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 the Family Assistance and Other Legislation Amendment (Child Care and Other Measures) Bill 2011. The intention of this bill is to improve the effectiveness of the recovery of fee reductions, enrolment advances and business continuity payments paid to approved childcare services. Currently, where financial recoveries need to be made, these are for the most part offset against subsequent payments of fee reductions, enrolment advances or business continuity payments made to the service. Amendments made by this bill will enable recovery of these amounts also by way of set-off from any payments made to services through the childcare management system—that is, from acquittal payments made to services under the CCMS Act and from payments made to services under administrative (that is, non-legislative) schemes.

Under this government, significant debts have been raised, especially when childcare providers were transitioned to the CCMS system by the Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations, otherwise known as DEEWR. DEEWR officials in 2010 budget estimates indicated this debt to be in the vicinity of $70 million, with around 6,000 childcare providers owing a debt to the Commonwealth as a result. My understanding is that the department is still in the process of recovering these debts. However, discussions with providers have indicated that they are surprised at how tardy the recovery effort has been to date. I suspect that the Australian taxpayer would be quite mortified to learn of this unaccountable delay.

This legislation will assist in the recovery, and one can only hope it will (a) decrease future debt accumulation and (b) speed up the recovery process. These are, after all, taxpayer dollars that are sitting idle.

Amendments are also included in this bill to enable the recovery of those amounts from the same range of payments to be made to another approved childcare service operated by the same operator. The schedule 2 amendments seek to allow for greater clarification of when exactly a service has stopped providing care to a particular child, as this determines when childcare benefit is no longer payable. Each child is permitted 42 days absence from care in a given year. However, in circumstances in which it is clear that the service has ceased caring for the child, this bill will allow the minister to specify through a legislative instrument the exact circumstance of a child's absence from care. This will then ensure cessation of the childcare benefit.

Further amendments proposed by this bill will allow the secretary the discretion to cease advance enrolment payments to businesses that have notified their intent to close. This will reduce the debt to the Commonwealth where previously advance enrolment payments were paid up until the business ceased operating. In addition, the bill enables for the greater sharing of relevant protected information between departments where expressed or implied consent has been granted. The purpose of these amendments is to allow information collected by Centrelink on approved childcare services to be shared with the relevant state and territory regulatory bodies under the new education and care services national law. The coalition believes that these amendments make for a more cohesive system, unlike other policies of this government that actively seek to increase the workload on childcare providers by overwhelming providers with baseless paperwork and bureaucracy. In short, the coalition have no issue with this unremarkable piece of legislation before the Main Committee today. We take great issue with the government's management of the childcare industry and the nation's children and will, of course, have much more to say about that in the future.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the Family Assistance and Other Legislation Amendment (Child Care and Other Measures) Bill 2011. This is amending legislation. It makes a number of administrative amendments to family assistance law: strengthening debt recovery, empowering the secretary to do certain things and improving compliance and administration of the childcare benefit. It will mean that unscrupulous operators cannot operate in the market and it will protect the markets from the same. It will improve the accountability of the childcare market and also make it clear that, if a childcare operator restructures, they cannot continue to operate in the market without consequence. It will make sure that mums and dads who send their kids to childcare centres while they attend work know they have the best operators possible caring for their kids.

Meaningful reform I think is at the heart of our agenda with respect to child care. I think this is extremely important because mums and dads who send their kids to child care want to make sure their kids are cared for by ethical, moral, highly educated professionals who not just provide child care but engage in the education process and improve the socialisation that child care provides for young people before they attend school. The rapid growth in the childcare industry has provided many benefits to families and to our economy, but of course there have been some problems and this legislation seeks to overcome them. At the risk of sounding Orwellian, not all childcare operators are equal, not all state regulations are best practice and not enough scrutiny has been undertaken with respect to the childcare industry to make sure that young people receive consistent, appropriate and the best early learning experiences they can be offered.

The unprecedented and shocking collapse of ABC Learning Centres across the country in 2008 exemplified some of the problems in the industry. The industry grew rapidly under the watch of the previous Howard coalition government without appropriate regulation and the consequences were there for all to see. The ABC collapse could have been alarming and disastrous. It was the federal Labor government's quick and decisive action that ensured that childcare centres remained open across the country that saved the day. In fact, 90 per cent of centres remained open when most could have collapsed entirely. About 100,000 families benefited from the government's timely and effective action at the time.

Since 2008 we have introduced a range of measures to ensure the financial viability of childcare providers is strengthened, and I will take this opportunity to outline some of those. These include strengthening the approval process, providing additional notification of the closure of centres and establishing a new penalty regime to have consequences for unscrupulous and unethical childcare operators. Until the 2010 budget we had invested $18.2 billion in early child care across the forward estimates, and that was increased in the budget last night. In 2010 that was $11 billion more than the former Howard coalition government, whose commitment to child care was wonderfully exemplified by the fact that they ripped $1 billion out of the childcare sector in almost the first act they undertook upon election in 1996. That was really an act of economic and familial vandalism of the sector. It had consequences in terms of not just economic development but productivity. In 2008, we delivered on our election commitment by increasing the childcare rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent, from a maximum of $4,354 per child to $7,500 per child per annum. The Howard government had made it so that you could only claim it on a yearly basis or you could knock it down to quarterly, but we changed that and made it on a weekly and fortnightly basis. For a family with long day care needs earning about $55,000 a year, out-of-pocket childcare costs went down from about 13 per cent to seven per cent in 2010.

This is not some esoteric piece of legislation that does not have consequences right across the country. That is evident from the fact that, based on the latest figures that I could obtain, there are 869,770 children in child care across the country. That is 627,980 families with parents working and building our economy while their children are in child care—and there are 13,899 childcare services creating jobs across the country. The legislation before us will improve accountability in the childcare industry and will protect the market, as I said, from unscrupulous operators.

We have also invested another $273.7 million in the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care. We think it is important that there be nationwide consistency with respect to childcare centres—an arrangement which improves educator-to-child ratios, introduces educator qualification requirements and includes a new childcare rating system. Indeed, contrary to what the previous speaker, the member for Farrer, said, it goes about reducing the regulatory burden by establishing a single regulator.

These reforms are very much based on and exemplified by international research into the first five years of life, which points to the importance of shaping the learning experience and social development of our young people. Indeed, I was pleased to see the press release issued by the Hon. Kate Ellis, the Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare, on 12 April 2011, stating that a new report from Early Childhood Australia highlighted the importance of our national reforms to early childhood education and care. The minister welcomed the report and made the point that we are working with the states and territories to 'lift the standard of care across the country'. The report 'clearly makes the case for quality in child care' and is at one with our position on the quality reforms for the childcare sector.

There is little doubt that those on the opposite side of the chamber have manufactured hysteria and faux outrage as we have trumped them in this area of policy reform. They really have forgotten—but the childcare sector has not—that they failed miserably in this area when they were in power. The sector welcomed reform back in 1996, but the coalition came to power and just ripped the heart out of the sector. The sector was left desperately trying to recover, contacting and lobbying coalition members repeatedly. The coalition had failed them and were unsuccessful, much as they were unsuccessful in the aged-care sector during the 11½ years of Howard coalition rule.

We are not going to be cowed by the white noise that those opposite not just perpetrate but also perpetuate, like the previous speaker. We are going to forge ahead because we think this is a meaningful reform agenda. This legislation is part of that agenda, improving accountability, consistency and quality. We want to make sure that parents have peace of mind, that employers and employees have certainty and, most particularly, that our young people have the kind of quality early childhood and care experience they deserve.

Finally, I noted in last night's budget announcements that, under the portfolios of Mr Garrett, the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, and Ms Ellis, the Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare, there was $32.4 million for an early childhood reform agenda, and I think that is important. There is $9.2 million for the recognition of prior learning package to assist early childhood workforce access training, and $23.2 million over four years for the Australian Early Development Index, to be met from existing resources. That brings the total to $28 million in relation to the AEDI for the next three-year cycle. I think that what I have outlined here in my speech shows the high priority that we put on early childhood education and how important it is, and not just for our economy. It is an absolute fact that the previous coalition government spent about one-fifth of our OECD competitors on early childhood education. It is a great shame that we spent about a fifth of what the Americans, the New Zealanders, the Canadians and the British spent. It seemed that the Howard coalition government had a real blank in this area. They just could not understand that this was an important part not just in helping mums and dads but in helping the economy. So a national quality reform agenda is absolutely crucial for early childhood education and care. This legislation, though amending legislation, is important. It is to be recognised that it plays out not just nationally but locally.

Finally, I want to say that the best demonstration of this that I can think of in my electorate is the commitment we made to the Yamanto Early Learning and Care Centre, where the minister came out and made that announcement with me and we opened it together—a $1.6 million commitment. That is the best childcare centre in terms of facilities in the Blair electorate. Its collocation beside the Amberley District School means greater convenience for families in the growing suburbs in the south side of Ipswich, not far from where I live. It is about two kilometres along the road from where I live—in fact, it is on one of my running routes, and I run past it regularly. It is a well-attended childcare centre. That is a demonstration locally of the national approach we have undertaken since we were elected in 2007.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am quite pleased to rise to speak on the Family Assistance and Other Legislation Amendment (Child Care And Other Measures) Bill 2011. When this bill first came to my attention, back when caucus was discussing it, like most people I thought it was a fairly dull bill. It amends a whole stack of acts that have the word 'administration' in them. It deals with things like improving the effectiveness of the recovery of fees, allowing the government to pursue a childcare centre for return of overpaid fees and a whole stack of administrative things to do with the implementation of the national quality agenda. When you first have a look at it, it really does seem to be a lot of small administrative acts. But it underpins some very important reforms in what is perhaps the most important areas for many people in my constituency and beyond: the area of child care. It underpins ensuring that our childcare system is more efficient and it underpins the pursuit of the national quality agenda, and both are very important.

Mr Deputy Speaker, when it comes to child care there is no doubt that times have changed since you and I were children, when usually only one parent worked and grandparents were available to look after the grandchildren even in their forties. My grandmother looked after me, and I look back now and think she would not have been much older than 45. She was certainly much younger than I am, and she looked after us from time to time. That no longer happens in quite the same way in modern families. So professional child care becomes a very important issue for families, and they care greatly about this issue—as you can imagine, because our childcare system takes care of their precious children for large parts of the day. They care that it is affordable, they care that it is available and they care overwhelmingly that it meets the standards that they expect. The Rudd and Gillard governments have been working very hard since 2007 on all three of those elements—affordability, availability and quality—and this bill underpins some of the work that we have been doing in that area. There is no doubt that the changes we have made since 2007 have already assisted families greatly. Most families now spend around seven per cent of their disposable income on child care, compared to 13 per cent in 2004. It is a substantial reduction from 13 to seven per cent of disposable income and I think we can be proud of that. There is no doubt that this is largely a result of the increase in the childcare rebate from 30 to 50 per cent, up to a cap of $7,500.

The recent childcare update provides quite an interesting picture of the extent to which families are using child care across the country. Currently, 869,770 children attend child care benefit approved child care, an increase of 8.7 per cent on the June quarter in 2009. Again, that is a substantial increase and a significant help for families. Children spend an average of 21.6 hours per week in child care across all types, and almost one in four children between zero and 12 years attend child care. Almost 628,000 Australian families had at least one child in approved child care, an increase of 8.4 per cent on the June quarter. Overall we are investing around $20 billion in funding for early childhood education and child care over the next four years, and that is up by more than $12 billion since the last four years of the former coalition government. Again, that is a substantial increase, which has largely led to that change in out-of-pocket expenses from 13 per cent in 2004 to seven per cent in 2010.

We also made a promise early on to pay the childcare rebate quarterly, and we delivered on that commitment. If you remember back to pre-2007, parents had to wait until the end of the financial year after the year in which they paid the expenses to claim their rebate. We also promised to make the childcare rebate payable fortnightly and we are delivering on that from July 2011. These are significant improvements in the childcare system that is available for parents around Australia.

But $20 billion is a lot of money and it is important that we do this efficiently. The amendments in this bill give the Australian government greater scrutiny over operators and their past practices. It enables the Australian government to offset and recover payments owed by one service from another service run by the same operator. Up until now, that has not been possible. The Commonwealth has only been able to pursue recovery of payments from the specific operator. This will ensure that operators who run up debts to the Commonwealth in one service can be held accountable for their actions via another service. For example, when an operator accumulates debts and then exits the market and re-emerges in a similar form, the government will be able to pursue that new entity for recovery.

We know these accountability reforms are very important. In fact, we have been working to improve the financial accountability of childcare centres for quite some time. The collapse of ABC Learning in 2008 was unprecedented and it was quite a shock. The member for Blair has outlined some of the consequences of that. If the government had not acted quickly, almost 100,000 families would have had to find alternative care arrangements with very little notice. Since that time we have made quite significant changes to ensure financial viability of childcare providers, including strengthening the approvals processes and requiring additional notification of closures of centres. The new approvals process includes financial checks for new childcare centre operators to make sure they are viable from the outset and well placed to meet quality standards. These new amendments build on that work to ensure that we have a viable, efficient childcare sector—again, something that is very important to parents seeking affordability along with quality in child care.

Affordability is, of course, a major issue for parents. As I said, we have made significant changes that have improved affordability for parents. Quality is another issue which parents care profoundly about. Recent reports indicate that quality is not always what it should be. A recent report showed that childcare centres accredited between 1 July and 31 December 2010 were not always up to standard. In some areas, around a quarter of them failed to ensure that potentially dangerous products, plant and objects were inaccessible to children or failed to ensure toileting and nappy-changing procedures were positive experiences. For parents who put their children in child care, I know that reading this report would cause great concern, which is why the national quality framework is incredibly important.

This bill supports the government's $273.7 million investment in the national quality framework. The framework has already been endorsed by COAG. There has been significant work done on this in recent years. The framework aims to improve educator-to-child ratios so that each child gets more individual time and attention, and it introduces educator qualification requirements so that educators are better able to lead activities that inspire youngsters and help them to learn and develop. It includes a new rating system so that parents know the quality of care on offer and can make informed choices. I know that for parents in my constituency the ability to know exactly where they are putting their child and the quality of care that that child will receive is perhaps one of the most important factors in choosing a childcare centre. The amendments also reduce the regulatory burden, in spite of the opposition speaker's claim to the contrary, by requiring childcare centres to only deal with one regulator. We know that the first five years of a child's life shape their future. It is perhaps the five years that have more importance in determining the path or your life than any other years that we live through. So it is incredibly important that we get this absolutely right.

The new national quality framework enables the Commonwealth to share information with childcare services that are regulated by state and territory bodies, and this benefits childcare centres by not requiring them to provide the same information to more than one body. Again, while this bill seems to deal with rather dry administrative matters, it underpins some incredibly important reforms that the government has been undertaking for some time. I am pleased to support this bill.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Child care is one of the most vital services for which any government can take responsibility. Adequate child care provides parents with certainty that their children will be not only cared for properly but also given the opportunity to learn. So it is about care and also about learning, at an affordable price. Under the Rudd and Gillard governments, we have made a real commitment towards improving child care, improving accessibility to child care and recognising the importance of child care. Adequate child care is not something that is a privilege; it is the right of all parents to have access to affordable child care.

That is why the government is providing $20 billion over four years for early childhood education and child care. This is almost $12.8 billion more than that provided during the last four years of the Howard government. That is a significant increase in funding for child care and children's education services. This says to me that you go to the Rudd-Gillard governments to look at outcomes for children, a commitment to children and learning, and to see how important child care is. Then you look at the record of the Howard government to see how undervalued child care was under that government. We believe that quality child care is the right of all families and all children. I think the other side of the parliament believes that quality child care is a privilege, not a right.

The government is also providing $16.4 billion to help 800,000 Australian families annually with the cost of child care through the childcare benefit and the childcare rebate. This includes $9.2 billion over four years to reduce childcare fees under the childcare benefit and $7.2 billion to assist working families with out-of-pocket childcare costs under the childcare rebate. This is $10.2 billion more fee assistance than under the last four years of the Howard government. Once again, you have a government which recognises the importance of child care as opposed to the Howard government, which looked upon it as a privilege or something that was there for the wealthy.

The legislation that we are debating here today will amend the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999, the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999, the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Management System and Other Measures) Act 2007, the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999, the Student Assistance Act 1973 and the Age Discrimination Act 2004. The bill makes a number of amendments which allow the government to strengthen debt recovery provisions, compliance and administration of childcare benefits.

These may be largely administrative changes—changes which look at compliance, accountability and recovery—but these are vital changes that will ensure the ongoing viability of our childcare system by a government which is totally committed to ensuring that all children get affordable, quality child care. As I have already mentioned, this is something that the previous Howard government was not committed to.

The bill improves the effectiveness of the recovery of fee reductions, enrolment advances and business continuity payments paid to approved childcare services. It clarifies provisions concerning the effects of a child's absence from care and authorises the minister to specify by legislation the circumstances in which these services will permanently cease providing care. That is quite an important change in this legislation and something that often causes confusion. I am really pleased to see that the minister has put this particular provision in the legislation, because it is all about clarification and certainty, not only to the families that enrol their children in childcare centres but to those childcare centres as well. I have been approached by owners of childcare centres who have found in the past that the provisions, uncertainty and lack of clarity in the act were causing them problems. The minister has set out very clearly the rules that are in place here. Because of this, families can have that certainty which was previously missing.

There are a number of other amendments which look at the recalculation of childcare benefits and fees and information to allow the Commonwealth to share information about childcare services with the states and territories. These are all vitally important changes that will ensure the smooth operation of our childcare services. This legislation is very positive; it shows how committed the Australian government is to providing access to quality, affordable child care and to ensuring the long-term viability of child care. I would like to share with the House that since this government came to power I have noticed a big change within my electorate for the number of people that are waiting to access child care, and that is the MyChild website, which allows parents to look at the services that have vacancies and to compare fees and the services that are provided. It has been a very, very positive initiative that parents have embraced. It has helped parents and carers deal with the problems that existed previously of lack of access to services and not knowing where the services were and what was available. The introduction of this website has improved accessibility to child care.

Given the state of my voice, Mr Deputy Speaker, I think I might finish there. In doing so I would like to conclude where I started, by emphasising the importance of child care for families and carers and the importance of quality child care for the children themselves. I congratulate the minister on the changes she is introducing here and on her commitment to child care and to the children of Australia.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always important for a member of parliament to preserve a valuable asset and I thank the Government Whip and member for Shortland.

Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Shortland and all the members who have made contributions to this debate. This bill contains important amendments to the family assistance administration act and other legislation in order to improve accountability in the childcare sector. The government and, indeed, families right across Australia know just how important this is. We know that, and we were reminded by the overnight collapse of ABC Learning in 2008, which was entirely unprecedented. The government's quick and decisive action at that time meant that 90 per cent of those centres continue to operate for Australian families today. Had that government support not been provided, almost 100,000 families right across Australia might have been faced with the prospect of having to find alternative care arrangements with little or no notice at all. Since 2008 we have introduced a range of new measures to better ensure the financial viability of childcare providers, including strengthening approvals processes and requiring additional notification of closures of centres. We want to make sure that what happened in 2008 with ABC never ever happens again.

The amendments in this bill today, the Family Assistance and Other Legislation Amendment (Child Care and Other Measures) Bill 2011, represent a part of our commitment to improving accountability within the childcare market and protecting the market from unscrupulous operators. This bill broadens the powers of the secretary to refuse the approval of a childcare service for the purposes of family assistance law. Combined with other measures, this will give the Australian government greater scrutiny over operators and their past practices, including the power to look at whether service operators are fit and proper persons. The bill also enables the Australian government to offset and recover payments owed by one childcare service to another childcare service operated by the same operator. These measures will also enhance the government's ability to deal with phoenixing, where an operator who accumulates debts exits and then re-enters the market under a restructured company. Under current arrangements the government can only consider the exact operator and their history in the industry. We need to strengthen this.

Importantly, this bill will also support the government's $273.7 million investment in the National Quality Framework. The changes to protected information will support the National Quality Framework by enabling the Commonwealth to share information on childcare services with state and territory regulatory bodies. This will benefit childcare services by not requiring them to provide the same information to more than one body. This framework, endorsed by COAG, will improve educator-to-child ratios so that each child gets more individual time and attention. It will introduce educator qualification requirements so that our educators are better able to lead activities that inspire youngsters and help them to learn and develop. It will include a new rating system so parents know the quality of care on offer and how to make informed choices, and it will reduce the regulation burden so services only have to deal with one regulator.

We are doing this because we know from years and years of international research that the first five years of a child's life shapes their future, health, learning and social development. We want to make sure that that future is bright for Australian children. We know how important this is. We also know that, of the long day care services that received an accreditation decision between 1 July and 31 December last year, 25 per cent of those services failed to ensure that potentially dangerous products, plants and objects were inaccessible to children. Twenty-nine per cent failed to implement effective and current food safety and hygiene practices. Twenty-eight per cent failed to ensure that toileting and nappy-changing procedures were positive experiences, and 20 per cent did not act to control the spread of infectious diseases and maintain records of immunisations. This government believes that Australian children deserve better. As a government, we believe that we can and must do better when it comes to the safety, wellbeing and early learning of our children.

In summary, this bill makes a number of amendments that will improve transparency of the childcare industry and protect families from unscrupulous operators, and I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Administrator recommending appropriation announced.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.