Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Every now and then in our lifetime there comes a moment when we have an opportunity to change the course of history. In the years leading up to my coming to this place, I never thought such a moment would happen for me, but today I am proven wrong. Today, the text of this legislation gives me, along with every other member in this place, the opportunity to change the course of history and the opportunity for every young person to have a better future as they continue to grow. The reason I say that is that the research is very clear around the positive impacts of early childhood learning. Those years, from zero to five, are some of the most important years that a child can be exposed to the benefits of an education, to ensure that they have the basis for a successful learning pathway throughout primary school, secondary school and then VET or university. I'm the benefactor of a VET qualification. Many in this chamber have got one, but probably a much larger number have got a university degree. They were probably, for the most part, set up because of the learning that they were exposed to when they were between the ages of zero and five.

We know that it has become harder for parents to be able to look after or raise their children, with the pressures of keeping a roof over their head, putting food on the table and paying for the cost of an education. That's where the role of government comes in: to level the playing field and provide opportunities for everyone to have access to a fair education and a fair level of care. That's what this legislation goes to; it's at the very heart of this legislation.

I want to address some comments made by previous members who have come into this place and have had their moment behind the microphone. I want to start with the member for Forrest and her conversation around the childcare deserts. It's important we do address that, and I don't for one second contend that there aren't concerns and issues with remote and regional areas where we're having difficulty with the provision of childcare and early learning centres. But I also want to be very clear on this front that, for the nine years before those in this government came to find ourselves on this side of the chamber, there was another government. It had an opportunity to change the course of history and the direction that our early learning centres took and the opportunities provided for our youngest citizens, and that was not taken. It is why this government has had to put so much emphasis into training early childhood educators. It's why we've had to fight to lift early childhood educators' wages by 15 per cent because we had a retention issue. I want to let the House know that, because of our measures, there are 1,083 new services, including—the member for Forrest should take note of this—325 in regional and remote Australia and more than 90,000 additional places in educational centres across Australia. It is an important point. Yes, we know there is an issue, but we are getting to work and we are getting it done and we are making sure that we fill those gaps. That's what good governments do. That's what this government is doing.

The member for Moncrieff came in here earlier, and disappointingly—I say 'disappointingly' because I know the member for Moncrieff has a personal connection to my electorate. She knows my electorate probably better than most people in this chamber. She knows the level of disadvantage that exists in my electorate, the electorate of Spence—specifically, around places like Elizabeth Vale, a place I speak about on a regular basis, Davoren Park and Elizabeth Downs. There are numerous suburbs I can list off in my electorate. Deputy Speaker Georganas, you know this all too well; you reside in Adelaide and not too far from my electorate. We have significant challenges, and one of those is equitable access to early childhood education for our youngest people.

This removes barriers and gives you, regardless of your socioeconomic background, an opportunity to provide your child with the early education they deserve, to give them the best start, so that they, one day, very well might be standing here in my place, giving a much better speech than I am right now. It wouldn't be hard.

The member for La Trobe and the member for Casey are aptly chiming in here. I think we all know that there are much better orators than I, but it starts in those early years. There's a great quote from the former premier of South Australia. He talks about one of the things that this bill removes—that is, the activity test. He says, 'It has always been punitive and unfair.' I think that's what makes Labor governments so distinctively different from other governments—that is, we take the 'un' out of 'unfair'. We make sure that it is about fair and is about equity for everyone in our community so that they aren't left to the side.

I want to get into the actual content of this bill, the Early Childhood Education and Care (Three Day Guarantee) Bill 2025. I spoke about the activity test. That is part of the core function of this legislation. It removes the activity test from the childcare subsidy. It is something that came about in 2018, introduced by the opposition, which, in fairness, did limit the scope of two existing childcare affordability schemes. They were the childcare benefit and childcare rebate schemes. It merged them together and put in place this activity test. For those who don't know what the activity test is, it refers to the hours a caregiver will need to work, study or look for work to determine the amount of hours childcare is subsidised under the CCS, the childcare scheme.

We've taken that away because we see that as a punitive measure, as the former premier of South Australia has said. We want to put the fair back into equality for early childhood education. The Liberals' approach via the activity test has the minimum childcare hours for a family at up to 24 hours per fortnight or two days per fortnight for families under $83,000 per annum or zero hours for families over that threshold. The member for Forrest came in here and talked about fairness and how it's unfair for people in the regions and remote Australia, but here we have legislation currently in place that says, if you earn under $83,000 a year, you are able to access 24 hours a fortnight of subsidised care, but, if you're over $83,000, you get nothing. I just don't understand that. If you look at what we are proposing in this bill, it is 72 hours guaranteed, three days, for every family in Australia. That's improving the lives of over 100,000 young Australians and putting the fair back into equality. That's what good Labor governments do.

In 2019, the Department of Education told us that low-income families accessing care went from 32,000 in 2018 to around 6½ thousand in 2019. That implies that, without that help, nearly 30,000 children would've been left worse off. The approach that, if something's free, you don't value it has left childcare unaffordable for families in Spence, where people are already disadvantaged. It goes to a lot of what I've said. As of 2021 there were over 13,000 single parents in Spence, with 6,000 of those parents listed as either not in the labour force or unemployed. Those parents not only had their children's education cut short by the activity test; they also didn't end up in the workforce as the Liberals promised, further entrenching the challenges we face in the north.

As I said earlier, we are scrapping the activity test and we are guaranteeing every Australian family 72 hours a fortnight, three days a fortnight, regardless. It's fair and equitable. That will benefit over 100,000 families directly affected by the text before the House today in the most crucial stage of their development. Beyond that, it is estimated that more than 66,000 of those families will be better off in the first full financial year of implementation. Moreover, this policy leaves no families worse off. That's why we are retaining the measure to provide 100 hours per fortnight to families who record more than 48 hours of activity. Families that are relying on child care for their work need to be assured that these subsidies will remain.

Also, families caring for First Nations children will be guaranteed 100 hours each fortnight to help close the gap. I think this is very timely given Friday this week marks 17 years to the day since the formal apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples by Kevin Rudd. The previous system made it harder for low-income families to access the childcare subsidy. We are making it easier. We are making it easier because it's the right thing to do to ensure that our youngest people have the best opportunity at a better future, an opportunity that has been afforded to every person in this House, an opportunity that was afforded to every person that has been able to get ahead and can consider themselves thankful for the place where they find themselves.

In closing, I refer back to my electorate of the northern suburbs of Adelaide. In our community in the north, which, again, is one of the most disadvantaged metropolitan areas in the country, there are very young children who worry about the cost to their parents when they go to the shops. There are children who turn down the chocolate bar, the bag of lollies or whatever it may be they want when their parents offer it because those children have developed in a household in Elizabeth Park, Davoren Park, Salisbury North or many other areas north of Adelaide where the financial pressures felt by their parents have filtered down into the character and behaviour of their children, where kids of a single-digit age have the household budget at the forefront of their minds, feeling their parents' stress, because they have developed under the sheer stress their family is under to provide. No child in Australia should ever have to feel that way, and I fight to correct that record.

The three-day guarantee helps do exactly that because, by guaranteeing 72 hours of subsidised early childhood and care and giving families unconditional and affordable access to these essential services, no matter who they are or what they earn, we take another step towards ensuring families can live without those pressures, towards ending cycles of poverty in the north and towards ensuring our children can live the way they should. I commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context