Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the Abbott government's proposed $157 million cut to family day care services and how this will unfairly impact on mums and dads in my community of Geelong. Services provided by the City of Greater Geelong support more than 350 children in the community, providing a much needed and valuable service often where there are no alternative forms of child care available. The government's proposed changes to funding for family day care will be a recipe for disaster for families in Geelong and pose a real risk to the capacity for both high-quality and affordable care to be provided.

The city has warned that these changes will mean that not only parents are forced to foot the bill with higher fees but jobs will also be lost through the reduction of support staff. Family Day Care Australia has warned that this will increase fees for parents by $35 a week. This presents another broken promise from the Liberal government. Before the election Tony Abbott pledged that he would make child care more accessible and affordable for parents. Now the families of Geelong are forced to pay the price for another Liberal breach of faith, another broken promise, that will cost local families dearly. Today I call on the government to immediately dump these proposed cuts and give Geelong families a fair go. The mums and dads of Geelong deserve better than Tony Abbott.