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

Before I get into child care, and before the member for Wills leaves, I will take his challenge on. Divestiture of supermarkets, the toughest possible way to hold the supermarkets—the big two—to account would bring prices down for families that are struggling with their childcare bills, and they opposite voted against it. There's the answer to the member for Wills' policy on the cost of living—feel free to follow up with a prime minister. With the Prime Minister, we get a wet lettuce—mandatory code when the voluntary code is not working. He brags about it and it doesn't come into effect until 1 April 2025. Only in the Prime Minister's world can he take credit for a cost-of-living measure that hasn't even come into effect yet. I'll move on, but I wanted to treat the member for Wills with respect and answer his question about the coalition's cost-of-living initiatives.

It does link to child care, because families are struggling at so many levels. They are struggling to pay the groceries, they are struggling to pay for mortgages, for rents, for petrol—everything is going up. They are also struggling to pay for their childcare bills, which is why it is a real slap in the face to working families in Casey when the government continue to talk about the supposed savings that have happened under this government when the reality is completely different. As the member for Moncrieff has outlined in her motion, in the three years since the government was elected, the cost of child care has increased by 22.3 per cent. Since the government introduced their so-called cheaper child care policy, out-of-pocket costs for families have skyrocketed by 12.7 per cent. Almost 30 per cent of childcare services are charging over the hourly rate cap under the current government. Under the previous government, it was at 21 per cent. One of the reasons for that is, when you invest taxpayer money into subsidies without investing money into increasing the supply, you are going to drive prices up. It's economics 101, which we know is not this government's or the Prime Minister's strong suit. More supply with the same amount of demand will bring prices down, but the government has not focused on increasing supply of child care at all through this term of government.

I'm very lucky in my community to have a wonderful group called Mums of the Hills, led by Belinda Young, who does a lot of strong work advocating for many issues, particularly in the Dandenong Ranges and the Yarra Valley, including access to child care. Last year I was able to take the member for Moncrieff, Angie Bell, the shadow minister for child care, to meet with Belinda and speak to mums that are impacted. I will share some of Belinda's analysis of the local childcare landscape and the childcare desert that we have that this government has not addressed in the last three years.

Data from 2024 continues to show that parents in the Yarra Ranges struggle to secure spots for their children. The situation is particularly severe in some suburbs, where ratios range from 10 to 50-plus children per place, making it nearly impossible for working families to access early childhood education and care. Many residents in my community have to travel outside of our community for work. The average commuting distance is 28 kilometres, and this is significantly higher than the Victorian average of 16.7 kilometres. So, for these families, access to long daycare hours is essential to account for the commute time. There's limited access to this long day care. It's leaving families without adequate care for their children, leaving parents making typical compromises between career advancement and the family obligations. According to data from the Mitchell institute, in Coldstream, there has been an improvement locally in childcare availability, but, even with that improvement, there are nine children for every one long daycare place available. In Silvan, in Monbulk, in Sassafras, in Wandin and in Seville, the ratios are ranging from 10 to 50-plus children per childcare place. In Ferny Creek, there are three to seven children per childcare place and seven to eight children per long daycare place. In Olinda, there are two to five children per childcare place and eight to 30 per long daycare place. But we haven't seen any focus on increasing places from this government. Two and a half or three years in, prices are up over 22.3 per cent under the Albanese Labor government. Imagine the damage they will do to child care in another three years if they get into government.

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