for Early Childhood Education, and Amanda Rishworth, the Minister for Social Services, come out and visit childcare centres in my electorate of Macarthur, and I'm very proud of the input that they've given me and my electorate regarding the childcare policy. We've worked over years to develop a policy that provides overwhelming support for our children, particularly those in early childhood education.

We know that child care is expensive; high-quality child care is expensive, and that's why we've made changes to the child care subsidy. Unfortunately, as cost-of-living pressures go up, so too will childcare repayments, and that's why we, as a government, are looking into this matter and initiating policies that will further assist with the potential price increases. Our government has implemented policies such as hourly rate caps, which will put downward pressure on fees to help constrain price growth and address inflationary pressures. We've also commissioned the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to investigate the drivers of these costs to see what we can do to reduce them. Our government is working through these issues and is ensuring that families and childcare educators receive the benefits of this policy, and I'm pleased to report we're already seeing this in my electorate of Macarthur. We're seeing our kids in preschools and early childhood education benefiting from the quality of the child care they are getting and benefiting from the increase in the number of hours of child care.

As for families, we're working on improving support for early educators and making sure they're appropriately qualified. We know the importance of early childhood educators and the phenomenal work they do. I've been to many of our local childcare centres, including Squiggles and Giggles Early Learning Childcare Centre, Goodstart Early Learning in Willowdale, Raising Stars Early Learning Centre and the Exploring Tree in Oran Park to name only a few. I'm very proud of the work they do. I understand the importance of early childhood education, as do these early childhood education centres. I love going there and I love seeing some of the kids that I've looked after being there and benefiting from early childhood education. They're doing a vital job and they're doing it very, very well. The Albanese government is supporting them all the way in terms of training, wages and access for our kids. I applaud our government on our policies. I'm very proud of the work that our ministers are doing, particularly the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Anne Aly. I know how hard she has worked to make sure that kids around Australia are getting the best quality early childhood education.

We've known for over half a century of the benefits of early childhood education for all our kids but particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

It shows, Bob! The Albanese government is doing its best to preserve the future of our children and to make our country one of the premier ones for early childhood education, and I'm very proud to be part of that.

I recently met with a constituent in my area who runs an early childhood kinder care centre. They are very proud of the work that they do and want to do even better in the future.

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