Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare and Early Childhood Learning) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on a topic that is of great concern to many Australian families: the rising cost of child care. Many Australian families are experiencing real financial stress. Interest rates have been steadily increasing and families are finding it difficult to make ends meet. Yet this government is intent on increasing costs further. This Labor government has obviously recognised that its legislation to reduce the childcare rebate and to remove indexation of the rebate for the next four years is unpopular. It is so unpopular that they have progressively pushed it down the list, to the last sitting week before Christmas, in the hope that it will slip on through, under the radar. But, for Australian families, this legislation will be like receiving a lump of coal in their Christmas stockings. It is a Grinch-like cash grab from a desperate Labor government.

Their aim with the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Budget Measures) Bill 2010 is for the government to make savings of $86 million over four years, with the savings going towards the cost of implementing the government’s National Quality Agenda for Early Childhood Education and Care. However, this agenda will further increase the cost of child care by imposing new ratios and qualification prerequisites on the industry. Parents will be left picking up the tab as childcare centre overheads increase.

This Labor government is floundering on child care. In 2007 they promised to end the double drop-off. We are still waiting. Then came the massive backflip on building 260 new childcare centres, and we now see their intention to increase the cost of child care by reducing the childcare rebate and ceasing indexation for the next four years.

The minister is insistent that child care will only increase by 57c a week. Minister Ellis needs to dispense with the sandpit photo opportunities and instead sit down and have a serious conversation with childcare providers. Child care has to remain affordable and accessible. Yet the minister’s head is firmly embedded in the sandpit when it comes to listening to childcare providers. On the off chance she is listening to this broadcast now, I would like to take the opportunity to put on the record what some providers have said.

I will start with what Matthew Horton, the CEO of GoodStart, said in the Daily Telegraph on 3 October:

Our early findings indicate we will raise fees from $2 a day up to $20 a day in NSW centres …

Vicky Skoulogenis, from Childcare NSW, has said that:

Everyone will increase their fees, across the board … and the government needs to recognise it.

And Lyn Connolly, from the Australian Childcare Alliance, which represents approximately 70 per cent of all long-day-care centres, has said that cost increases could be as high as $22 a day. This is not affordable for parents, and the minister must focus on that message. It is time for her to start to listen and really hear what the childcare sector is telling her. She needs to accept that the figure of 57c a week that she constantly bandies about is nothing more than a furphy, based on incomplete forecasting data.

It is expected that 20,700 families will be affected by the capping of the rebate and the freezing of indexation. This will be a progressive increase for families, as more and more are affected over the duration of the indexation freeze. When the additional cost increases from the national quality agenda measures come into effect, families will really suffer. The concern is that, without affordable and accessible child care, parents will have trouble returning to work. I urge the minister to sit down with parents and try to understand the struggles they face in finding and affording child care. Of course we need to ensure that high-quality child care is available for our children but without the massive cost imposition and disruption to the industry that will inevitably eventuate under Labor’s model.

With the rising of parliament next week, I look forward to meeting with as many families and parents, as well as providers of long-day-care centres, preschool centres, mobile centres, and in-home care—an important and often overlooked area of the sector—as possible and finding out how we can progress policy in the opposition to make child care fit within the family budget so that it becomes more affordable each and every day.