Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare, Women and Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to talk about matters that are very important to so many Australian families and quite important to me in my shadow ministerial portfolios and to many families in my electorate, and they are child care and the significant challenges and costs that have grown in the area of child care for many families. The Labor Party made a lot of promises at the last election. Some of those included commitments and promises for early childhood education and child care. A central promise related to affordability of child care. Everywhere they went they said it loud and proud: Labor would increase quality and make child care more affordable for parents. We had Kevin Rudd say, on 1 February 2007:

We’ll pay it directly to centres and the objective is to make sure that we do get that extra qualified early childhood education teacher in place and at no extra cost to parents.

We had Jenny Macklin say:

At $240 a week, it is not easy to afford childcare on a tight family budget.

And she went on, a couple of months later, to say:

We want to increase quality, increase availability and that way, bring down the price of child care.

So there you have it, and there are many, many more quotes. But they never told you how they would do it, and it is probably one of those things that will keep on getting re-announced and re-announced but never really delivered. In the document on Labor’s so-called Affordable Child Care Plan it states on page 6: ‘A Rudd government will slash parents’ childcare costs.’ And in their New Directions for Early Childhood Education they say there will be ‘no increase in costs of early childhood services for parents as a result of expanded learning programs’. This sounds all very good, but a lot of parents want to know how this is going to be delivered.

The coalition have asked the government for some time now how it was going to increase staff ratios in childcare centres, ensure higher staff qualifications and insist on higher standards in centres without increasing the cost to centres or to families. Someone actually has to pay for these changes; they do not just happen. In spite of everything Labor has said in the last two years, we know at the end of the day who is going to have to foot an increased childcare bill, and that is families.

It is interesting that recent media reports have estimated that parents could be facing up to $1,500 a year in increased childcare fees as a direct result of the government’s proposed changes. When you look at some of the additional changes that have not been fully costed, this figure could be even more in some states. It was also interesting that, in response to these reports, the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare and Youth said that Australia ‘could not successfully reform the industry without some out-of-pocket expenses for families’. Well, fancy that! Finally, we have gone from, ‘We’ll slash childcare costs,’ and, ‘No extra costs or increased costs,’ to, ‘Well, of course families are going to have to suffer some out-of-pocket expenses.’ The minister tried to allay concerns, as if to imply that the government was there to foot the bill, when she said:

It is important to consider that any cost implications would be offset by the government’s 50 per cent Child Care Rebate, which means that the government would effectively foot the bill for half of any increases.

That is correct, but of course the government would continue to provide the 50 per cent rebate. But, Minister, if fees go up parents still have to pay more, and you and your party specifically promised that would not be the case. That is clearly a broken promise that this Labor government has to own up to.

Now we have independent economic analysis, commissioned by Childcare Queensland, finding that costs in that state will rise by over $13 a day, not the few dollars that the minister has tried to assert. It is very clear that parents are not being told how much costs are expected to rise by because of this government. In fact, they have been deliberately misled into thinking that the rise is going to be minimal. This is clearly not going to be the case when the government itself cannot calculate the costs of all of its proposed changes to child care. We see that even the government’s own published estimates of out-of-pocket costs for parents from some of these changes—hidden on page 37 of the regulation impact statement—do not give an accurate picture, as they relate only to a small fraction of the so-called reforms.

Parents do have a right to believe that there were not going to be any increases in childcare costs caused by government changes, because they were told at the last election that the government would slash childcare costs. At a time when families are increasingly under enormous economic stress, particularly in many parts of rural and regional Australia—and I know many families have suffered in rural Victoria—the Rudd government is deliberately mishandling its so-called reform process and misleading parents about the childcare costs that are part of its agenda. But that is no surprise, if we look at many of Labor’s broken promises in the area of early childhood education, child care, women and youth—my portfolio responsibility area.

The government, in opposition, claimed they were going to build 260 childcare centres across the nation. They promised to make child care more accessible by establishing 260 new long day care centres on school, TAFE, university and community sites. They were supposed to ease the childcare crisis and reduce the double drop-off. While 38 centres have been budgeted for, I am not aware that any of them are currently operational and I wait to see whether we will get any by the next election. I am sure they will rush to get something fixed so that this particular promise does not go the way of the new Aboriginal housing policy debacle, where $45 million has been expended and not one house has been built. But it is interesting that, while 38 centres have been budgeted for, this year on budget night Minister Gillard’s ministerial statement announced:

The remaining up to 222 early learning and care centres will be considered when the childcare market is settled and based on the experience of the priority centres.

So, in other words, they have broken another promise. There are not going to be 260 childcare centres; there may not even be 38. But they have gone very quiet on that.

The reason that has happened is that they did not do the work in opposition. They did not do the work to understand what was needed by the industry. They made motherhood statements that they thought would be really popular and their attitude was: ‘Let’s just try and sort it out later.’ That is similar to borrowing and putting the country in debt to the tune of over $300 billion and thinking: ‘Oh, well. Someone will pay it down the track. It’s not going to be us.’ Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard are not going to be there when it all has to be paid back, so the attitude is: ‘Make it up as you go along,’ and that is what they seem to be doing in these very important areas that affect families. Look at another promise: universal preschool. Labor promised:

Federal Labor will ensure all four year olds have access to early learning. All four year olds will be eligible to receive 15 hours of Government-funded early learning programs per week, for a minimum of 40 weeks a year.

               …            …            …

As one of the most significant additions to Australia’s education system in more than a generation, a year of universal preschool will take time to implement.

Guess what? Both the government website and the new minister, Kate Ellis, have stated that the terms ‘universal access’ and ‘government funded’ do not mean it will be free. So, again, they have broken their promise to parents, and they are going to force parents to pay. Why make these promises in the first place? Is it to look good, to look as if you care for families? Again, they have not done the hard work.

The list goes on. There are broken promises regarding quality rating systems for child care and broken promises relating to the release of vacancy data. There is the big broken promise of making child care more affordable. What we see is a government scrambling for the five-second grab, trying to deal with the media spin cycle and delivering nothing in substance. They are saying, ‘We’ll throw enough money here and there; we’ll make enough right-sounding noises,’ but achieving nothing for families, lying to them and making child care more expensive for families across Australia.