Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It must be Monday in parliament: we've got the out-of-touch government patting themselves on the back, telling the Australian people how lucky they are and that they've never had it better, whether it's energy prices, whether it's cost of living and now child care—never had it better. Well, let's touch on that discussion around regional and rural areas. My community has a childcare desert, like the electorate of the member for Riverina.

What those opposite don't want to talk about is the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's childcare inquiry. They'll talk about the supposed drop in prices, which I'll get to, but none of them seem to have read the inquiry, because, when it comes to regional and rural areas and availability, the inquiry said:

Policy measures that continue to apply a 'one size fits all approach' across the sector will leave some communities under-served, unserved or without adequate and appropriate access to childcare services.

That's exactly what the member for Riverina was talking about, it's exactly what I'm talking about and it's what many in regional and rural Australia talk about: getting access, which is through supply. And as the inquiry said—which the government are happy to quote—a one-size-fits-all approach does not work. But it's not a surprise that this government forgets about regional, rural and periurban Australia. The Prime Minister went to that tough childcare desert of inner Marrickville—inner Sydney—to announce this policy, so we know that this policy is not going to help supply in communities.

In my community, there are 15 children for every spot. There are 15 kids and there's one spot. There are families that are putting themselves on wait lists at their 12-week scan. I thank Belinda and the team at Mums of the Hills for their continued advocacy and the work they've done. They shared that story with me and the shadow minister and many others. There are parents that are having to pay fees just to get onto wait lists.

And let's move to fees, because this motion is very much in the government's playbook of spinning and talking a big game. They quote the ACCC childcare inquiry, which found that out-of-pocket costs dropped 11 per cent following the introduction of the government's cheaper childcare measures. What they didn't quote and what they won't talk about is what else the inquiry said. It said:

Our inquiry finds that historically when subsidies increase, out-of-pocket expenses decline initially but then tend to revert to higher levels … Further to this, our inquiry finds that that the design and implementation of the Child Care Subsidy … has had only limited effectiveness in placing downward pressure on fees and constraining the burden on taxpayers.

This inquiry was in December 2023 and the government were very happy to quote it in August of 2024 in this motion, but what they didn't put in the motion is that childcare costs have increased by 8.4 per cent in the last six months—just like the inquiry said it would. This is why we've got a government that are all about spin and patting themselves on the back.

They also talk about the rent caps at 4.4 per cent. Let's ignore the fact that 4.4 per cent is well above the RBA's two-to-three-per-cent target, and talk about the hypocrisy of this Prime Minister and his inability to understand basic economics. This Prime Minister stands at the despatch box in question time when he gets a question from his friends in the Greens about rent caps and talks about how he can't implement rent caps because that's going to constrain investment in housing. But at the very same time, this government are prepared to put caps on gas prices, and they're now prepared to put caps on childcare places. So apparently a cap on housing and rents will constrain supply but a cap on gas and a cap on childcare prices won't constrain supply.

To be clear, I don't think we should have any price caps—we should actually be focused on driving costs down and treating the cause of inflation, like increased energy prices that have continued to go up under this government, not bandaid solutions. But for the Prime Minister to argue that caps won't work for rents but they will work for gas and they will work for childcare tells you he will say anything to anyone to stay in his job, or that he does not understand the basics of economics. The reality is, it's both.

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