Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take this opportunity this evening in the adjournment debate to talk about child care in the context of the unrelenting financial pressures facing Australian families. Child care is one of the biggest imposts on family budgets. I know it is one that causes many families in my community great stress, and it is little wonder. When we had the release of the latest quarterly data on childcare costs last month, it confirmed what thousands of families in my home city of Newcastle already knew—that is, that childcare costs are blowing out. In the last year alone we have seen out-of-pocket costs for child care increase by 4.9 per cent. Over roughly the same period the consumer price index rose just 1.6 per cent. The impact of this is very clear. Families are going backwards, and they're going backwards at a rapid rate.

We are now more than one year into the government's new childcare system and it has demonstrably failed to put downward pressure on fees, and communities across the country are paying the price. Not only are families paying more this year but today they are paying a staggering 30 per cent more than they did in fees since the Liberals came to power. The cost of long day care, which is the type of child care most people are using, has increased yet again to $14,328 per year. When the Liberals were elected, the average annual cost of child care was $11,016 per year. That means families across Australia are having to find a further $3,300 each year to ensure their children are receiving early childhood education. That's a tough ask in anyone's books, especially given that families are already being hit with mounting costs of living.

The complete absence of an energy policy by this government has seen electricity bills go through the roof. At the same time, Australians are facing sky-high gas prices. Health care isn't any better. Under this government, out-of-pocket health costs and wait times for health care are at record highs. Then there's housing. Rents are crippling family budgets across the country. Without at least one six-figure income and one six-figure deposit to match, you can forget about getting into the housing market in most cities. Now the Morrison government's complete failure to do anything about negative gearing has seen the speculative real estate market ramp up in earnest once again.

Of course, while all these fundamental, unavoidable costs of living are increasingly exorbitantly, wages are barely moving. The most recent data showed our wages growth continued to flatline for an annual pace of 2.3 per cent, so families are paying more for everything and getting so much less to start. But the worst part is that the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, himself said on live television that that's exactly what this government designed. Ultra-low wages aren't accidental; they are the main game—or, as Minister Cormann has so honestly put it, they are 'a deliberate design feature of our economic architecture'. There you have it. The government's own goal of driving down wages and working conditions is exactly what the Liberals intended.

Is it any wonder that Australians are closing their wallets and holding tightly to what little left they have? Is it any wonder that Australia recently registered the slowest economic growth in more than a decade? Is it any wonder that people are starting to ask whether this government has any plans for the country beyond low wages and high prices?

All of this has led to the extraordinary situation of the RBA having to step in and cut interest rates twice from their already record lows to 0.75 per cent in an attempt to resuscitate the economy and boost the anaemic growth this government has created. This government has betrayed Australian families and betrayed Australian children. But the path forward is clear: it's time the Morrison government acted in the interests of Australian families. It needs to stop these endless cost-of-living increases, especially for basic living costs. It needs to put a lid on increases, including to childcare fees, and it needs to turn its back on the policies that are actively driving wages into the ground. (Time expired)