Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Minister for Education. I remind the minister that last year I wrote to the Auditor-General requesting an audit of the former government's $300 million Early Years Quality Fund following serious probity concerns. Minister, what is the government's reaction to the Auditor-General's decision to examine the Early Years Quality Fund?

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

I thank the member for Mitchell for his question and note that it was his concern about this process and how it affected childcare operators in his electorate that brought this matter to the attention of the Auditor-General. The Auditor-General, with his extensive powers of access and scrutiny, is the appropriate body with the appropriate powers to examine these issues further.

Let us remind ourselves about the Early Years Quality Fund, which was never about the early years and never about quality, but was a $300 million hijack of taxpayer funds in pursuit of a union recruitment drive. Some of the key things that the independent PricewaterhouseCoopers report found when we came into government, I remind the House, were that only 15 per cent of all childcare workers could ever have received a dollar from this fund and then only for two years; it had nothing to do with merit—it was a first-in, first-served scramble for the money; and it did not follow the usual processes and guidelines.

Who presided over this giant muddle? It was the member for Adelaide as minister in charge. And one of the interesting things that did come out of our PricewaterhouseCoopers report was that the guidelines of the then minister said that the minister would advise the sector as soon as possible when the funding cap had been reached—as soon as possible. We know that the fund opened at 11 o'clock on 23 July and closed at midnight on 24 July—13 hours later—Member for Adelaide, and it was your role, according to your program guidelines, to advise the sector. But, months later, people were still using time, money and lawyers to apply for a fund that had completely vanished. There are questions that the member for Adelaide needs to answer.

What a shambles is this modern Labor Party. What a long, long way they have drifted from where they began, from their origins in the shearing sheds of western Queensland and under the Tree of Knowledge in Barcaldine—where the member for Maranoa wins the booth on first preferences—as a party for the workers. The Liberal and National parties know a union rort when we see one, we know a union slush fund when we see one and we also know—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Silence on my left and right!

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

that the interests of the unions as represented by the Labor members in this place are not the same as the interests of the workers.