Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services, Indigenous Affairs and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. What powers does the government have to control the prices charged by childcare operators? What actions might the government take if prices were to go up by, say, 10 per cent?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Obviously the government has a range of policies in the childcare area—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

if you wait for the end of the sentence, you never know what you might learn—and the government subsidises child care through a variety of means. One is the childcare benefit; the other is the childcare tax rebate. Obviously, the government makes these payments available. The childcare industry is aware that the government is a subsidiser of childcare fees. That means, of course, that there is an interconnection between the government’s policies and intentions and these payments. What I have said to childcare operators is that we want to work with industry. I would remind the member opposite that these questions have been motivated by press reports where one operator on one day was reported as considering a price hike in the vicinity of 10 per cent. That same operator today was reported as saying that no decision had been taken. Other operators were reported as saying that fee increases could be in the order of two to three per cent—that is, they could be in the order of the sorts of fee increases that we have seen reflective of real cost changes. At this stage, when the material from operators in the public domain at the moment is these sketchy reports, the government is indicating to operators that it will be watching to see—

Opposition Members:

Watching!

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Those on my left will come to order. The Deputy Prime Minister has the call.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is interesting we are talking about child care, because the behaviour is bordering on the childish—this from members opposite who in government did what? Remind me. What did you do about childcare fee increases? The answer is nothing. Absolutely nothing was done by members opposite in the cabinet room. So against a government that did absolutely nothing on this question, what is this government signalling? It is signalling to operators that it will be seeing what happens with prices and, if there is evidence—as opposed to press reports, which are different from one day to the next—of unfair pricing practices, the government will canvass the options at its disposal to act. We want childcare operators who, at this stage, would be considering their fee settings to understand the government’s policy predisposition in this area. We want to be very clear with industry about that. We will be working with industry and it is our policy intention to not see unfair pricing practices in the area, to see CCTR increases passed on. We do understand that, as there are cost increases in child care, there are naturally changes that flow through. We are talking about unfair pricing practices.

I compare that with what happened with members opposite. Presumably, if members opposite were still making the decisions today, we would have CCTR still at 30 per cent, not increasing to 50 per cent on 1 July. We would not have working families benefiting at all from an increase in CCTR. We would see, if there were childcare price increases on 1 July—if members opposite were making the decisions—working families go backwards whereas under this government, because of the changes in CCTR from 30 per cent to 50 per cent, working families are going to get relief from the pressure of childcare costs. We on this side of the House think that is appropriate; on that side of the House they are playing kindergarten games about some words, but they have no policies, no plans.