Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition believes in and has always been a strong supporter of choice. We want Australians to have a choice on where they live, where they work and how they raise their kids. We believe that all parents who work or study should have access to care for their children if they want it or if they need it.

The coalition has always been passionate about getting Australians into the workforce. Whether it's their first job, a new job or supporting families back into the workforce after having their children, we have a strong record when it comes to this. Under the coalition women's workforce participation rates were at an all-time high at 62.3 per cent in May 2022. It was 58.7 per cent in September 2013 when Labor last left office. We want to see more women in work. We want to see more children and families access early childhood education, which is why the coalition will not oppose this bill. However, we have several concerns with the government's legislation, and we call on the government to address these concerns to ensure the sector is not placed under further pressure come July 2023.

We are disappointed with the government's lack of detail in the early childhood education policy, given they had nine years in opposition to perfect it. It's clear the government has no effective plan to address the current workforce shortages or the pressures faced by our early childhood educators. Over the last four months I've held roundtables with educators around the country to discuss issues within the sector, and every single one I've spoken with has expressed the concern that this legislation will create more demand and so put more pressure on them—a workforce already under great pressure.

There are more than 7,000 vacancies currently across the sector. Almost every centre I've spoken to is desperate for more staff right now. They know that by July next year without additional staff there's no way they can take on more children. According to Goodstart, the biggest not-for-profit early childhood provider in the country, an additional 9,000 educators will be needed in the sector under these changes. Goodstart, like many other providers around the country, is concerned about the additional pressure 1 July will bring. As John Cherry outlined at the Senate inquiry just last week, 'The ability of the sector to accommodate extra demand for places next July given current staffing challenges should be of concern.' And it should be of concern. So I asked the government, 'What are you doing to address shortages in the workforce right now? What are you doing to address the concerns of educators so we can't only retain good educators in the sector but continue to provide the best start in life for our youngest Australians?' The Treasurer said there will be an additional 37,000 full-time employees created from this bill. But 15,000 ECEs and ECTs will be needed to support these measures. So I asked the Treasurer, 'Will almost half of those new entrants be qualified as early childhood educators and early childhood teachers?' The answer is a resounding no. The numbers just don't stack up.

The government has talked about new TAFE places for early childhood educators. The coalition has always been and will continue to be a friend to TAFE. We want to see more Australians in vocational education, but these extra places won't do anything to address the current workforce shortages and they won't do anything to support the current educators. It takes time to qualify as an early childhood educator. In fact, when asked about it the government conceded itself that it will take time to get those educators trained and on the ground—time we simply don't have.

Another thing we don't have from this government is a plan to improve access. With $4.5 billion of spend not one single new early childhood education place will be created under this policy. It is a shame for Australian families who currently don't have access. They won't get access under this bill. There won't be new access. The government needs to be upfront with families and explain how they plan to increase access to services when their policy will put higher demand on a system already under great pressure.

Centres are capping enrolments. They're closing rooms and they're already considering additional pricing increases as we speak, and it's across the board. It's possible, and likely, that some of the increased childcare subsidy could be lost to price rises between now and July next year—lost to inflationary pressures on fees. Be they large for-profit providers operating centres across the country or locally run community centres, the same issues are being faced by all providers. How will families send their children to the local early childhood education centre if there are no new places or services in their area?

Can the government promise that families in Port Augusta will have the same access to services as families in Mossman? And how will the families of the community in Kingston SE, for example, utilise the additional subsidies when they're still waiting to hear from the government on whether they'll deliver on the $1.8 million early learning funding Minister Rishworth promised them? There's no point in having $4.5 billion in subsidies if families who need it most can't access it for their children.

Of course, the devil is in the detail, of which we're yet to see. According to the Mitchell Institute, a third of Australian families live in a childcare desert—that's nine million Australians. Fifty per cent of those deserts are in regional, rural and remote areas. Our side of the chamber understands how important it is for families to access services, no matter if they live in our big cities or in the regions. And we know that Labor don't care about the regions. They don't care about building infrastructure. They don't care about new early learning centres in the regions. Not one extra centre will be built due to this bill.

The hypocrisy of the government is literally jaw dropping. On one side of their mouth they say they want to improve women's workforce participation and childcare access, and on the other side of their mouth they say they've axed funding from the Building Better Regions Fund for a new childcare centre hub and early intervention service in Bourke. They have a waiting list there of between 26 and 29 children, who are at risk of significant harm, and the community in Bourke was only told yesterday that the deal is off. It's a shame. There'll be no new places to benefit communities in regional cities and women's workforce participation in rural and regional Australia—not under this Labor government anyway. We've seen it time and time again, and my Nationals colleagues are all too familiar with the lack of action for regional Australia from Labor.

This government has no plan to increase access in areas that are crying out for services, areas where women and men want to return to work but can't, because there are no services to accommodate their children. Labor haven't said whether they'll continue the coalition's Connected Beginnings program, which aims to deliver 50 sites by 2025, providing much-needed access for Indigenous Australians living in rural and remote Australia. They've also yet to commit to new rounds of the Community Child Care Fund, which provides grants to services and providers in regional areas. We've heard the government bang on about how every family will be better off under their 90 per cent subsidy scheme, but how can a family be better off if they can't access a service that's near them, or if they're stuck on a waiting list for months just to get into their nearest centre? They simply won't be.

If the government really cared about improving access to care, they would address the areas struggling the most and build new centres. Four point five billion dollars and not one extra new place. Can we even trust that that figure is correct? The figure started at $5.4 billion, then it went to $5.1 billion, and now they're saying it's $4.5 billion. What is the figure? The government has changed it so many times it's hard to keep up.

We all know that Labor's track record is bad when it comes to money. They can't manage it. The bill is a structural spend and the costs are not yet properly understood. The last time Labor was in government, childcare fees skyrocketed by 53 per cent in just six years! Let that sink in. Costs are going to skyrocket again under this policy. The last CPI data, from June 2022, showed that childcare costs came down 4.6 per cent in the year to June 2022. That's thanks to the work of the former coalition government and our childcare reforms—the biggest reforms in 40 years.

Labor has no plans to address rising out-of-pocket costs or rising cost-of-living pressures in child care. The ACCC inquiry they announced last month will cost a whopping $10.8 million, and it won't report back to government until late 2023, after this policy is implemented. It simply won't help to alleviate current pressures in the sector, including workforce and access. Australian families cannot wait that long. They need cost-of-living relief now. In true Labor fashion, it appears they've undercooked their policy, and it will blow out to a much larger number. Let's see the structural consequences to the budget from these measures. The government have only costed this policy for three days a week, which is the average number of days a child attends early childhood education. If the outcome of this policy is to get more children into ECE more days a week, why wouldn't they cost it for, say, four days or maybe five days? It's clear the government haven't done their due diligence on this policy, and they have done next to no modelling to show what the outcomes of their policy will be. They have not done modelling on the impact on women's workforce participation. They simply haven't done it.

Also, we know that the department's evidence last Friday in the Senate inquiry was that this bill brings confusion to the definition of 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children'. The coalition would like to see this definition the same across all policies, and there's work ahead to clarify that meaning so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have the certainty they deserve. The coalition has always been committed to our Closing the Gap outcomes, and we want to see more First Nations children attending early childhood education. Under us, the percentage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children attending the year before full-time schooling increased to 96.7 per cent, beating our target of 95 per cent by 2025. But there's still work to do. We want to see new early learning places for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

To summarise, the coalition calls on the government to do more to address concerns raised by educators, the sector and families. The government needs a plan to increase access. The government needs a plan to increase the pipeline of educators and retain them in the sector. Otherwise, this policy will not deliver on the promises they have sold to Australians, leaving many children and families and the sector much worse off.

For the reasons that I have highlighted above, I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes that this bill does nothing to address broader challenges for access to child care in Australia, namely:

(a) child care service gaps in regional Australia; and

(b) early childhood education and care workforce shortages which are preventing families from accessing the care they need;

(2) notes that the Government's child care package, which costs $4.5 billion, does not add one additional child care place;

(3) notes that child care providers have already increased fees since the Government came to office and the additional demand placed on child care services as a result of this bill will put further inflationary pressure on fees;

(4) calls on the Government to ensure that the promised savings for families will not be eroded by higher fees due to the additional demand for child care services as a result of this bill; and

(5) notes that the bill commits to higher ongoing structural spending and calls on the Government to manage its spending commitments to improve the budget while standing by their promise to deliver legislated targeted income tax relief".

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

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

I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Two years ago this month, I stood across there at that dispatch box and announced Labor's plan for cheaper child care in my first budget reply. It was the centrepiece of the first budget reply and the first step which saw those now on this side of the House walk across the chamber and form government. It was a critical commitment that we made to the working people of Australia, and we did it with the support of the business community, with the support of our electorates and, importantly, with the support, particularly, of working families.

Here today we had an opportunity for the 'noalition', who sit over there for a reason, to prove that they were actually capable of listening to the very clear message that consigned them to opposition on 21 May, and yet what we just had from the shadow minister is, again, a statement of objection to expanding child care—objection to expanding the support for working women. I wait for the class war rhetoric to come from those opposite—that we're helping wealthier women in terms of families.

The truth is that this is a policy that will boost productivity, boost workforce participation and boost population: the three Ps. If you're looking at economic growth and how you grow an economy, they are known by all economists as the three Ps: participation, productivity, population. This policy delivers on all three, and it is very clear that we have an absolute mandate for this policy.

I was back in Eden-Monaro this morning with the member, again visiting an early learning centre, talking to the workers there—the fantastic workers who provide such support for our youngest Australians. That is one of many, many dozens of visits to early learning centres that I have made since we announced that policy in 2020. And yet those opposite still have not got the message. They're incapable of actually moving at all. They think that they will just oppose everything, including a policy that we have an absolutely clear mandate for.

This not a welfare policy; this is about economic reform. The bill will boost productivity, lift participation and remove one of the biggest structural barriers to economic equality for working women. When we announced this policy, part of it was to lift the cap. Those opposite said that was economically irresponsible and that would be a disaster for the economy—before they then announced it themselves. It was a disaster, but then they adopted it!

What those opposite are incapable of doing, though, is precisely what is in the title of the bill, the cheaper childcare bill. They're incapable of providing support for the cheaper child care that we will deliver for 1.2 million Australian families, starting in July next year—not a single family worse off but 96 per cent of families better off. Ninety-six per cent of families will be better off, but those opposite are angry about that. They're angry about that. They carry on about the cost of living. Here we have a practical measure that will make 96 per cent of families better off, but they're going to vote against it. That's fine. They'll be held to account for it. The plan we are delivering means significant savings for household budgets around the country. A family on a combined income of $120,000 with one child in care will save $1,780 in the first year of this plan alone. That's $1,780 more in their pocket in the first year alone. This bill helps with the cost of living, it invests in early education and it delivers overdue economic reform.

The greatest untapped resource in our economy is the full, equal and resourceful participation of women, and the childcare system should be all about facilitating that, empowering it, helping parents return to work when they want to and helping mums and dads balance their career and their caring responsibilities in a way that works best for them. Yet at the moment it does the exact opposite. For so many families there's a cut-off, a financial cliff, where one partner—and it usually is the mother—is effectively penalised if they want to work more than three days a week. How does it make any sense at all that, if you want to more fully participate in the workforce and you work a fourth or a fifth day, then you receive very little, minimal, economic benefit from that? Sometimes you can actually go backwards. It can actually cost you money in real terms for you to fully participate in work, and that flows through, because it penalises not just those families but the businesses who don't benefit from having full-time workers. Not only does that impact working families at the time; it flows all the way through the system to lower retirement incomes for working women. Women retire with much less in superannuation and retirement savings than men—much less. One of the things that we're seeing in this country is that the fastest-growing cohort of homeless people, of people really doing it incredibly tough, is older women. They might find themselves by themselves, not part of a family with a male breadwinner or an male ex-breadwinner who is on a higher income. They are left by themselves, and they struggle to get by because they don't have the same retirement income that others do.

This is much-needed reform. The productivity agenda: if you speak to anyone in the business community—those opposite used to say that they represented the business community, but on climate no, not so much; on productivity no, not so much; on this area, not so much either. The Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group, ACCI, every local business chamber will tell those opposite that this is about productivity for their business. This is about boosting productivity as well. As the Minister for Education noted when he introduced this legislation, Treasury estimates that in the next financial year our plan for cheaper child care will mean up to an extra 1.4 million hours of paid work per week for women with young children—1.4 million hours of paid hours worked additional. Those opposite might not have got the memo, but there are skill shortages in this country. There are businesses crying out for workers. Here we have a measure that will produce up to an extra 1.4 million hours of paid work per week. But those opposite say, 'no, not good'. It's the equivalent of finding an extra 37,000 full-time workers.

So it's about assisting families; it's about productivity; it's about economic reform. In the course of campaigning over the last two years for this reform I have spoken with a lot of families about this issue. It's my experience that nearly every Australian parent with a child in child care tells you the same two things about the system. The first thing they say is that the people working in it are remarkable. I have met some more of them again today. The Minister for Education proved that he was much better at art than I was today—the teddy bear that he drew there at the early learning centre will hang with pride of place; my bunny rabbit not so much. Parents trust early childhood educators with the most precious thing in their world, and across Australia they perform the vital work with love and care and creativity and a seemingly endless supply of patients. I do want to give a shout out to them.

So if the first thing that any parent tells you about child care is how great the educators are, the second thing that every parent tells you about child care is that it keeps getting more expensive. The figures are there—it's not a feeling, it's not a vibe. Costs have gone up by 41 per cent in the past eight years; 41 per cent on the former government's work. Let's be very clear. Childcare bills are not going up because educators are suddenly being paid a lot more. The rising fees vastly outweigh any increase in wages. That's why we have put the ACCC on the case, to make sure our investment gets prices down and keeps them down. That's why a key part of this legislation is about increasing transparency, making sure that the big providers in particular are reporting their profits and revenues to the Department of Education and are being upfront with parents about where their fees go. We're making child care more affordable and accessible and providers more accountable.

Our Labor government is helping families with the cost of child care because we know the value of early education. Education opens the doors of opportunity for individuals, and it makes us a smarter, more productive, more future-ready nation. That is the third element to this as well: it's not only good for families, it's good for the economy, but it's also good for the young children themselves. All the experts tell us that over 90 per cent of human brain development occurs in the first five years. That is why it's astonishing that we are so far behind most of the OECD when it comes to providing this support. Education is a lifelong journey, and early education gives you such a great start. That's why it's important to note as well that this bill gives more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children access to child care—to help close the gap in education at the very outset.

Labor's plan for cheaper child care benefits two generations of Australians simultaneously. It gives access to early education for a great start in life, flexible support for families, and a multibillion dollar boost to productivity and participation without adding to inflation. That is why we see this bill as the foundation, a hugely important first step—because in this term of government we are tasking the Productivity Commission to chart a course for universal, affordable child care. Just as universal Medicare guarantees every Australian the right to quality and affordable healthcare, just as universal superannuation ensures every Australian can know dignity and security in their retirement, we want universal child care to guarantee every Australian family the support they need and every Australian child the opportunity that they deserve.

I'm very proud we're delivering for families who voted for cheaper child care. You'll see it there in tonight's budget along with the other commitments that we have a mandate for—that Australians voted for in May. And there is nowhere a policy that we talked about more. This is the biggest single on-budget commitment that we made, and we made it in my first budget reply, so it isn't like they didn't see this coming. It isn't like Australians didn't have an opportunity to scrutinise this policy. We made it very, very clear from the outset, and Australians voted for it. That's because this is economic reform which particularly benefits working women. It was one of the themes, of course, of the Jobs and Skills Summit, held just a short time ago in this parliament, that those opposite couldn't be bothered to attend, with the exception—the honourable exception—of the leader of the National Party.

I'm determined for this to be the beginning, not the end, of making early education affordable for every Australian family that seeks out the opportunity. I encourage those opposite to wake up to themselves and go and talk to working parents and ask them if they support cheaper child care. Go and talk to businesses about whether they support the position. They're saying now, having moved an amendment condemning it, that they might vote for it! Now, that's the sort of consistency that I expect from those opposite! I commend the bill to the House and I encourage this parliament to vote for this legislation.

Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I support moves to make child care more accessible and more affordable for all Australian families. Not only is this sensible economic policy; it will also provide our children with the best possible start in life. It will increase female participation in the workforce. It will reduce the gender pay gap and make child care affordable for all families. Early education plays a crucial role in our society. However, right now, many families struggle to access child care places, and the cost of child care is a huge barrier for many women as they seek to return to the workforce. This bill is a step in the right direction towards universally accessible and affordable child care.

When it comes to female participation in our economy, Australia is behind our international peers. For although the World Economic Forum's global gender gap index ranks Australia No.1 for education of women and girls, we are ranked way down the line, 70th, for woman's workplace participation—a slide from 12th in 2006.

According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, the gender pay gap in Australia has also worsened this year and now stands at 14.1 per cent. This equates to the average Australian woman earning nearly $264 less every week than the average Australian man. In other words, a woman must work 60 extra days a year to earn the same amount. Women are also retiring with 42 per cent less super than men, and women aged over 55 are now the fastest rising segment of our population experiencing homelessness. Obviously, this is not fair and not right, nor is it economically viable for our nation to continue to disincentivise over 50 per cent of our population from working.

For too long, women have been economically left behind in this country, and reform to make child care more affordable and accessible is long overdue. Research also illustrates the crucially important role early education plays in the development of our children. According to the organisation Thrive by Five, nearly a quarter of children are starting their primary school years in a vulnerable state due to a lack of quality early education, and evidence shows that most never catch up to their peers. If we do not make high-quality early education affordable and accessible to all Australians, we will simply fail our children. A child should never be denied critical early learning, nor should a women lose the opportunity to work because child care is too expensive.

Many mums in Mackellar and on the Northern Beaches have approached me on the street or emailed my office to tell me that something absolutely must be done about the rapidly rising cost of child care and that the cost of child care is the main reason they have not returned to work. The cost of child care has risen 14 per cent in just the last 12 months. Intelligent, hardworking, qualified and willing workers from all sectors of the economy are choosing not to work and not to re-enter the workplace, because it doesn't make economic sense to do so. As the Grattan Institute's Danielle Wood told the Jobs and Skills Summit earlier this year:

I can't help but reflect that if untapped women's workforce participation was a massive iron ore deposit, we would have governments falling over themselves to give subsidies to it and get it out of the ground.

Modelling shows that the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Cheaper Child Care) Bill 2022 will create around an extra 37,000 full-time jobs, covering up to 220,000 additional days of work each year. This bill goes some way to mining that amazing talent pool that we are currently ignoring, and that is Australian women.

However, we can't pretend that this policy will be a silver bullet. There are a number of issues that must be addressed for the cheaper child care bill to be successful. Currently, one-third of families live in what is called a 'childcare desert', where there is simply no child care available. So it doesn't matter how affordable child care becomes, these families still won't be able to access child care, as it doesn't exist in their area. These childcare deserts are predominantly in rural and regional areas, but they also exist in all capital cities. The Productivity Commission review of the childcare sector that was promised at the Jobs and Skills Summit must examine these supply constraints in the early childhood education sector. There must also be regulation to ensure that the increase in the childcare subsidy for families does not end up with childcare services simply increasing their fees and neutralising the benefit to families.

Additionally, the activity eligibility test, which looks at whether or not both parents are working, should allow for a base entitlement of 36 hours a fortnight for all children, regardless of whether their parents do or don't work. Often, it is the children of parents that do not work who are most vulnerable and are in most need of the intervention and support that early childhood education provides.

However, one of the biggest challenges to the success of this bill is the fact that we are in the middle of a jobs and skills shortage, and the early education sector is one of the industries that is struggling to find enough workers. As we make child care more affordable and more accessible, so too will demand for early child educators rise. In August this year there were already 7,200 vacancies in early childhood education, and modelling shows that on top of this an extra 9,500 full-time educators will be needed to make this policy work.

Fiona Spencer is someone who lives in my electorate. She has operated childcare centres in Sydney and Canberra for over 11 years. Fiona told me that, despite welcoming this legislation, she has grave concerns for the future of the industry and worries about where the extra workers will come from. Fiona told me how COVID has made labour shortages even worse. In her words, she said:

The system is failing children and failing staff to support the children. It needs a structural approach and a massive overhaul.

While I commend the Australian government's commitment to the fee-free TAFE positions for early educators and to increasing the number of positions available to early educators in our skilled migration program, more can be done. From my discussions with the sector and other experts, it is clear that the No. 1 thing that we can do to halt the exodus of workers from early education and to attract more people to the sector is to increase their wages. In many places, you can earn more at Bunnings than you can working in child care and early education.

Analysis by the Australian Association for Research in Education and The Parenthood shows that the early education sector has an attrition rate of 35 per cent, up from 20 per cent. A survey of 4,000 workers during COVID showed that 73 per cent intended to leave the sector within the coming years. Data from the national early childhood education regulator reveals that in the first quarter of this year 8.1 per cent of childcare providers operated with a staffing waiver, which allows them to remain open despite having inadequate staff numbers.

Despite having similar qualifications, early childhood educators are paid, on average, 30 per cent less than their counterparts working in the school system. We need to reverse this figure for this policy to be successful. To do so, The Parenthood has recommended that government fund a 10 per cent increase in wages for early educators. With cost-of-living pressures paramount in people's minds, this would help people to choose a career in early education and child care and it would send the message that their work is valued and vital. The Parenthood has calculated that a 10 per cent wage supplement for two years would cost $700 million.

I support this measure and call on the government to support this pay rise for our early educators, most of whom are women. Supporting a thriving and viable early education sector and making child care accessible and affordable for all Australian families is good economic policy. It's good for our children and it's a positive step in reducing the gender pay gap. I commend this bill to the House and congratulate the government for prioritising this legislation in order to get our country moving forward again.

Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is indeed a great privilege to rise here today to speak in support of the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Cheaper Child Care) Bill 2022. I am proud to serve as the Minister for Early Childhood Education in an Albanese government—a government that delivers on its promises, a government that understands that Australian families are struggling with skyrocketing fees for early childhood education and a government that understands the importance of ensuring all families, no matter where they live, have access to quality early childhood education.

The Albanese government's early childhood education and care reforms come after years of inaction from the previous government, with fees for centre based care rising by an incredible 41 per cent in the last eight years. I note that the shadow minister in her opening remarks said, if I may paraphrase, 'You've been in opposition for nine years; why didn't you do anything in opposition?' I turn that question around to the shadow minister and say, 'You have been in government for nine years; why didn't you do anything when you were in government?'

The Albanese government's early childhood education and care reforms were an election promise. We went to the election promising to reduce out-of-pocket costs for Australian families, and this bill will do just that—cutting the cost of early childhood education and care for around 1.26 million families right across Australia. But this bill does more than that. It is about more than just increasing affordability. It's also about ensuring that we give families greater choice to participate in the workforce and give our children the best start in life.

The high costs of early childhood education and care, as those who have spoken before me have noted, can put early learning out of reach for many families and can act as a massive disincentive for people to get back into the workforce or to work more hours or more days, and that can impact on career progression for primary caregivers, who overwhelmingly tend to be women. Treasury estimates that these measures will increase the hours worked by women with young children by up to 1.4 million hours per week in 2023-24. That's the equivalent of 37,000 full-time workers. This makes a difference to the economy because this means families are generating extra income. It's building careers and the retirement savings of Australian women. The Prime Minister, in his contribution this morning, noted that Australian women are more likely to be in poverty and homelessness in their later years because of an interrupted career, because they're unable to save up that superannuation. A lot of that has to do with early childhood education being unaffordable for those women.

Early childhood education and care also play a vital role in supporting families and improving the education and health outcomes of our children. I really want to put an emphasis on that, because boosting access to early childhood education will ensure that more children experience the benefits of foundational learning, preparing them for a life of exploration and a life of learning. I emphasise this and say this very clearly: the main beneficiaries of the Labor government's reform are Australia's children.

I know how powerful early childhood education can be for children. As a single mother, I had no choice but to go back to work. In raising my two children as a single mother, I experienced just how it important it was to have access to affordable early childhood education for them. Without it, I wouldn't have had the capacity to return to work, I wouldn't have had the capacity to return to study and I certainly wouldn't have had the ability to create a better life for myself and for my children. It's no overstatement to say that I wouldn't be here today without the quality early childhood educators who were so committed to giving my children a better-quality start in their lives.

I've spoken to parents across Australia who have shared similar stories with me about the part that early childhood education played in them being able to return to work and being able to build their families. They've told me how welcomed these reforms are, particularly by women who want that ability to choose to engage with the workforce if they so wish, to add to the family income if they so wish. But, importantly, I've also seen firsthand the power of early childhood education in children's lives, in the children that I've met across this journey. Last week, as part of Early Learning Matters Week, I visited Goodstart Nollamara, in my electorate. It's a fantastic centre. And this morning we were in Queanbeyan, with Minister Kristy McBain, Minister Jason Clare and our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. I've visited centres in electorates across the country and, in all of those visits, I've spoken to families and to educators alike about our changes, and they have all told me that they welcome the introduction of this bill and our broader plans to make early childhood education more affordable and more accessible. I know that's the message that members on this side of the House are getting from the families they represent in their electorates.

In his second reading speech, my colleague the Minister for Education, Jason Clare, outlined the key elements of this bill. I'm proud to be working closely with him to ensure that our reforms make early childhood education more affordable for around 96 per cent of Australians. One element of the bill that I want to take some time this morning to draw attention to is the changes to the activity test for First Nations families. That's an element that highlights our government's commitment to closing the gap for First Nations Australians. Access to high-quality early learning is a key measure, shown to reduce vulnerability and improve early childhood development. At the moment, only 4.3 per cent of children in early childhood education and care identify as Indigenous, despite being 6.1 per cent of the overall population of children aged zero to five.

This bill provides a base level, a minimum, of 36 subsidised hours of child care per fortnight for First Nations children, and this demonstrates our government's longstanding commitment to providing extra support for First Nations children and students, and our commitment to working with communities to improve outcomes for children. These simple changes will benefit around 6,600 First Nations families in care and encourage more families to access early education. Not only do these changes help ease the cost-of-living pressures, but also they provide even more opportunities for First Nations children to access the development, education and health benefits of early childhood education and care, helping to ensure that they are school-ready.

I'm also very proud to be working alongside the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, to develop the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy Partnership between Australian governments and First Nations representatives. That partnership is co-chaired by the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families, SNAICC, the National Voice for our Children. The partnership will work with governments to develop community-led policies and programs that First Nations families need for their children to thrive.

I note that, in her contribution to this debate, the shadow minister raised several questions regarding several programs that we're doing specifically for First Nations children and, more broadly, around workforce issues and regional access. I will answer those questions in my contribution here today.

Turning to those broader issues that are being experienced by the early childhood education sector, we know that, in order to be able to deliver our commitment to more affordable, quality and accessible early childhood education and care, we need to correct the years of neglect as to workforce issues, pay and conditions and staff shortages. That's why I've met with unions, providers, educators and peak bodies to discuss the issues that they're facing and committed to work with them. We know that ECEC workers make an important contribution in the lives of our children and families, and we recognise that they are educators, not childminders, and deserve greater recognition for the important work they do. This is something that I am deeply committed to and will continue to work on, with educators in the sector, unions and my state and territory counterparts. It's also why we're bringing forward fee-free TAFE places and funding an extra 1,469 university places for early education teachers.

We're also committed to wage growth, which is why we successfully argued for a pay rise for the lowest-paid workers in Australia—something that those opposite opposed. It's why we're committed to addressing the gender pay gap and will strengthen the ability of the Fair Work Commission to order pay rises for underpaid women workers and allow multi-employer bargaining. It's why early childhood education was high on the agenda of the Jobs and Skills Summit and we're acting quickly to implement some of the commitments made at that summit. It's why my colleague the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Tony Burke, will introduce reforms to deliver on our commitment to improve the industrial relations system. And I know these changes will be very significant for the early childhood education sector.

National Cabinet has also tasked education and early years ministers with creating a vision for the future of early childhood education in Australia, with a particular focus on the workforce shortages. We're also delivering on the National Children's Education and Care Workforce Strategy implementation and evaluation plan, which outlines 21 practical actions to support the attraction, retention, quality and sustainability of the workforce in the long term. And that includes work on recognition of prior learning, microcredentialing, credentialing and the fantastic Big Roles in Little Lives campaign to promote carers in the sector. We're also committed to working with the sector and states and territories to find lasting solutions.

The Community Child Care Fund supports early childhood education and care services to address barriers to participation in early childhood education and care in disadvantaged, regional and remote communities, something I know the shadow minister also asked about. We have committed to the CCCF, which funds around 900 services across Australia to ensure families have access to quality care where the market might not otherwise provide services. It's currently delivering approximately $533 million over four years, and over 60 per cent of grant funding supports services in regional and remote Australia.

We're also developing a market strategy which will assist us to identify thin markets and areas of need and to consider solutions to address those needs. In terms of the Connected Beginnings program, which the shadow minister also referenced in her contribution, I can confirm that since we have come into government another eight Connected Beginnings sites have been opened, which now brings the number up to 32 Connected Beginnings sites, and we are well on our way to our aim of 51 Connected Beginnings sites by 2025.

Our reforms build on a long-term legacy of Labor governments, who have for a long time focused on quality in early childhood education and supporting early educators. It was after all the Gillard government that introduced the National Quality Framework, a care reform to ensure all children across the country get quality education.

In developing this bill, our government have engaged extensively with the sector, who we recognise have substantial knowledge and experience. That is critical to our government achieving their ambitious reform—people like my good friend Sam Page, the CEO of Early Childhood Australia, and people like Jay Weatherill, the director of Thrive by Five. So don't just take my word for it; take the word of those out there, people like Georgie Dent from The Parenthood, who know that these reforms are life changing for Australian families. We're going to continue to work in collaboration with them.

Most importantly, I look forward to delivering a better future for all young Australians, no matter who you are or where you live—children like Zoe, who I met a few weeks ago in North Coburg, and Amara, who I met in Canberra. Zoe and Amara, you and children like you are this government's No. 1 stakeholder. The Albanese government wants the best for you and your future, and we will make sure that you have the absolute best start in life. I commend this bill to the House.

Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Cheaper Child Care) Bill 2022. Affordable, high-quality child care has many benefits to our society, to children, to their parents and to the economy. So what does this bill do? The government claims that around 96 per cent of families with children in early education and care will be better off and that none will be worse off, that families with a combined income of up to $80,000 will receive 90 per cent of childcare support for their first child in care, while families with a combined income of up to $530,000 will receive childcare support increase with the rate of subsidy tapering one per cent for every $5,000 earnt above $80,000. Currently, subsidy caps cap out, or stop, at $356,756, so it's a big increase to go up to that $530,000 cap. Second and subsequent children five and under will retain the higher childcare support, recognising the increased financial burden of multiple children attending child care. There are also targeted measures to improve access for First Nations families and staff of the childcare sector. Finally, there are amendments to increase the integrity, transparency and reporting requirements for childcare providers, including greater transparency of gap fees. This will assist parents enormously.

So why is this bill so important? For children, we know high-quality early childhood education and care is robustly associated with positive outcomes at school entry and improvements in social development. This is an investment into our future as a nation.

Affordable child care is important for gender equity and the economy. As the minister has noted, families with two or more children in day care are finding substantial financial disincentives for one parent to work more than three days a week. Overwhelmingly, the mother is the one who works part time. This has a significant effect on career progression and women's superannuation.

I, like many in this place, can speak from experience of the juggle of child care. I used everything available, from my years studying to my years practising as a barrister, from public child care to family day care to long day care centres and, of course, to that group that we often don't acknowledge enough: the grandparents who are often filling the gaps in our society—unpaid and unrecognised, but doing so much to assist in actually keeping most families afloat.

There's something that we haven't talked about much in this discussion: how difficult it is sometimes, with the pressure and inflexibility within our childcare systems. Take the pick-up time: I don't think there is a parent out there in Australia that has not been stressed at the idea of the deadline for pick-ups. I just don't know who came up with the hours in the first place of what a traditional day of child care should be, because very few workplaces actually have similar work hours. So that gap between long day care centres and other childcare centres, and just being able to cover that full day, is so incredibly difficult. And what about weekends for people that are rostered on or working on weekends? There is very little that I'm aware of in the way of childcare availability when it comes to weekends. And that's where you fall back on grandparents. So I think that, in looking at how this area needs to be further developed and strengthened, there should be consideration of people who work hours other than the traditional nine to five—noting that child care often caps out at three, so I don't know what was intended about the nine to five!—and recognition of that assistance from our community, from grandparents, and of what they do, and of that carers' time that so many older Australians put in to our economy.

The Business Council of Australia recognises this aspect of child care when it comes to women's participation in the workforce. They noted in their submission to the Senate inquiry: 'Increasing the workforce participation of women is one of our nation's biggest economic and social opportunities.' The provision of an affordable and accessible and a quality childcare system is fundamental to that goal. If parents are supported with access to quality child care in order to participate in work, education or training, the broader benefits to the economy are manifest.

And it is so incredibly tough. I remember taking my son to university on the weekend because there was no child care available and I had to go to university lectures. I remember doing the juggle, which can be incredibly difficult when starting out in a profession. I think we really need to think about this system, this area of work, which absolutely underpins so many others.

So I welcome the government's initiative and the budget commitment of $4.5 billion over the forward estimates, but I'd like to make some more observations. The maximum childcare subsidy of 90 per cent of the fee cap begins to taper after a combined family income of $80,000—just that. The latest earnings report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that average full-time workers make $92,029 per year. Even with two parents on an average wage, the childcare subsidy benefit begins to erode. With childcare costs rising 41 per cent over the past eight years, and Australia's inflation rate predicted to be more than seven per cent this year, any benefits of this legislation may quickly vanish. I note that, prior to COVID, childcare costs absorbed some 18 per cent of household income for an average-earning Australian couple with two children, compared to the OECD average of 10 per cent.

One of my constituents recently wrote to me about how she will be choosing to leave her job as a physiotherapist in an oncology ward simply due to the cost of child care. She's been working for $55 a day, pre tax. Her departure will not only remove her tax contributions from the government's revenue but also remove a valuable worker from an already strained health system. The government has indicated that it will commission the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to examine why childcare costs and out-of-pocket expenses are rising so much, together with a comprehensive review of the early education and care sector by the Productivity Commission. I welcome this review and I encourage it to also look at the flexibility and availability of hours and the issue of weekend care.

I also welcome the transparency and reporting reforms contained in the bill. In terms of how information provided is reported, I would like to see a standard report, so that parents can make a direct comparison between providers and to make sure that the information is meaningful. I also encourage the government to ensure that exceptional circumstances exceptions for payments by electronic transfer or absences are not too onerous.

We know COVID had a huge impact on the sector. During COVID childcare centres struggled to survive. One issue was the number of absent days a parent was able to claim while keeping their child enrolled. Flexibility on absent days is so incredibly important. We are now living with the pandemic but still being encouraged to stay home if people are unwell. Similarly, a number of childcare advocates made the observation about the activity test linked to childcare benefits. Again, I would encourage flexibility on the activity test application, particularly in relation to First Nations and vulnerable families. Making workplace participation a prerequisite for childcare subsidy makes it harder for those already doing it tough to begin training or looking at work.

Labour shortages: we know, in so many industries, that Australia is facing shortages in many areas. Child care is no different, but it is unique in that it is an enabler for many sectors, by enabling parents to work in a range of sectors. Availability as well as affordability is vital. While Warringah is not alone in facing issues with accessibility, I do know that in recent times the Mosman Council has closed its occasional care centre, and Brookvale out-of-hours care and long day care have advised that they are also closing. This creates a huge issue for parents who rely on such services to be able to work—in particular, as I've already mentioned, that discrepancy between the expectation of hours of work and the opening times of centres.

Last week was Early Learning Matters Week. I visited the Manly Community Pre-school. They're struggling to attract sufficient certificate III qualified staff, as the low pay rate means that cert III staff are simply going into other sectors that are more attractive, like aged care. They told me there is a shortage of about 7,000 workers in this area. The Parenthood group estimates that to realise the full benefit of this bill an additional 9,650 full-time educators will be needed by next year to absorb the additional demand.

My constituents tell me that educators are leaving the sector in record numbers. They're burnt out. Their pay is so low. Family day care centres in New South Wales, for example, have continued to contract since 2016, and in the six-month reporting period to December 2021 they have reduced by some 7.6 per cent. Over the past four years there has been a 25.5 per cent decrease in the number of family day care approved services, and a 33 per cent decrease in the number of educators. This is incredibly concerning. As I've already said, the sector underpins and enables all other sectors, all parents, to go to work. So it is incredibly important that the sector be given the priority it needs.

We know the decrease in the number of educators has a really negative impact on the diversity in childcare needs and the access to flexible and non-standard hours. Centres across the country are having to limit enrolments due to staffing issues. Northern Beaches Council staff have told me that, while the bill is a great step forward, staffing shortages are a significant barrier to enabling the bill to be sufficiently implemented. So I encourage the government to focus on the issue of attracting and keeping quality educators for all age groups. We need to be working with the education sector, with the TAFE sector, to ensure that those educators are coming down the line. It is no small task as it's a very large workforce, predominantly run and staffed by women. Family day care educators, for example, comprise one of Australia's largest network of women in small business. Electorates like Warringah are struggling to retain staff when the cost of living is so high and the pay for early childcare workers is so low. We need, as a society, to value the work these early educators are doing.

I would also like to draw attention to the government in relation to the funding support for children with additional needs. I've been speaking with the Northern Beaches Council about the current inclusion development fund subsidy, which is currently $23 an hour, by the Department of Education. It has been this rate since 2017 with no CPI increase. The gap between funding and the amount paid to staff is simply growing. Currently, at the Northern Beaches Council the rate variation is $13 per hour for a casual staff member and $6 per hour for an entry-level cert. III. The annual funding gap this year is $202,000 for public centres in that council alone. The council is currently budgeting for 2023 and 2024. There is a significant increase with a growing number of children with learning support needs, likely increasing from 269 to 332 hours per week across northern beaches services. The annual funding gap will increase and this cost will be passed on, increasing our fees to all families.

The government needs to recognise that there are more and more children with those additional needs. So programs like this need to be better adapted and the funding gap needs to be adjusted to CPI. Increased funding for supporting children with additional needs is important for avoiding seeing more children starting school developmentally vulnerable. It's well documented that early intervention and assistance is of huge benefit to children with additional needs and alleviates the costs incurred in the system later in the child's life. As we come to discussions around the costs—the blowing out costs—of the NDIS, the government needs to remember this. This early investment in the early stages makes a huge difference to costs incurred or needs later.

I welcome the government's investment in early childhood education and care and the improvement in the integrity measures, but we need to urgently work on staffing for the sector in order to meet this demand. We need to value early childhood educators and make sure we tell our young people, as they are looking at their careers of choice, that this is a career that will be worthwhile, that you will be appreciated and valued by our society. I will continue to push for the changes to be expedited and work with the government to improve access and flexibilities to the system for the families and the children of Warringah.

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

It's an absolute pleasure to rise today to speak on the resumption of debate for the second reading for the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Cheaper Child Care) Bill 2022. It is an absolute pleasure because for nine years in this place my colleagues and I, on this side of the House now, called for dramatic change to child care to ensure that families in electorates like mine, in electorates like the member for Canberra's, could have the economic reform that would not just see child care provided better on the ground in our electorates and for our communities but would see a structural change that would mean improvement in gender equity and improvement in retirement incomes for women. The economic reform that is in front of us inside this bill has implications across decades. It is good for families, it is good for women, it is good for children and it is good for the economy.

I stand here representing the seat that has the highest number of children in early childhood care and education in the country. There are 10,800 families in my electorate for whom this is excellent news. It's also cost-of-living action from this government that they can bank on that will save 10,800 families in my electorate. It's an extraordinary piece of legislation and a well thought out piece of legislation. It's a policy that addresses so many things, because it was developed thoughtfully by this government to impact on the economy, to make people's lives better and to ensure that we're talking about not just care for children but also quality education for children and the kind of interventions that we know are necessary for our youngest to be given the best start in life.

It's an extraordinary day, and in my electorate early education and care takes various forms. Lots of families access family day care, and I've stood in this place many times across the last nine years to talk about the impacts of the former government's policies on that sector—pre-COVID, let alone during COVID. It's about the families who are accessing long day care through the hundreds of early learning and childcare centres in my electorate. Like most people on this side, I want to pay some homage to the people in my community who are working in this sector. It's a place that I visit often and, as an educator—having originally trained in and, for most of the decades I worked in education, worked at the secondary school level—my admiration for people working in the early years, as you can imagine, is extraordinary. Year 9s may take some work to engage, but they don't quite require the same levels of patience. I pay tribute to those workers, and not just for the care, for the nurturing, for the scraped knees and for working through with children how to play together and work together—not just for the things we all think of when we think about early education and care—but also for the planning that goes into ensuring every child in that centre is reaching their milestones. I thank them for the training that they've been doing in early education to ensure that they have the skills required to keep this sector going. I thank them, most importantly, for their work across the pandemic, when uncertainty didn't stop them from delivering for my local families and families across the country.

This is a cost-of-living measure, it's an economic reform, and it also has some really important points to note. It puts measures in place that will deter fraud, something that has plagued this sector and that we've seen headlines about. It's this government that's going to put in place things to ensure that the public perception of the sector improves. People will have assurance that those people in this sector who are acting against the best interests of our community will be stopped in their tracks.

It's also a really important piece of legislation because it supports First Nations children. It will provide additional support to First Nations children and families in accessing early childhood education and care. It will help close the gap in educational outcomes for First Nations children. Importantly, the bill provides 36 hours of subsidised early education and care a fortnight, regardless of activity level. This is absolutely critical to ensure that First Nations children can access early education and care, regardless of what's happening at home. This is important because in 2021 the Closing the Gap target to increase the proportion of First Nations children assessed as developmentally on track went backwards for the first time, and we need to turn this around. I note the shadow minister made the point that, in terms of children attending preschool, there have been improvements, but this is where the rubber hits the road. The proportion assessed as being developmentally on track went backwards. That's what early educators do every day—they are not just making sure that the children in their care are happy. They're doing more than making sure they are learning how to play. They're doing more than ensuring that they've had their lunch, their morning tea and perhaps their evening meal—in my electorate it's often the case that the children of shift workers are being looked after into late hours. They're doing much more than that. They're monitoring how far children are from milestones. They're putting steps in place to ensure that children reach those milestones, and, where children fall behind, they're working to ensure that they pick up that pace. This is extraordinary work. I don't think I'll be the only person in the chamber today to say it's extraordinary work—and work that should be paid more rather than less.

We heard the Prime Minister earlier say that this legislation will remove a structural disincentive for women to return to work for longer hours. The estimate is that this legislation could, in fact, create 36,000 effective full-time workers for this country. This is incredible structural reform that we are looking at here, and it is work that those opposite ignored; chose not to do. Let's face it: most of these aspects were in the public domain while those opposite were in government. They chose to ignore it. In fact, they chose to bring in legislation that supported people with multiple children but left out out-of-school-hours care. Everyone knows that you can be a mum working full time while your youngsters are in long day care and then have to hit the brakes because once they start school you are not getting support for out-of-school-hours care. So people actually work less sometimes when their child starts school. But those opposite chose to completely ignore out-of-school-hours care in the last piece of legislation they brought into this chamber—an extraordinary oversight; an oversight that was pointed out to them when we were in opposition, and they still chose not to change it and not to amend it.

I welcome hearing from the shadow minister that those opposite will support the legislation. I absolutely welcome them to walk into this chamber and vote for this legislation, because it is good policy, because it is good economics, because it is going to remove structural disincentives that are preventing women from earning as much as they could be and having that balance of being able to earn and look after their families. It's going to mean that women can make choices to ensure that their superannuation is building and growing at a higher rate. It has long been said by women in my family that husbands are not a superannuation package. I lived this firsthand in my family, having lost my father when I was in primary school. I watched my mum struggle on a single-parent pension with eight children from that day.

In this country, we need women to earn their own living to ensure they can keep a roof over their own heads and their children's heads. This legislation goes some way to ensuring that, if you are a single parent, you are not going to be disadvantaged by a childcare system. It fixes the structural disadvantage. It supports families across the country. It supports our early learners. It supports the sector that we owe such a debt of gratitude to for their work during the pandemic and who were left abandoned twice by the then government during the pandemic without assurances, and who were left to tell families that they would not be able to attend, because they had gone past the number of days they could miss. Every time the former government played catch-up in that space, they hurt families in my community and they hurt this sector in my community. They actually risked people leaving the sector in a community like mine, where 11,000 families access early learning.

I welcome this legislation. I can't wait for it to pass the parliament. I can't wait for it to come into law. It's budget day and this is great legislation that makes great economic sense as well as great educational sense. It really is a piece of work that I want to congratulate and commend the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Minister Aly, for her work in this space. Of course, I pay tribute to the member for Kingston for the work she did in this space across so many years, with support from many of us on this side of the chamber. And I pay tribute to those who worked in this space prior to that: the former member for Adelaide, who, on the day I became a member of parliament, began conversations with me about early education and child care in my community, and who was so versed in it.

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

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour. If the member wishes to make any continuing remarks, leave will be granted when the debate is resumed.