Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

VASTA () (): I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that the Government's support for childcare helped Australian families during the height of the coronavirus pandemic and continues to support families as our economy grows;

(2) further notes that the latest data shows more than $3 billion has been provided through the pandemic to keep services viable, staff in work and children in care;

(3) recognises that women's workforce participation has reached a record high of 61.8 per cent; and

(4) further recognises that the Government is investing more than $10.3 billion in the childcare system this year, helping more than 1.2 million families.

The childcare sector is fundamental to nurturing the potential of our children, and that is why I rise today to move a motion which recognises the support our government has provided to this sector. Our government is making a real difference to the lives of families across the country. Even during the pandemic, our support has continued to be unwavering. Our government has remained committed to keeping the childcare sector open and staff employed. Two hundred thousand early childcare workers, educators and teachers in Australia have been able to keep their jobs, and around 6,200 services in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT have received $234 million in payments to date. This is on top of our government's continued flow of the childcare subsidy. Just last month, we announced that our increased childcare subsidy for multiple children has been brought forward four months earlier than first expected. It's certainly been a challenging time, but it couldn't be clearer how important this sector is to Australian families, parent workforce participation and our economy.

I have seen our government deliver for this sector across my electorate of Bonner. I regularly visit our local childcare centres and kindergartens, spending time with the staff and children, and learning about what we can do to support them. These are heartwarming visits. Not only can I see the widespread benefit of our government's funding in this space; I'm also able to recognise the dedicated staff who do an incredible job of supporting our children's passion for learning. During these visits, a guaranteed crowd-pleaser is reading to the children, and the book of my choice is If I Was Prime Minister by Beck and Robin Feiner. Seeing the smiles on the children's faces is priceless, and it makes it especially worthwhile to also donate the book to these centres. Last month I donated the book to the vibrant kindergarten class at C&K at St Catherine's Community Kindergarten in Wishart. The children loved the book so much they created and sent me their own version which told the story of what they would do if they were Prime Minister. Some said they would save the animals, help people and take care of our environment. At a very young age, these children already have amazing hearts for making a difference, as do their family members and educators, who are playing key roles in this. Pulling this book together was truly a tremendous effort by the kindergarten and the staff at C&K at St Catherine's. It's a book I've now shared with my family and even other members of the House. This is just one example of many.

Time and again I hear the overwhelming support from local centres for our government's funding. During this year's federal budget, we announced the investment of a further $1.7 billion into child care to increase its affordability and to give parents the choice to take on extra work. I caught up with Tingalpa's LEAD Childcare centre manager, Krissy, who was very pleased with this. It was especially meaningful to hear her positive feedback, as she's someone with extensive experience in the sector. Supporting our children to engage in early education is the fundamental building block to ensure that they are best prepared to start school.

During Early Learning Matters Week, which fell a couple of months ago, I visited Green Eggs Early Childhood Centre in Mansfield and Mother Duck Childcare centre in Manly, two fantastic local centres that are fostering inclusive spaces for children to grow into confident and enthusiastic learners. These visits were an opportunity for me to personally thank the staff for the high-quality early education and care they provide. When I asked the Mother Duck Childcare centre nominated supervisor, Kate, why being an early educator matters to her, she said that children need strong role models both at home and in their everyday lives, and educators play a special role in guiding them on the value of early education right from the very start. So today I am shining a light on how our government continues to enrich— (Time expired)

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

An honourable member: I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have now been in this parliament for eight years. With some of the things I've seen from this government, it takes a lot to shock me. But I almost fell off my chair when I saw this motion from the member for Bonner. I don't doubt the member for Bonner's sincerity in having a personal commitment to early education and child care, but let's be clear: the Morrison government's handling of child care during the pandemic has been absolutely abysmal. It has been abysmal before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I want to go through this motion and provide the facts about this government's childcare failures. The first point of this motion says that the government helped families during the height of the pandemic and continues to support families. For me, as a Victorian and as an MP who is in constant contact with families and childcare centres across my electorate during the pandemic, this is an extraordinary claim. The government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to their short-lived free childcare experiment. There were thousands of families writing to MPs across the country. It was not perfect, but it was good—so good that the government bagged the idea when Labor proposed something similar at the 2019 election. So they came up with the free child care, which, for the first time, made families understand what it might look like, particularly after they'd been so stressed in the weeks prior to that with people not being able to work and people holding their kids out of child care for fear of catching COVID. They then found that there were limited numbers of days that children could be out of child care and that they would still be paying full fees—and then still paying gap fees. This government clumsily staggered from one issue to the next throughout this. And, of course, their free childcare moment was withdrawn and wasn't there for subsequent lockdowns. So the whole cycle began again: families having to instigate conversations with members of parliament and the industry having to ring us to talk us through the conditions they were finding themselves.

Paragraph (2) of the motion notes that the latest data shows government programs have kept services viable. That is what we were telling them throughout the pandemic: that services would not be viable without government intervention. What does the data actually show us about what's happened in this space? The ABS data confirms that families, on average, are paying more than they ever have in out-of-pocket expenses for child care. In a single quarter, out-of-pocket costs have gone up by 2.1 per cent nationwide, more than double the CPI. Childcare fees have now soared by 39.2 per cent since this government came to office in 2013. The department of education's most recent data, in March 2021, shows that childcare fees had risen by 2.4 per cent over the previous 12 months—again, more than double the Consumer Price Index. This increase included six months of frozen fees.

This government is patting itself on the back today about the support that it gave to this sector and to families, but with the families in my electorate the numbers are extraordinary. In the electorate of Lalor there are 21,000 children in early education and childcare settings. That is 16,000 families in 160 local services. That's an enormous number of families. It's the highest number of families accessing early education and child care of any federal electorate in the country. These are families that are working incredibly hard. These are families who this government is ignoring, because it won't take up the ideas that are being presented by Labor.

If Labor is elected, an Albanese Labor government will make child care cheaper for 97 per cent of families. Importantly, we will task the ACCC with designing a price regulation mechanism to shed light on costs and fees and drive them down for good. The Productivity Commission will also conduct a comprehensive review of the sector with the aim of implementing a universal 90 per cent subsidy for all families. I stand here today and clearly tell the people in my electorate: only Labor has a plan to fix the coalition's broken childcare system, only Labor will deliver better services and more affordable— (Time expired)

Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bonner for moving this motion and providing this opportunity to speak on a topic I feel immense passion for. As the economy recovers in 2022, the childcare sector will play a critical role in facilitating parents' workforce participation. With more than 280,000 more children in child care than when we came to office, the Morrison government knows that support to this sector is completely critical. Parents want the confidence that they can go to work knowing that their children are safe and cared for.

Many of us in this place are working parents. We know the challenges that face young families when they need to return to work. Many of us know intimately both the emotional and the financial challenges placed on young families as they navigate the work-family juggle that comes with having young children, and there's never been a more trying time than during COVID. Those early years are not easy for young families. Sleepless nights and toddler wrangling is often mixed with critical junctures in one or both of the parents' careers. Add to that, parents may need to upsize their house as their family grows. Mortgage pressures are added to the increased cost of feeding a growing family.

This government understands that happy and supported families grow happy and supported children, children that become happy and supported citizens themselves of our great nation. That is why at the last budget the Morrison government stepped up to invest a huge boost to funding in the childcare sector. From early next year Australian families are set to benefit from the Morrison government's budget measures to increase childcare subsidies for families with more than one child under six. The increased subsidies will flow from early March 2022, and these changes will see 250,000 families pay fewer out-of-pocket costs. Furthermore, the removal of the current income cap removes the disincentive for a second earner to undertake work. This will take our total investment to almost $11 billion a year for families to reduce their childcare costs—almost double what Labor spent in their last year in office.

This investment will help local childcare centres right across Higgins, childcare centres including Murrumbeena Children's Centre, Glen Iris childcare centre on Warrigal Road, Malvern Early Learning and Childcare Centre, Little Paddington childcare centre in Malvern East, Clever Kids child care in Ashburton, Inspire Early Learning in Murrumbeena and the Renown childcare centre.

The impact of this subsidy does more than just make child care more affordable and more accessible; it helps to encourage workforce participation, particularly for women. We know that an increase in child care costs results in more women staying at home. The government understands that our economy is stronger when we have fuller participation. We also understand that women make for a stronger and more diverse workplace. We want to encourage workforce participation, particularly among women. We want women to take their place in the world in a way that ensures their financial independence and that their contribution to society is appropriately remunerated. The extra investment that government has made in the last budget will allow around 40,000 people to work an extra day per week.

We all know children are a gift we are given. But, as a mum of four young adults, I know only too well that they grow up in a blink of an eye and then they go on to make their own way in life. We want to make sure that young families can get through the early tough times so that they can thrive and prosper. Helping young families with that early juggle is key to that. These new budgetary measures will put more money back in young families' pockets. It will lower disincentives for parents to return to work or take on additional hours, and Treasury estimates these measures will boost the level of GDP by up to $1.5 billion a year. This complements our 2018 package that has kept out-of-pocket costs for families low. We overhauled the childcare system to introduce one simplified childcare subsidy for all families. These changes combined have helped ensure the highest female participation rate in Australia ever.

As a paediatrician, I understand the value of quality child care for children for their best start in life. The Morrison government understands this too and will continue to provide subsidies for quality child care to the benefit of parents and children now and in generations to come.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Childcare workers and childcare directors—or, as we like to think of them, early learning educators—have been asked to do a lot during this pandemic. They were asked to stay on the front line when we knew very little about COVID. Nearly everyone else had to stay at home, but they had to be able to care for the children of essential workers, showing just how essential they themselves are. They were initially denied vaccinations, and then they had them mandated, and I know both these things caused anxiety.

They were also hearing about the funding arrangements and the changes to their sector only when they were announced in media conferences, never with more than a couple of days notice to make massive changes to their working lives from who could attend child care to how much people would or wouldn't pay. Directors have called me in shock about the changes that were sprung on them over the last year and a half. These directors are predominantly women, and women who recognise the value and role of early learning, and to be treated so cavalierly by the Morrison government was frankly insulting. They deserve the support that they were given as a sector financially, and I think they deserved more, but they also deserved much more respect.

I also want to talk about the parents. It has been more than two decades since I had children in early learning—we called it child care then. From talking to parents now, I can see that the task of choosing the right people to care for and educate your little ones is no less agonising than it was in the 1990s. For the last nearly two years, parents have been asked to trust that their preschoolers were safe at their long day care centre, their family day care centre, kindy or preschool. There was a time when there were told that they were bad parents if they were working from home but still sending their child to be cared for at a centre. Seriously, have you ever tried to work from home with an under-5?

COVID has given the phrase 'juggling work and family responsibilities' a whole new definition. When my volunteers and I have done our community check-in calls, it's clear to me that parents, especially mothers, have had a massive load. There was confusion about whether they'd have to pay a gap or whether it would be waived. Parents were dependent on their centre being able to sign up for it, and the centres were given no support to do it. These were the most challenging of times financially and emotionally.

Now, as COVID seeps into places where we've largely managed to keep it out, I wonder at the government's failure to support the widespread use of rapid antigen self-testing inside childcare centres. You cause havoc to a family and a centre economically, logistically and emotionally when it closes due to a COVID case. There's a screening tool at hand that can reduce that impact, but it isn't being widely used. Kindergartens and long day care centres in Victoria will soon be in line with Victorian schools and have access to free rapid antigen testing kits to help manage outbreaks and limit disruption to children's learning. We need leadership at a national level from the Morrison government. I know that's a lot to ask and we've not seen a lot of it, but we need really good screening programs freely available to the directors and workers to help the parents and support the kids who are in early learning.

Of course, COVID gave parents a momentary taste of access to early learning for free. Even before COVID, though, on this side we knew the burden the cost of quality care was placing on families, especially when wages were stagnating yet childcare costs kept on rising—by around 20 per cent in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury. Now parents of children, like me, look and think, '$100 or $105-plus a day for child care is a lot to pay out of your wage.'

The Morrison-Joyce government's policy sounds okay in an ad, but let's look at the detail because that's where it lets everybody down. It only provides some relief to one in four families. It completely leaves out parents with one child in care. That's 74 per cent of families. It rips the extra support away from families with two children in care once the older child goes to school, and it does nothing to put downward pressure on rapid fee growth. By contrast, our plan will bring the costs down and keep them down. Our plan will benefit 97 per cent of families and address the structural issues. Only Labor will fix this childcare system.

Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't think there's a member in this House who wouldn't acknowledge how important early child care or early childhood learning is, and child care is the subject of the motion the member for Bonner has put forward. But I have heard members of the Morrison-Joyce government call child care the 'outsourcing of parenting', and I recall one member of the LNP government, in previous years, talking about child care as if it's just about wiping noses and changing nappies. Indeed, the member for Bonner, who moved this motion, spent his five minutes on this motion talking about his own visit to a childcare centre, in which he read a book to the children at that childcare centre. Fair enough—he's free to do that. But there was no mention of the hard work that our early educators do, the conditions under which they're forced to work, the low wages and the lack of valuing of that industry that is currently exhibited by the Morrison-Joyce government.

Ninety-seven per cent of people who work in early childhood education are women, and they can earn as little as $22 an hour. That's just above the minimum wage and way below the average wage. As is the case for the member for Macquarie, it's been a long time since I had to place my children in child care, as it was also called back then. But, as a single working mother, I am eternally grateful to every single one of those workers who looked after my children so that I could go back to university and get an education, go to work and put a roof over my children's heads, build up my family, and be a role model for my two young boys, who saw their mother going out and working and building a career for herself. I could not have done that without the childcare workers and the early childhood educators who helped me raise my children. That's what they did: they helped me raise my children. And they are so undervalued. They are so undervalued in terms of remuneration, and they are so undervalued by a government whose members think that early childhood education is outsourcing parenting and is nothing more than wiping snotty noses.

We need to increase the pay rates for our early childhood educators, pay them what they're worth and recognise their value. That's one part of the puzzle here. If we're going to talk about a comprehensive childcare policy and a comprehensive approach to child care, that's one part of the puzzle. The other part is making it more affordable for families. I remember sitting there and doing the sums about how much it was going to cost me to put two children in child care while I went out to work and how much money would be left at the end of the day for the mortgage, for the bills and for food. And let me tell you, I know many families across Australia are doing the same thing today: working out if it's worthwhile sending their children to child care so that one of the parents—usually the female, who is the primary care giver—can go out and build a career and go to work. Right now, our childcare system locks out about 100,000 families who are making those decisions today. Right now, as we speak, parents are sitting there and working out if it's worthwhile for one of the parents to go back to work, because of the cost of childcare. It means that women, predominantly, are either not working or not able to take on more hours.

A responsible government would have fixed this childcare system. It would have done that. It would have increased the pay and it would have made child care more accessible and more affordable. I know that this Morrison-Joyce government has put forward a childcare plan and a childcare policy, but they do not go far enough and do not even compare to Labor's policy, which would help four times as many families and 97 per cent of families would benefit. Only Labor can be trusted to fix a broken childcare system.

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] It's with pride that I speak about the coalition's record in early learning. I also recognise there's similar passion on the other side of the chamber but point out to the previous speaker that the federal government isn't responsible for setting the wages in the public sector. This is done through an appropriate independent Fair Work process. I suggest that the previous speaker pay a bit more attention to the number of applications that have been made to Fair Work to increase those wage rates, something I think is very important and has widespread support.

Today we're recognising how the early learning sector evolved and adapted to get through the COVID process. While every opportunity was taken by the government to have some form of continuity, the shock that was placed on the early learning sector necessitated some unique interventions. We recognise that COVID would have led to falls of well over 50 per cent of income had there not been a Commonwealth response. That response was quickly implemented, particularly where there were falls in attendance of greater than 50 per cent. The waiving of fees for families in that situation was important. It worked. It kept staffing levels as high as possible, particularly in the non-casual sector. Fee freezes, as well, made a really big difference.

We can now reflect on the fact that, next year, government payments to this sector will be nearly double where they were under the Labor administration in 2013. We will see up to 1.2 million families benefiting from them, and the particular changes that we're bringing forward in the budget next year will help about a quarter of a million of those. Remember that allowing second and subsequent children able to get even more childcare subsidy than they otherwise would makes a huge affordability difference. A family which has two income earners on say, $65,000 and $45,000 respectively will be more than $100 per week better off under these changes. The annual cap of just over $10,000 for those with two children in full-time care will see significant improvements. This cap that applies to those earning over $190,000 is effectively removed. It means that all families can benefit, making sure that attending early learning, the same as attending secondary education, is affordable for everyone. Removal of the cap benefits around 18,000 families. This will have massive impacts at the marginal tax rate level for families in that situation, but don't miss the fact we're also making huge changes for those on lower incomes.

Most importantly, I want to draw attention to the most vulnerable. We know that typically 15 per cent of children in the early development census are vulnerable. Another 10 per cent, on average, are at risk. In some areas it's far higher. The role of government is to get it right for this group of people. I remember debating the state health minister last year, when she was the education minister. She wasn't even aware of what proportion of her own state was vulnerable when her government was saying that only vulnerable children could attend school. It is important that we all know that one in six to one in five children need these additional supports. In some cases under this government's reform it's paying the full amount plus some to make sure that those children can attend and making sure that up to 12 hours per week are available to all families. For more early learning support than that there has to be some form of manager activity, which we think is critically important. Locally, in Bowman, under Early Learning Redlands, a fabulous local group really making a difference, we've built a considerable group of providers that can offer allied health support for these children.

I want to make the observation that we've always had strong GP connections to visits in aged-care facilities. But this nation is yet to make that direct connection between holistic general practice care and visiting children in early learning centres to ensure they get the allied health they need. One of my great policy pushes was to use those EPCs, those primary care Medicare item numbers, more freely for all Australians, including children, to get coordinated allied health support, including psychology, so they could get the start they needed at school and be ready to be educated. These highly vulnerable children deserve additional support. Goodstart Early Learning is leading the way, but current providers as well need to find ways to connect with GPs and make sure that these allied health services are delivered in the centre, which would be quite revolutionary, or that these parents can at least get access to allied health, given the workforce shortages, outside that. Nothing is more important than looking after these young Australians.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next day of sitting.