Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I think it's very important that when discussing the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Bill 2024 we put on the record the coalition's record when it comes to child care. We almost doubled child care investment, to $11 billion, in 2022-23 and locked in ongoing funding for preschools and kindergartens. We made the biggest reforms to the early childhood education system in more than 40 years. More than 1.3 million children have access to the childcare subsidy, from around one million families when we first came to office. Under the coalition, 280,000 more children are in early childhood education. And our targeted extra support, introduced in March 2022, made a real difference. Childcare costs came down by 4.6 per cent in the year to June 2022. That is worth repeating: our targeted extra support, introduced in March 2022, led to a 4.6 per cent decrease in childcare costs to June 2022. While doing all that, we saw women's workforce participation reach record highs, at 62.3 per cent in May 2022. That's compared with 58.7 per cent when we came to office.

So, our track record in this area is an excellent one. Not only that, but we were able to carry the childcare sector through the pandemic. As you will remember, the sector faced its darkest hour when the pandemic hit. But we were able to take the sector through that period. Their resilience and their ability to work with the government meant that when we came out of the pandemic they were ready to go. Those in this place today will remember—and I remember it, because I'm pretty sure it was Easter Sunday—when we announced free child care during the pandemic. That approach was able to carry the sector through the pandemic. We of course readjusted after some months and were able to set the sector up to blossom again once the pandemic had ended. Can I once again give my thanks to the sector for what they were able to do throughout the pandemic because we needed a childcare sector, especially, when it came to emergency service workers and others who had to work, to look after their children. The sector stepped up to the plate, and they did it incredibly well.

I have two areas of concern when it comes to this bill. The first is that it does nothing to address childcare deserts. The sad reality is we've seen these childcare deserts grow in just the two-and-a-bit years that the Albanese Labor government has been in office. Sadly, where those childcare deserts have grown most abundantly is in regional and rural Australia. I say this to the government: you need to seriously look at what you can do to make sure that child care is provided right across this nation—that it's provided in my electorate of Wannon. You need to be mapping where we have childcare deserts, and you have to be making sure we get the child care that we need. Not only that; you have to make sure that we can get the workforce that we need. That is one of the problems with this bill: we are not seeing anything which is going to help address that fact. We are not going to see these childcare deserts addressed. That is very, very problematic.

The other thing that we also have issues with is: what is being done in this bill to make sure that out-of-pocket expenses for parents go down? What is it that will lead to those out-of-pocket expenses not continually rising for them? Just to give you a sense of this issue, after the last election, Labor promised cheaper child care. Instead they spent $4.7 billion, which was mostly eaten by inflation, and delivered higher out-of-pocket costs for families. To give you a sense of the higher out-of-pocket costs for families, they went up 8.4 per cent over the last 12 months. You've got a cost-of-living crisis, you've got a cost-of-doing-business crisis, and your out-of-pocket costs for families for child care have gone up by 8.4 per cent even though Labor has spent $4.7 billion.

We all recognise and know how important our early childhood educators are, and all of us want to see them get extra income in their pockets because of the cost-of-living crisis. We know that, and we want that. But what we don't want is for the parents to see more inflation and see their out-of-pocket costs continue to rise. They've gone up 8.4 per cent over the last 12 months. If that continues, it's going to make life harder and harder and harder for those working families.

So I say to the government: there are more things that you need to do. Looking at wages amongst our early childhood educators is important, but you need to have a holistic policy approach, one which won't cause inflation and which will mean that we can get more workers into the workforce and more childcare providers, especially in areas where there are childcare deserts, and that we won't see out-of-pocket costs go up by 8.4 per cent for families. That's the challenge.

It's so often the case with this government that they'll see one aspect that they think needs addressing, but they won't understand that you need a holistic approach to do it properly. And that is my worry with this bill—the lack of a holistic approach.

As I go around the electorate of Wannon and I talk to people, they're deeply concerned about the costs when they go to the supermarket. They're worried about the cost of insurance. They're worried about the cost of housing. They're worried about the cost of rent. They're worried about the cost of driving on the roads, due to the cuts to maintenance for our roads that we've seen from the federal and state government over the last two-and-a-bit years. They're all the things that they worry about, and there is nothing in this bill to ease the concern about out-of-pocket costs for families continuing to rise by 8.4 per cent year on year. If that does happen—8.4 per cent year on year—the compounding aspects of that will really hit families hard.

That's why the government needs to take a holistic approach. If they don't, and inflation continues as it is, then what we are going to see, sadly, is this continuing—and this is the record: since the last election, the cost of health has gone up 10.5 per cent; the cost of education, up 11.2 per cent; the cost of food, up 12.3 per cent; the cost of housing, up 13.1 per cent; the cost of rent, up 16.3 per cent; the cost of financial and insurance, up 17.3 per cent; the cost of gas, up 33.8 per cent; and, of course, as I've mentioned, childcare, up by 8.4 per cent.

We have to remember: Labor have had three budgets now—three budgets—to try and address this. Yet working Australians have seen their living standards collapse under Labor because of these soaring costs. Labor's failure to break the back of inflation means that hardworking families have seen their standard of living decline and decline dramatically. As a matter of fact, it's one of the highest declines, if not the highest decline, in real living standards anywhere in the OECD—anywhere for comparable countries.

That is why this bill really needs to be far, far more holistic in its approach. We know and understand our early childhood educators deserve a pay increase, but we also know that there has to be a way to do that which doesn't lead to inflation going higher or those costs going higher or out-of-pocket costs for parents continuing to rise year on year as they have for the last 12 months by 8.4 per cent.

So my challenge for the minister and for the government is this. What guarantees are you giving that parents won't see out-of-pocket costs continue to rise by 8.4 per cent, or higher, year on year? I remember, when we were in government, those opposite said it was all about out-of-pocket costs for families. Yet now we don't hear much noise at all when it comes to these out-of-pocket costs. Referring to those out-of-pocket costs and making sure that you're saying to Australian families, 'That needs to be a key component of what we are doing,' is critically important.

The other thing that the government needs to focus on is: the childcare deserts. What are you doing to make sure that the sector expands? What are you doing to make sure that the childcare providers have that surety to be able to invest and keep investing and providing that opportunity for families to get access to child care? I can tell you we're not seeing anything in my electorate in that regard. That is one of the many disappointing things that we have seen recently.

You have to remember that our record was 280,000 more children in early childhood education. I would love to see that number continue to grow and grow and grow, especially in rural and regional areas. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had a government who could point to its record of seeing childcare provision in regional and rural Australia expand into these childcare drought areas? That's where we're seeing the extra numbers: in Warrnambool, in Port Fairy, in Portland, in Hamilton, in Colac, in Ararat, in Winchelsea—right across my electorate. I would love to see a government focused on providing more childcare opportunities for my constituents and doing it in a way which isn't going to see out-of-pocket costs for parents rise year on year by 8.4 per cent. That's the challenge for this government. What about bringing into this chamber a holistic approach to child care which is going to work for everyone?

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