Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the motion moved by the member for Moncrieff calling on the government to recognise that the introduction of cheaper childcare legislation has, in many instances, increased the cost of early childhood education and care services for families, while doing nothing to increase the availability of spaces. This is because, despite the government's move in July this year to increase the early childhood education and care subsidy, the fact remains that demand for these services continues to outstrip supply, and families in my electorate and right across our country are still facing prohibitive costs to access these vital early learning opportunities. As I've stated before in this place, childcare fees in North Sydney remain the highest in the country and run substantially above the government benefit rates. In fact, families on an average household income in my electorate are having to find more than $20,000 per year—net cost after the current subsidies—to place just one child in day care for five days a week. In many instances, that's nearly 20 per cent of their average income. This assumes they can even find a space. Like many communities, availability remains a key issue in North Sydney.

Quite simply, the government's initiatives today seem to have had limited impact, and I believe it's time we explored other ways of driving change. When introduced, the government's cheaper childcare policy promised three things: to provide greater support for parents and carers to enable them to have an increased choice about their workforce participation; to make early childhood education and care more affordable for more families; and to extend to more children the benefits that early childhood education and care bring to children's school readiness and long-term outcomes. Families across North Sydney are telling me that the increase to the childcare subsidy that came into effect only two months ago has been largely, if not entirely, absorbed by increased fees. It would be easy to blame greedy operators, but the truth is that the cost-of-living crisis is not limited to households. Rather, many who are offering services in this sector are under very real pressure as well, with overworked staff needing to be paid at a higher rate to be retained in an incredibly tight labour market, energy prices that continue to skyrocket, and rent inflation that remains extremely high. One long day care centre in Lane Cove recently told my office that every service in our area and many more that they're aware of were suffering immensely in respect to the dire skills shortage and staff shortages. The shortages of educators is, in their words, 'absolutely frightening'. As businessowners, they've had to consider whether they can even continue.

Delivering cheaper childcare is only going to work if there are educators to provide the service. We know the childcare sector workforce is at a breaking point, with the current job vacancy rate in the sector being a massive 7,200 positions. We also know we need at least another 9,000 early childhood educators to ensure services can accommodate the increase in demand for places for children. With a workforce attrition rate of 35 per cent, it doesn't look like more places will become available anytime soon. Those working in this sector feel undervalued and fatigued, and they face their own escalating costs of living. Yet operators in this sector have solutions that we should consider. Our government just needs to listen to them.

One solution is to change visa requirements, with many local providers telling me that some of their childhood educators are on student visas, the conditions of which mean they must move interstate or to regional areas to extend their visas or improve their chances of permanent residency. This required move leads to a significant loss not just to the centre but also to the community in which they live. Other ideas include ensuring that workers are paid fairly and compensated for the hours they spend not just face to face but also in preparing lessons. They suggest things like temporary wage bonuses, addressing the 30 per cent disparity with primary school teachers, and moving and updating the award structure, just to name a few. Ultimately we must recognise that workers are the heartbeat of the childcare sector. People from across my electorate have consistently voiced the opinion that the idea of a profession in this space must be something that people pursue for reasons other than just the goodness of their own heart. Ultimately, as has been seen in the last two months, the affordability crisis of child care is inextricably linked to availability. In this context, subsidies alone cannot create more early childhood education places. A childcare policy that fails to address supply-side constraints, including facilitating the availability of appropriately trained staff and ensuring affordable premises, is destined to fail, as we are witnessing in this very moment.

Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today as a proud member of a government that is committed to cheaper child care and better support for our working families. In my electorate of Pearce in Western Australia, child care is a major issue for our parents and carers.

While the opposition may seek to politicise the cost-of-living challenges, families in my electorate are turning up every day to try and pay their bills. Many in our community are doing it tough and the Albanese Labor government is doing all it can to support them. We live in an area which is fast growing. It's an outer metropolitan growth area. Our median age is 32. Eight babies a day are born to community members and we have a multicultural community. Part of the support that's needed comes from the cheaper childcare package. Seven thousand six hundred families back home have now had the cost of their child care cut, meaning more money in their pockets and the ability to work more hours if they choose to. A family in Pearce on a combined income of $120,000 will now be saving around $1,700 a year under Labor's cheaper childcare policy. This is a much-needed boost to families' budgets and it is very much appreciated.

But the impact of this policy extends far beyond money. We know that early childhood education has a huge impact on the development of our young ones. Early childhood education lays the foundations for future learning and also for the health and wellbeing of our children. Children who participate in quality early learning all go on to have better educational outcomes, and this has been clearly demonstrated. You can see the enjoyment of children when they're playing, when they're learning, when they're grappling with tying their shoelaces and when they're learning how to care and share with their fellow classmates.

What we also know is that women, who often undertake primary caring responsibilities, greatly benefit from cheaper child care. Whether you're a chief executive officer, a nurse, a teacher, an office worker or a business owner, cheaper child care provides greater incentive and support for getting back into the workforce. I've long said: when women are fully engaged in the workforce, change for the better happens. I know many mums, many aunties and many grandmothers who do an amazing job juggling their caring responsibilities and work. I'm proud to be part of a government that is putting children and women front and centre of government policy.

In relation to the accessibility of child care and the expansion of a childcare workforce, we know that this is an issue. Educators do important and highly skilled work preparing our children for school and laying the foundations for learning. After 10 long years of neglect, the early education and childcare sector needs a lot of support. The Albanese Labor government is working with the sector to continue to develop recruitment and retainment of a workforce. That's why this government passed its secure jobs, better pay bill and it is why we are delivering a 4.6 per cent pay rise for nearly 113,000 early childhood educators across the country.

Alongside this the Albanese Labor government is also delivering more funded university places for educators. We are delivering fee-free TAFE because after 10 years of neglect we cannot simply wish a workforce into being. We need to train, we need to attract and we need to develop one. I want to thank the Minister for Education, as well as my fellow Western Australian Anne Aly, the Minister for Early Childhood Education, for their tireless work on this front, constantly engaging, constantly communicating and constantly being across the issues that many families face.

On the issue of a long-term strategy—our early childhood education workforce—this government is accelerating the implementation of the National Children's Education and Care Workforce Strategy. So, while the opposition may like to talk about child care, women and the cost of living, this government is acting on it. Actions speak louder than words.

We have a strong plan in place for our early childhood education sector, a plan that will help support many families in my community of Pearce and 1.2 million families right around the country. Unlike our predecessors, this government is not going to waste a day delivering for our families, and we are delivering.

Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise to speak on this motion. I thank the member for Moncrieff. It's interesting—I was just looking at the names on the list of the members speaking, and, with the exception of myself, they're all from metropolitan seats.

A government member: Excuse me!

I'll continue. From this side, we'll no doubt say there is a shortage in metropolitan seats, but I would urge the minister to come to regional seats and have a look at the waiting lists in those regional seats. If you go to Kempsey, the waiting list at one Kempsey childcare place is over 250.

A government member: It's 365.

I'll take the interjection from the member opposite. If you have 365 people on a waiting list, that member is not doing her job. That member should be standing up and going to the minister and saying: 'Okay, we've raised childcare fees for the childcare providers. Where are the additional spots for those 357 or 380 young children who are not getting the education they require?' yet that member sits there and makes comments across the floor. What that member should be doing is marching straight up to the minister's office and saying: 'Labor is not doing its job. Yes, we've pumped money into the childcare providers, but guess what? There's a thing called cost-of-living pressures.'

I don't know if Labor has seen it over the past 18 months to two years, but electricity is up, rent is up, interest is up, mortgages are up. Guess what? The cost of running childcare services is up. So it's making absolutely no difference to mums and dads.

I can tell you—this is true—police officers are having to look after each other's children in Kempsey so they can go to work. Nurses are having to look after each other's children because they can't find a place because members opposite won't go to the minister's office and say, 'We have no policy to provide further places for child care for children who need it.'

The last speaker across the floor was saying how important it is for a two-year-old or a three-year-old to get early education, and she's right. So you're neglecting a two-year-old and a three-year-old in regional and rural Australia, and I take issue with that. I take issue that Labor ignores regional and rural Australia. Even members on this side—like the member for North Sydney—are saying how difficult it is to get a place in a childcare centre. That's in the city.

It's not as easy as saying, 'Let's expand this,' because guess what? There's something else called a housing crisis in regional and rural areas. You can't just bring somebody in to Coffs Harbour or Port Macquarie or in to Victoria or Western Australia because they can't find anywhere to stay. So this ideology of 'We'll just migrate people from cities into regional and rural Australia' is fanciful. And it's typical of Labor, because they'll say, 'Look at the great job we're doing.'

Minister, step outside Sydney. Step outside Melbourne. Go past Wollongong. Go past Newcastle. Have a look in regional and rural areas. There is a shortage of childcare workers. You need to develop policy to increase the numbers, to take the red tape away and make it easier for these proprietors, these business people, who are caring for our children so mums and dads can go to work and provide taxes that run our economy so you can pat yourself on the back. You need to develop policy for all Australia, not just for cities but for people in the country—for nurses, police and those people who are looking after each other's children so that they can continue to work and feed their families. To the members opposite: go down the hall, knock on the door, speak to your minister and do your job.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While the former speaker is present: I did meet with the minister about this issue. The minister Anne Aly did come to my electorate, and she did go to the childcare centre attached to the hospital. For the member who is leaving the chamber and not listening to this contribution, I am a regional MP and I represent a regional electorate. There are 32 early childhood education providers in my electorate, and there are two towns in particular where there is a workforce crisis occurring and where we do have access issues. One of the centres has a waitlist of 365. That is how dire it is. But this isn't a new waitlist. They've had a waitlist for a long time. In fact, it goes back a decade.

It is important in this debate to recognise the history of where we have got to. What the previous member failed to recognise is that one of the reasons that we have such a shortage of available places is that we are experiencing a workforce shortage. It is highlighted in the motion that's being moved, but what this motion doesn't do is actually articulate why we have that shortage. What I've heard not just from the centres that I have visited but from employers is that it's because the wages are too low. What we have not heard from those opposite is the fact that many early childhood educators, despite having a degree, diploma or formal qualifications, are still paid award wages. They simply can't keep up with the cost of living, so they are choosing to work elsewhere.

Earlier today, I heard from employers who are participating in the multi-employer bargaining process, which they have welcomed and are part of. They said that, when educators leave the sector or resign, many of them are in tears. They love their work and they love their job, but they are leaving because they simply do not earn enough to pay the bills. They can get higher pay in other areas, whether it's retail, hospitality, aged care or disability. Educators are leaving in droves not because they don't love the work and not because they're not committed to the work but because they simply don't earn enough. That is why the multi-employer bargaining process that the sector is undertaking is long overdue and needed.

A decade ago, the former government abolished the start of correcting this pay issue that we are seeing in the sector. They abolished the equal pay fund that looked at starting to address the fact that educators are underpaid. Here we are, and it has taken a decade for a Labor government to get elected to introduce reforms to finally address the issue of wages. Increasing wages in the sector will help address the access issues. Of all the centres that we spoke to in my electorate, 89 per cent said they currently don't have a space for an under-three-year-old. For nought to three, they have no spaces available. But, if wages were to lift, they could attract educators back and about a third of our centres said that they could open more rooms.

This is a common problem not just in my electorate of Bendigo but throughout regional Australia and in the metro. Rooms are closed. Licence capacity is not being met and rooms are closed because we don't have enough educators, and attracting skilled workers back to the sector is about increasing wages. Another comment that we heard from employers—the small businesses that the previous speaker spoke about—is that there has been an 80 per cent drop in applications to come and work as early childhood educators. They also said that they constantly have an ad up, trying to recruit educators and teachers to come and work in the sector. That is the collapse that has happened.

We are working as fast as we can as a government to address this issue. That is why it is disappointing that those opposite offer no solutions on how to address the workforce issues but instead have a go at us for trying to correct the pay issue. Pay is linked to attracting talented educators back to the sector. If you work on educating our youngest Australians, you should not be paid minimum wage; you should be paid what you're worth. I want to acknowledge the employers and the employees, and their unions and their peak associations, for coming together to try and work out a multi-employer agreement to help address the issue of wages in the sector.

Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The late Christopher Hitchens was once at a forum talking about global poverty, and he said:

The cure for poverty has a name, in fact: it's called the empowerment of women.

We know that where we give women in particular more choice to go back to work—and it's about choice—productivity lifts and prosperity lifts. A key part of that choice is effective child care and affordable child care.

Our family has been very lucky. We haven't had to spend as much on child care as other families; we've leaned heavily on parents who happen to live nearby. But not everyone has that choice, for a variety of reasons—they've moved interstate, their parents have passed on or they're not capable or able. An affordable, effective childcare scheme is key to workplace productivity, fairness, opportunity and prosperity.

But, like the cost of living crisis, the housing crisis, the energy crisis—if all these things could be solved by good intentions and the headline of an act, I think this parliament would not have much work to do. That's as easy as it is, apparently: 'You want to fix housing? Come and vote for the housing bill. You want to fix energy? Vote for our energy bill. You want to fix child care? Come and vote for our childcare bill.' That seems to be the extent of the solution: just come and vote for the bill with the title. It's a PR move. It's a move driven by public relations and spin rather than actual substance in dealing with the policy.

The member for Cowper, before me, was very passionate and emphasised he is from a regional area. To be fair, there are people on both sides from regional areas. As someone in metropolitan Melbourne, Bendigo is a regional area! My good friend here from South Australia is from a very large regional area. These problems are particularly manifest in regional areas. Again, people living in regional areas are less likely to draw on the luxuries I had of grandparents living nearby because, for work and other reasons, they've had to move to a particular part of Australia.

The member for Moncrieff has put this motion together, and I congratulate her for it. Let's go to some key parts of it, because it's important to recognise what we are debating:

That this House:

(1) recognises that:

(a) the Government's Cheaper Child Care policy has driven up the cost of early childhood education and care for families—

That's a fact. It has driven up the costs, and it is disingenuous to claim otherwise. Again, good intentions don't lead to good policy if you haven't done the work—

(b) families are reporting increases to the cost of their daily fees in excess of $20 per day;

For some in this place, who earn the salaries we do—we all got a pay increase recently, but most Australians didn't. That is a lot of extra money for them to find every day—

(c) the Government's inability to manage the cost of living crisis—

Again, the childcare crisis is a subset of the overall inability to manage the economy, to keep interest rates down, to keep energy costs down and to keep the entire cost of living down, including food on the table—

(d) the Government's inaction to address workforce shortages—

Again, this isn't with the benefit of hindsight; this was all flagged by the shadow minister and members here with me. It was obvious there would be workforce shortages. The work was not done—

(e) families continue to be unable to access early childhood education and care, particularly in regional and rural areas.

I tell you what: even in metropolitan areas, you are seeing families struggle to find an affordable place in a childcare centre. That's not good for prosperity, productivity, fairness or opportunity, despite what the heading says.

Again, the member for Cowper raised a good point—he raised it passionately—about the issue of housing. You can't solve the workforce shortages if people don't have somewhere to live, and underneath so many of the problems that Australians are facing is a government that is not seriously addressing housing. It is doing it through the headline of an act. That's it: just a headline or a bill that hasn't passed yet. So we call on the government to take this seriously, move beyond the talking points, move beyond the spin and actually solve problems for Australians.

Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Despite the words of the member opposite, the member for Menzies, the Albanese government has made access to affordable early education a top priority in delivering real cost-of-living relief for Australian families. Since 1 July, more than 1.2 million families in Australia, including approximately 9,400 in Bennelong, are now benefiting from more affordable early childhood education and care services. This policy has brought about significant changes, including lifting the maximum childcare subsidy rate to 90 per cent for families earning under 80 grand and increasing the CCS rates for families earning up to $530,000. Making early learning more affordable and more accessible is a triple win: it's good for children, it's good for families and it's good for the economy. Investing in the early years benefits both children and parents. It supports children's development and helps parents and carers to work, train or study, and these benefits flow directly into the Australian economy. The early years are a critical period for cognitive, social and emotional development, and children who participate in high-quality early childhood education and care tend to be better prepared for school and perform better academically.

We are all aware that child care and early education can be prohibitively expensive for many families. We know that it was expensive before the election as well. The former government spent a decade sitting on their hands while families were pushed out of integral early education programs because of financial barriers. Lowering the cost of early learning is an essential economic reform. It helps lift participation, particularly for women, and enables thousands of skilled workers to return to the workforce. I find the attacks from those opposite on our signature election policy of reducing early childhood education costs baffling. They spent nearly 10 years in government. Early childhood education costs increased by over 41 per cent on their watch. Then they come in here and make claims of prices going up, when under their watch prices increased by a whopping 41 per cent. To make matters worse, they did nothing about it.

That's where we differ. Unlike those opposite, we are tackling the issue of early childhood education costs head-on. Not only have we increased the rebates; we have implemented policies such as hourly rate caps, which help put downward pressure on fees and constrain price growth. Further, and probably most importantly, we have commissioned the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to investigate the factors that are driving the costs up in the early childhood education sector. The interim report from this investigation has provided valuable insights into prices, supply and demand and will inform future decisions to ensure affordability and accessibility. The final report will go to the minister by the end of the year and will provide recommendations to government on how to address price challenges in the industry, because we cannot start to fix the problem until we understand why it's happening.

Importantly, we have also initiated a comprehensive Productivity Commission inquiry into the entire early childhood education and care system. This inquiry aims to chart a course towards a universal, affordable early learning system that is on par with other great Labor traditions such as universal Medicare and universal superannuation. We will not sit on our hands while Australian families continue to struggle. When we see issues, we'll take concrete steps and actions to fix them. We won't wait for the next government to come in and clean up our mess. It's why we're also making sure to provide support to early education workforces because we cannot unlock the social and economic benefits of universal access to early education without a well-paid and well-resourced workforce to do it.

Unlike those opposite, getting wages moving in female-dominated sectors like early childhood education is crucial to meeting demand. Our secure jobs, better pay bill passed last year, despite the opposition of those opposite. That is a bill that will help workers in this sector get the pay they deserve. To get more workers into care, we need to value the work they do and pay them properly to do it. The legislation we brought to the parliament that has passed will help us do that. Instead of bogus motions like today's, the Albanese government is actively collaborating with the early childhood education sector to develop practical solutions and reduce costs.

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of this motion brought by the honourable member for Moncrieff. While I'm there, I want to acknowledge the excellent work she's doing in her shadow portfolio of early education and youth. This motion deals with Labor's so-called cheaper childcare policy, which, unfortunately, has turned out to be anything but. As we know, child care is absolutely essential for women to be able to return to the workforce after they have had children.

The issue with child care is not just about the cost that we pay for it; the issue is also about ensuring that parents, when they are returning to the workforce, have access to quality child care. Child care is not just about childminding; child care is about educating the youngest members of our community and getting them ready for school. It is absolutely essential that when we talk about child care, we are not simply talking only about the cost. We must also be looking at the quality of the care that is being provided in these centres.

Although it was touted as cheaper child care, the reality is that Labor has now spent an eye-watering $4.7 billion on this subsidy but has not addressed the underlying issues that affect this sector—that is, there have not been additional childcare places provided, particularly in regional areas, nor has there been any attempt to attract and retain staff within this sector. That is the underlying issue why we are hearing about enormous waitlists. I know that the honourable member for Cowper recently spoke about it in his regional area. I'm in a metropolitan seat. In the electorate of Hughes, we have almost 7,000 childcare places; however, it costs, on average, $127 per day, per child, to put a child into day care. That means that for parents only putting one child into day care, it's close to $30,000 per year after tax that must be found. With the cost-of-living crisis that we are currently experiencing under this Labor government, that is prohibitive for many families. Instead of cheaper child care, we have seen out-of-pocket costs skyrocket. And I'm hearing across my electorate that early learning providers are increasing their fees. They have to do that to adjust to the ordinary costs involved in running a childcare centre—for example, the additional costs needed to pay for the groceries they provide for the children within their centre.

The last time that Labor was in government, childcare fees skyrocketed by 53 per cent in just six years. In the last nine months, it has been reported that, so far, they have increased across the board by eight per cent. So, while those opposite may start talking about the subsidy and how they are making child care cheaper for families, the reality is that it is not becoming any cheaper for families. There has been no plan put forward by this government to address the increase in fees. There has been no plan to address access to childcare spaces. There has been no plan to address the current workforce pressures faced by educators. In particular, there has been no plan to address the childcare shortages in remote and regional communities.

When introducing the child care policy initially, the Albanese government said that this policy would get thousands of women back into the workforce. However, this has not occurred, and it has not occurred because there have been no additional childcare places provided. The underlying issue of a lack of supply has not been addressed by the government's $4.7 billion in expenditure to date. So I support this motion brought forward by the member for Moncrieff. Child care is essential to enabling women, particularly, to return to work, but the Labor government must do a lot better to address underlying issues in the childcare sector.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to see that the Albanese government's cheaper childcare policies have come into effect since we last sat in the House. Over 1.2 million families will benefit from this policy across the country, with 100,000 of them in south-west Sydney and almost 10,000 in my electorate of Macarthur.

I don't want to get into an argument about the previous government. Their policies were ad hoc. They were poorly thought through, and some of the most disadvantaged families in my electorate and around the country missed out on appropriate child care for their children, and it was a real tragedy for their education. The previous government ignored the pleas of developmental paediatricians, paediatricians like myself, calling them out on this lack of support for some of the most disadvantaged kids in our society.

Under our plan, the Albanese government's plan for cheaper child care, our government have lifted the maximum childcare subsidy rate to 90 per cent for families earning under $80,000 a year and increased CCS rates for families earning less than $530,000. So pretty much across the board there are increases but particularly targeting those from the most disadvantaged families. I'm very proud to be part of a government that has done that and understands and acts on the importance of early childhood education and early intervention in child care for those most disadvantaged and those who may be having problems.

I've had our ministers, Anne Aly, the Minister for Early Childhood Education, and Amanda Rishworth, the Minister for Social Services, come out and visit childcare centres in my electorate of Macarthur, and I'm very proud of the input that they've given me and my electorate regarding the childcare policy. We've worked over years to develop a policy that provides overwhelming support for our children, particularly those in early childhood education.

We know that child care is expensive; high-quality child care is expensive, and that's why we've made changes to the child care subsidy. Unfortunately, as cost-of-living pressures go up, so too will childcare repayments, and that's why we, as a government, are looking into this matter and initiating policies that will further assist with the potential price increases. Our government has implemented policies such as hourly rate caps, which will put downward pressure on fees to help constrain price growth and address inflationary pressures. We've also commissioned the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to investigate the drivers of these costs to see what we can do to reduce them. Our government is working through these issues and is ensuring that families and childcare educators receive the benefits of this policy, and I'm pleased to report we're already seeing this in my electorate of Macarthur. We're seeing our kids in preschools and early childhood education benefiting from the quality of the child care they are getting and benefiting from the increase in the number of hours of child care.

As for families, we're working on improving support for early educators and making sure they're appropriately qualified. We know the importance of early childhood educators and the phenomenal work they do. I've been to many of our local childcare centres, including Squiggles and Giggles Early Learning Childcare Centre, Goodstart Early Learning in Willowdale, Raising Stars Early Learning Centre and the Exploring Tree in Oran Park to name only a few. I'm very proud of the work they do. I understand the importance of early childhood education, as do these early childhood education centres. I love going there and I love seeing some of the kids that I've looked after being there and benefiting from early childhood education. They're doing a vital job and they're doing it very, very well. The Albanese government is supporting them all the way in terms of training, wages and access for our kids. I applaud our government on our policies. I'm very proud of the work that our ministers are doing, particularly the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Anne Aly. I know how hard she has worked to make sure that kids around Australia are getting the best quality early childhood education.

We've known for over half a century of the benefits of early childhood education for all our kids but particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

It shows, Bob! The Albanese government is doing its best to preserve the future of our children and to make our country one of the premier ones for early childhood education, and I'm very proud to be part of that.

I recently met with a constituent in my area who runs an early childhood kinder care centre. They are very proud of the work that they do and want to do even better in the future.

Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The single most important issue facing the Australian economy today is the need to increase our productivity. I can't think of a more important public policy area than child care to address the need for increased productivity.

In this public policy space, there are effectively twin challenges. There's the challenge of affordability, but there's also the challenge of accessibility. It's important that we balance both, because, for reasons that I'll explain shortly, you can have affordable child care in communities, but if there is no childcare facility then you really have no child care.

Those opposite have lauded what they've been able to achieve. Their announcement of $4.7 billion is a significant investment. But, as the member for Bennelong said, this was about making child care cheaper—that's their objective—for people earning up to $500,000. It hasn't made child care cheaper because the cost pressures have meant that the increased subsidies have been more than obliterated by increased costs, but I don't want to talk about affordability. I want to talk about accessibility.

I want to take up a challenge that the member for Solomon issued to me before he left the Federation Chamber. He asked: 'What did you do?' I'll tell the member for Solomon what I did over the course of the last term. I've got to take you to the regional communities of Lameroo, Pinnaroo and Karoonda. They're small settlements in South Australia's Mallee. Prior to the work that the former coalition government did, child care was delivered in those communities. It was delivered out of the back of a car. It was termed 'mobile child care.' It did half-a-day a week in one community, and, if you were lucky it was two half-a-days a week. It doesn't sound like the child care you know in metropolitan centres and these other places. It's very hard to plan your work life around a half-a-day a week of kids in child care. What I did was work with the local communities to deliver facilities: a facility at Lameroo, a facility at Pinnaroo and a facility at Karoonda for—wait for it—five-day-a-week child care.

Those opposite talk about workforce shortages. This employment places were filled by—guess who? People who could put their children in the childcare places we built. So that's what we did. We built facilities. We focused on accessibility and balanced that against the need to ensure we had affordable child care. Those opposite, by putting all their eggs in the affordability basket, have turned their backs on the nine-million Australians who live in a childcare desert. 'It's not me,' I say to the member for Spence. It's a report prepared by the Mitchell Institute. If you think you know more about child care than the Mitchell Institute, then you have unfortunately misunderstood how much you understand.

The reality here is we've gone from mobile child care in the back of a car—which I don't think is the kind of child care you'll find at Gawler—to a full-time service. And do you know what? We did more than that. Through our actions in Barker, we forced the Labor Party to match our commitment for a childcare facility in Barker. The only funding allocated to a childcare facility anywhere in Australia through the 2022 election campaign was because I had announced $1.8 million for a childcare facility at Kingston in the south-east, a facility that had been campaigned for for 30 years and for which the advocates had been very active on Adelaide radio. There's the key: Adelaide radio. And, lo and behold, within a couple of days the then shadow minister came out and made an announcement, which I was happy to hear, of $1.8 million for the Kingston childcare centre. But here's the sting in the tail from the members opposite: because of the delay in rolling out that funding, the cost of that project has ballooned by more than the $1.8 million and, as a result, we're now stuck back in that childcare desert.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Child care and early learning are important to Australia to such an extent that I will extend an olive branch and say that I cannot fault the sincerity of the member for Moncrieff, who moved this motion and led the debate on it during the last sitting. However, with this motion, all we really have from the opposition is a list of issues and a complete repudiation of any efforts by the Albanese government to address them, without any notable suggestions of their own. Given their time in power, you would have thought they would have saved up a few ideas on policy from back when they were in government. But, no, we didn't have that at all. It can be a bit shameless at times. First, they get a shadow minister to go on a grand tour of LNP electorates along with the local members, whilst ensuring there is photographic evidence of meeting with portfolio-relevant stakeholders. Then they proceed to blame every ill that befalls them solely upon the Prime Minister and this government. They rinse, repeat and then write a motion for PMB, hoping that no members look twice at their motion, come into this place and call out their hypocrisy or their threadbare arguments, which are full of complaints and muted when it comes to either accepting any number of solutions introduced by this government or—this is a new one—putting up some of their own.

The member for Moncrieff spoke of difficulties faced by families with children in child care. She also, to her credit, speaks of the difficulties faced by educators. I appreciate her use of the word 'educator'. As much as child care is an important way to assist parents in returning to the workforce after having kids and to increase workforce participation, particularly for women, this is only half of the picture. To say otherwise is selling short the role of educators that work within the sector, for the role of childcare is one that aids and helps to develop young minds, getting them prepared and ready to put their best foot forward when they start school. Some people still erroneously treat the profession as one of childminding. How wrong they are!

The member for Moncrieff described many educators as overworked, stressed and burnt out. At that point, I had to get the microscope out. The member for Moncrieff was so very close to approaching the point but suddenly veered off in another direction, even after stating the obvious: that our educators should be respected and valued because they care for and educate our youngest Australians—the member for Moncrieff's own words. The member for Moncrieff seems to think that this is solely a supply-side issue and that, with more educators, the problems would subside. Despite this, the member completely dismisses offering incentivised training for those looking to become educators in the sector.

Those opposite then dismiss fee-free TAFE and university placements, the reasoning being that there is no guarantee that someone will complete their course and work as an educator in the early childhood education and care sector. Frankly, I'd double down on that and say there is no guarantee that an educator might stay in the field after a few years on the job. I'm sure all of the solutions for that are lost on the opposition too. This shouldn't be the case. They appear proud of how they suppressed wage growth during their time in government. I know that those opposite, even the member for Moncrieff, are certainly against multi-employer bargaining. Though the result of the application for multi-employer bargaining by a number of workers in this sector remains unsettled, we passed the secure jobs, better pay legislation to make this sort of application possible. Can those opposite say the same?

On census night, there were 1,340 child carers residing in Spence. That population amounted to the ninth-highest occupation unit group in the whole of Spence at the time. Not all of them would've worked at a childcare centre in Spence, but there's a decent chance many would have—at any of the 123 distinct childcare providers within my electorate.

Now, I don't profess to have visited every single one. It would be no mean feat to do so. But from the centres I've visited, I know that developing the minds of kids in Spence is in some very safe and capable sets of hands, such as those of Kahlee Dix and Lisa Downs and their teams at Stepping Stone at Angle Vale and Blakeview respectively and, of course, Rebecca Stiles and the educators who work alongside her at Hillbank Community Children's Centre. I know they deserve better, and they certainly deserve better than the window-dressing put up by those opposite, who put up a lot of complaints but dismiss any solutions whilst offering none of their own. I can't blame those opposite for their consistency over their time in government, but I did hope they would finally see why it is vitally important to change tack and work constructively with us in this space. I won't hold my breath.

Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've recently had extensive conversations with educators and providers in the early childhood sector in my electorate of Fowler. There was unanimous agreement that the cost-of-living increase and staffing shortages have put pressure on the workers and on the sector. In addition, many workers lament the perception that they're considered to be childcare workers rather than early childhood educators, which has meant they have not been remunerated accordingly. I acknowledge the government has addressed the issue of wage increase for childcare workers through the Fair Work Commission and I have no doubt many in this sector would welcome that. However, there is still the critical issue of a lack of skilled early educators. According to the Australian Childcare Alliance, even prior to COVID there had already been signs of skilled labour shortages, with the prediction of a need for 39,000 additional educators and teachers by 2023, and we're here now.

In my electorate of Fowler there is a high percentage of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, which presents another layer of complexity to an already challenging role. We're asking educators to care for our most precious beings, that being our children, while at the same time we're asking them to provide a positive environment in which our children can learn, socialise and interact with other children. In Fowler, with a low socioeconomic background and with English as a second language, this can be a challenge sometimes. We must look beyond the financial costs associated with child care and consider the industry, the people, the small business owners and the essential work that our childcare workers do each day.

In my conversations, it was very apparent to me that our educators are at breaking point. They're simply fed up, stressed, burnt out or feeling underappreciated. However, the community forums were also able to provide a safe space for industry owners to connect at a very local level and they allowed me to hear directly about the issues that matter to them. For them, for example, the simplification of the New South Wales staffing ratio so that it is equivalent to that of the National Quality Framework ratio of one to 10, while small, would have the biggest impact for small and medium childcare centres. Local providers would also benefit from a simplification of the early learning cadetship training model so that experienced childcare workers who wish to upskill from a cert III to an ECT degree can be fast-tracked through their degree based on the length of their career in the sector. I agree with my local providers on the issue of training. We should be helping educators grow and thrive in their careers by recognising all their qualifications.

They also told me that they are left out of pocket by the government's current Inclusion Support Program, which provides $25 an hour to hire an inclusion support worker. But the actual cost, with superannuation, work cover and leave, is about $35 an hour. Staff shortages in the childcare sector have certainly forced the small business owners in my area to compete on salary. This, on top of the potential increased wages under the new IR multi-employer bargaining laws, as well as overall inflation, is crippling the industry in Fowler. I do agree that our educators deserve recognition for their amazing and tireless work through a bigger pay cheque, but we must also consider that 60 to 70 per cent of a centre's operational costs relate to payroll, which forces small businesses to increase their prices just to stay afloat, and this will affect families in Fowler. There is so much that we can change, review and discuss when it comes to child care. As policymakers, we need to consider all the implications of our decisions.

I recently learned that university students who are already working in one childcare facility must leave that facility to do their practical course at another provider—in essence, taking away a valuable team member and placing additional pressure on the centre. Why are we imposing bureaucratic red tape for the small-business owners in places like Fowler? That's right, small business. After all, the childcare centres in my community are part of the 71 per cent of New South Wales providers that are small to medium-sized businesses, meaning they are facing the same challenges as any other businesses, such as bakeries, restaurants or retail outlets, whether it be energy bills, staff or loan repayments. Is there a solution to this? I believe the only way we can move forward is to continue to engage with the industry and our local community. Every state and territory must commit to easing the burden of the workforce. After all, we're talking about our children. Their welfare and wellbeing is the foundation for the future of our country.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.