Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How many workers are missing out on childcare places because the government is spending $500 million less on child care than they budgeted for?

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow minister for her question, because it's an incredibly important question. Before I go to the heart of it, can I once again just express for all those early educators who have made sure that the childcare sector has been able to offer services right through this pandemic my thanks and the thanks of all of us here in the House, because it's been incredibly important.

I will now just step through for the shadow minister what we've done to fund child care through the last couple of months of the pandemic. We are providing $1.6 billion for free child care this quarter, supporting around one million families. And, importantly, because it was calibrated to work with JobKeeper, we're also providing $1 billion to the sector through JobKeeper. That means we've got $2.6 billion supporting 13,000 services and their staff to stay open and be employed. And that has been incredibly important because, if you look at what has happened around the world, there hasn't been that type of assistance provided. So we stand, against every other comparison internationally, as a gold star in protecting our childcare sector through this pandemic.

I will let the shadow minister know what Paul Mondo, the Australian Childcare Alliance president, said in April 2020: 'The significance of this cannot be underestimated. The day before this emergency package was announced by the Prime Minister and Minister Tehan, a survey showed that up to 30 per cent of our members would be forced to close their centres within days.' As of today, we have 98 per cent of services open and we are seeing attendances continue to rise. Between 40 and 60 per cent on average is the attendance that we're getting. So, rather than the sector collapsing, we have a sector that now is ready and prepared to grow with the economy as we come out of this pandemic.

I say to the shadow minister: this is something that she should support. What the sector has been able to do in managing itself through this pandemic is something that all Australians should be proud of, and I stand ready to work with the sector over the coming weeks and months to make sure that it can continue to grow as we emerge from this pandemic.