Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

I was drawn to speak on this bill because child care is a serious issue in my electorate of Mallee. I note the title of this bill: Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Bill 2024. Justice is important to people on both sides of this House. There is no question about that. But I think that we look through different prisms.

My electorate is absolutely regional. I have 72 towns in my electorate, many—in fact, I would go so far as to say most—without child care. So, when we're talking about subsidies and wage rises, yes, there is a place for those things, but, when you don't have a childcare centre and a mother or a father has to drive two hours down the road to take their child to childcare before they can go to work and then they have to do a return trip at the end of the day, you are asking an immense amount from people who are already working their butts off. It is creating such stress in my electorate. We have what are called childcare deserts, and there is not a lot in this bill that addresses that at all. I would draw the House's attention to that.

I note that there's $3.6 billion for wages and that people who are earning $530,000 per annum combined can get those subsidies. I don't know on which planet that is a reasonable suggestion, but that's what's going through this House. However, for those where there is no childcare, there are no subsidies coming their way, because they can't put their child into child care and work. This is not justice; this is injustice. This issue needs to be addressed by the House and by this government.

In Hopetoun, one of the towns in my electorate, I've been working with the Yarriambiack Shire Council for the last few years, since Uniting closed their service. I'm hopeful that the situation will be resolved shortly. I understand the council is working with another childcare provider, Emerge, and we're hoping that the workforce will emerge so that these children can attend the childcare centre. Uniting's closure in Hopetoun left 15 to 20 families in a difficult situation.

Heather, from Beulah, came to me. She is the major income earner in her family. Heather loves her town of Beulah and wants to stay. She doesn't want to go back to the city to raise her children. The town has lost its hotel and its supermarket, and the lack of child care in Hopetoun means people are now having to travel even further to get child care. Another mother from Hopetoun wrote to me in capital letters—on social media, that's the equivalent of yelling—saying, 'We need child care in Hopetoun,' followed by, 'Please, please, please.' I wonder how many urban parents are having to beg their local member for a childcare centre. She noted that mothers had to stop working or cut back on hours to help others look after their children so they can go to work. Is this justice? I don't think so.

Earlier this year some grandparents from Edenhope raised with me the importance of child care, saying it's difficult to get places. Many young women want to work, but they just can't find a childcare place. Lisa lives in Maryborough. She wrote to me in November about the huge impact the cost of living is having on her. She was 'extremely stressed out' at the time as she was on maternity leave and facing 'massive childcare shortages'. Lisa wrote to me:

The council and state Labor government aren't taking this seriously … What has this Labor government done so far? Nothing!

Lisa says that her regional centre of Maryborough has a population of around 8,000 people and has only two childcare centres, each with 75 places, whereas Horsham, with a population of over 20,000 people, has eight centres. Lisa complained that it's hard to retain workers in Maryborough with no further child care available.

Last weekend I was in Murtoa for Murtoa's Big Weekend. I had the pleasure of catching up with Dr Kendra Clegg, who has been working with me for the last couple of years on addressing the desperate need for child care in Murtoa. She told me that the Murtoa model of integrating early years learning with, in this instance, the Murtoa College is a model that could potentially be used elsewhere in regional Victoria and regional Australia to address childcare shortages. A happy outcome of the new centre—which is opening next year, as I understand it—is that several senior students want to begin certificate III studies in early years education. I would hope they would end up working locally to support children and families in Murtoa in early childhood education, which the state is funding.

I would note that this bill isn't necessary for the grant funding to be provided. The grant could have been provided through existing legislative powers. The bill doesn't even set the wage increase or how much providers will be paid to cover it. The bill has not yet been through the Senate, where the Greens have signalled they want more—more petrol on the inflation bonfire. The government's spending commitment is only for the first two years of the wage increase. The cost will then go to the providers.

This bill is a political posturing move from the Albanese government, and I note there is a concurrent Senate inquiry process—even though the bill is before the House—scheduled to conclude by 30 October, in time for the resumption of sittings in November. The shadow minister for early childhood education, who spoke earlier, is coming to my electorate of Mallee to see the childcare desert, which no-one from Labor has bothered to look at. She told the House in August, and it bears repeating now:

The sector tells me a 10 per cent wage increase usually means a seven per cent fee increase.

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The biggest farce with this policy is that Labor think they can inject $3.6 billion—

of taxpayers' money—

into the sector and keep fees down using a cap … there's a real chance that services already paying staff 10 or 15 per cent above the award wage won't sign onto this. They'll pay their staff a little bit more and then they'll just increase their prices anyway, and that will land in families' laps. Even if some services keep fees down this year and next year, families will still be hit with eye-watering bills when the government funding dries up because providers will then be forced to pick up the wages tab and to do that they will have to increase their fees.

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A union heavily involved in the early learning sector is back to its old tricks, telling educators they'll only get this pay rise if they are a member of the union. It's completely untrue, it's misleading and it's despicable behaviour from a union heavily associated with those opposite.

Of course, the economically illiterate Greens have already stated that they want this wage increase to be a 25 per cent increase.

Debate interrupted.

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