Nickolas Varvaris (Barton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Minister for Education. I refer the minister to the report in the Australian on 3 March 2014 indicating that hundreds of childcare centres across the nation are being forced to break the former government's childcare regulations just to remain open. How will the government's red tape repeal agenda help to address this issue?

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Barton, in whose electorate I spent some time last week—at the Kogarah RSL, having a round table discussion with childcare providers and services. From the member for Barton's electorate I heard the same things I have been hearing from members on this side of the House for a long time now. We know that the new framework under which the childcare sector operates contains more than 1,000 pages of regulation and more than 1,000 pages of guidelines and is often described by those who have to comply with it as 'overwhelming', 'terrifying', and 'drowning in regulation'.

The Labor Party always comes back to us with the same line. They say that regulation and red tape keep children safe. Well, I have news for the Labor Party—red tape does not keep children safe. In fact, it may well do the opposite. Every day I speak to educators who say things like this: 'Why did we become educators in the child care system? Because we love children, because we connect with them, we have a bond with them, and we want to care for and nurture them.' What we do not want to do—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Member for Gorton will desist—

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

is spend hours and hours of our time filling out reports. For example, if a childcare centre has an assessment it has to produce on demand a report card about a particular child. I am told that takes 22 hours to write. In fact, directors of centres are giving educators extra time to do the paperwork. So, when you meet these wonderful, caring women

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Rankin will desist—

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and some men—who nurture the next generation, where are they? Are they on the floor engaging with the children, or reading, or teaching? No, they are locked in the director's office doing the paperwork.

The member for Barton talked about breaking regulations to open centres, because Labor was so inflexible when it introduced this regime. It said, 'if we do not have the exact ratios complied with for every second of the day, then you cannot stay open'. So, if I am a centre director who gets to work to find one of my preschool teachers called in sick and I cannot find another on short notice, I cannot replace that person with a qualified educator who is not a preschool teacher, but who might still be qualified with an Certificate III in Education. Instead I have to ring the department and get permission to open my centre. This is ridiculous. This is madness. We do not want the wonderful, caring, quality educators who nurture the next generation to have to find another job because they cannot do the thing they love—and the thing they are trained in.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Kingston will desist.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You can have confidence that the coalition will get this right. We have started work with the state and territory jurisdictions already and we have tranches of red tape removal going through. I look forward to the support of members opposite to actually get this agenda going.