Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise in support of the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Improving Assistance for Vulnerable and Disadvantaged Families) Bill 2020. I welcome the opportunity to speak today about the importance of child care and how the government is supporting child care, the childcare system and Australian families. The Morrison government's primary aim is to support families and the childcare sector during the COVID-19 crisis to ensure that quality early childhood education and care is available to vulnerable and disadvantaged children and families.

In my electorate of Longman there are nearly 100 childcare centres, supporting thousands of families and their children. I have had the pleasure to visit many of these centres, regularly engaging with the owners and staff and the families who use their services. I know just how hard these centres work to support families and maintain high-quality care for children in Longman. I know how tough it can be for disadvantaged children and families. Having my own children has taught me the importance of having a strong childcare sector. I want to take this opportunity to thank the childcare centres in my electorate and all across Australia that provide safe child care for Australian families. They do an outstanding job.

As Australian workplaces and businesses reopen and children return to classrooms, the demand for child care is increasing. As the Minister for Education, Dan Tehan, has said, the temporary Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package has done its job. At the start of the COVID pandemic, the childcare sector saw a significant withdrawal of children from child care. We acted quickly to ensure childcare services would remain available, particularly for our essential workers, by introducing the temporary childcare relief package. We recognised the need to ensure that this vital sector remained open and viable. Our review of the package showed it achieved its objective of keeping services open and viable, with 99 per cent of around 13,400 services operational as at 8 May 2020. A survey also showed that attendance levels had increased 74 per cent as at the week of 11 May 2020. Representations from people across the sector, and from families and businesses in my own electorate, have told me that demand is returning to normal.

I believe that we need to look after our most disadvantaged children, and I know this bill delivers on strengthening the government's support for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children and families. The bill will amend provisions relating to the additional childcare subsidy and childcare subsidy in the 'A new tax system act of 1999' and the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999. This bill clearly shows that, when we return to the demand-driven childcare subsidy system on 13 July 2020, we are committed to improving access to child care for vulnerable and disadvantaged children and families and to cutting red tape that impacts providers, families and governments.

The childcare package has a generous safety net designed to provide higher subsidies to families experiencing financial difficulty. The additional childcare subsidies available for families under temporary financial hardship provide increased childcare fee assistance. A loss of income or employment and an inability to pay childcare fees are just some examples of circumstances for which families may be eligible.

The additional childcare subsidy is also available for families transitioning to work. The period of time a provider can apply for an additional childcare subsidy determination will be extended from 13 weeks up to 12 months for children under a long-term child protection order, such as those in foster care. This change recognises the support that vulnerable children need over longer periods. Other amendments will enable providers to apply to backdate a family's additional childcare subsidy beyond the current limit of 28 days up to 13 weeks in exceptional circumstances. Childcare providers will also be able to enrol children who are in foster care under an additional childcare subsidy from an initial period of up to 13 weeks, giving an individual foster family sufficient time to lodge their childcare subsidy claim and have it assessed by Services Australia. Existing provisions where providers are required to notify Services Australia when a child is no longer considered to be at risk will continue to apply.

The government has proactively engaged the childcare sector for feedback, and this bill strengthens our support for families and providers in response to feedback. I want to again take this opportunity to thank childcare providers across the country who provide safe and high-quality care for children. We are committed to supporting them and Australian families, particularly those most vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We remain committed to supporting people through the transition, or the return, to the means-tested childcare subsidy. We are replacing one type of support package with another type of support package. From 13 July 2020 childcare services will receive approximately $2 billion in childcare subsidies and $708 million in transition payments, along with the means-tested parent contributions. Services are required to guarantee employment levels. We are also stopping fee increases during the transition and relaxing the activity test to relieve financial pressures on families who may be doing it tough. The federal government supports families by providing more than $8.3 billion a year through the childcare subsidy to help them with the cost of child care.

It is clear that the government is delivering on its goal to create a more affordable, accessible and flexible childcare system. I commend this bill to the House, because these reforms will benefit families and childcare providers across my electorate of Longman and will benefit people across Australia.

Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Llew O'Brien, it is a real thrill to be able to rise and speak this afternoon on the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Improving Assistance for Vulnerable and Disadvantaged Families) Bill 2020, a bill that I think has been listed and deferred six, seven or eight times since it was first tabled in the House. I have sat here six, seven or eight times waiting for the chance to talk about childcare policy in this country, and it just thrills me that you are in the chair when I get this opportunity this afternoon to talk about it.

I also give a big shout-out to all the childcare educators who are still working late on this Friday afternoon as we sit and many of whom will still be working until six, 6.30 or seven o'clock. They work very long, hard hours. They are essential workers. They do some of our country's most important work. All of the data and all of the statistics say that the first five years of children's lives are the most important for the rest of their lives. The PwC review said that, for every dollar that we invest in child care, the country gets $2 back. I would note, when people talk about the cost of child care in this country, that getting $2 back means we're spending less on children's preventive health, less on children's welfare and less on children's justice. We just cannot invest enough in this crucial area both for the wellbeing of our kids and for the economic productivity of our country.

It is disappointing, then, that I rise to speak about a number of small but important amendments this evening rather than any broader vision for the country on child care. I say that because earlier this week the government sent out government senator Gerard Rennick, a patron senator of mine—I give a big shout-out to Senator Rennick—to speak about child care, and do you know what he said? His fresh, modern, forward-thinking, future-oriented approach to child care was to say: 'You know what? One parent should stay at home and one child should stay at home with that parent. That's what the children want.' He said:

Dorothy didn't … say, 'There's no place like child care.' She said, 'There's no place like home.'

It really struck a chord. The fact that the government would send someone out to say that in all seriousness, and that we have to actually address it as colleagues in the Australian parliament, really beggars belief. I think it tells us all we need to know that it is a 1939 movie that Senator Rennick quotes when he talks about his vision for Australian child care moving into the future.

I will note that the amendments that the government has proposed today are good ones. They are important ones to help vulnerable families. They help the childcare centres who support those vulnerable families in reducing their bureaucratic red tape. We support them. We're glad to do it, but we can't let this opportunity pass without noting that there are big and important reforms to go in child care, and this is a missed opportunity to make those reforms. Child care in Brisbane costs an average of around $112 per child per day. The average monthly mortgage in Brisbane is 1,885 bucks, or $62 a day, so it's roughly twice the cost of your mortgage per day to put your child into child care in Brisbane. It is a huge amount of money. Childcare costs, on average, absorb 27 per cent of a household's income, of a family's income, which is on par with about 30 per cent for the average mortgage. It's also risen by 150 per cent in cost since 2001.

I note that the now Prime Minister, then Treasurer, introduced childcare reform packages a few years back, and they were designed to reduce the complexity of the system. That's what they said—that they were simplifying the system, merging two payments into one system. Everyone would be happier with a less complex system. But on 2 April, when the childcare minister announced the COVID-19 response package for the sector, he said, 'Now, this is a very complex system that we're grappling with.' Is it? Didn't you just make changes a few years ago to reduce the complexity of this system? You can't have it both ways.

But I will concede that I agree with the childcare minister on that point: it is a complex system, and parents and centres find it very complex to navigate. We could make it a lot simpler. We could make it free, for example. But, if we're not going to do that, we could at least fund it properly, and that starts by addressing the problems with the COVID revision package. Childcare workers did some of our most essential work during COVID, and they do not deserve to be the first people off the boat when it comes to being kicked off JobKeeper. They deserve our thanks and respect. They deserve better pay and conditions. Instead what they're getting is to be first off the life raft—'See you later, educators.' It is a disgrace. In fact, the government could move an amendment to this bill to fix that problem. I urge them to do it. When they talk about JobKeeper, I'm glad they didn't call it 'promise keeper'. They'd be in a right royal pickle now if they'd called it 'promise keeper', because it is nothing but broken promises, and soon it will be lost jobs as well.

I would note that we've just had an MPI on the construction stimulus package. This is a male dominated sector where the average worker receives far more than the average taxpayer, yet it has received a targeted stimulus package from this government. The childcare sector, 97 per cent dominated by women—

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! After you said such nice things to me it's a bit harsh of me to do this, but it is 4.30.

Debate interrupted.