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

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) it has been over 12 months since the Government introduced its Cheaper Child Care policy, and out of pocket costs have increased by 7.2 per cent in the past six months;

(b) all families saw an increase to their child care fees following the introduction of this policy, with some families slugged with multiple increases over the past 12 months;

(c) the Government has no idea how much of the $4.7 billion that was spent on higher child care subsidies was actually eaten by inflation and increased fees; and

(d) the Government's policy has done nothing to increase access to early childhood education and care, particularly in regional, rural and remote communities; and

(2) calls on the Government to deliver:

(a) more access to early childhood education and care places to support Australians to return to the workforce; and

(b) real cost of living relief to families.

It has been over two years since the Albanese Labor government were elected, promising Australians that life would be cheaper under them, and yet, after two years of Labor, the cost of essentials has increased. Food is up by 11 per cent, housing is up by 15 per cent, rents are up by 15 per cent, electricity is up by 22 per cent and gas is up by a staggering 25 per cent. Australians are paying 20 per cent more personal income tax, despite the rhetoric you hear from the government. Household savings have collapsed by nearly 10 percentage points, and homeowners with a typical mortgage of $750,000 are nearly $35,000 worse off. It's quite jaw dropping. Unfortunately, this is what happens when you vote for Labor. We know that Labor don't know how to manage money. They don't understand how inflation works, and they'll tell you whatever you want to hear just to win your vote.

Over 12 months ago, Labor's cheaper child care policy came into effect. We warned Australians that Labor had not done the proper due diligence on this policy and that costs would rise. And what do you know? On 1 July 2023, centres increased their prices, some increased them again in January 2024 and up they went again only last month. In 12 months, out-of-pocket costs have increased by 8.4 per cent and families are right back where they started. Again, Labor will tell you that over a million families are better off under them. But they can't tell you how many parents and how many carers they supported back into full-time work. They promised 37,000. That was the number they promised you. And they can't tell you how much of the $4.7 billion spent was immediately eaten up by increased fees, never mind inflation. It appears the only thing they can tell you are the talking points—carefully crafted, of course, by the PM's media unit.

The announcement just last week of a one-off 15 per cent payment to early childhood educators is further proof that this government cares more about winning votes than actually delivering good, long-lasting policy for the sector. In two years time, when the wage payments have been made and fee restraints are removed, who, I ask you, Australians, will be left footing this bill for those higher wages? It will be you. Australian families will be left with the bill. A two-year pause on fee increases means that, in the third year, prices will have to rise significantly, especially when most providers already increase their fees by more than the 4.4 per cent cap that will be imposed. Even Goodstart, the nation's largest not-for-profit, increased its fees by more than that just last month.

If we take a look at regional, rural and remote communities, the early childhood education situation is even more dire. There are families with no access at all, as the member for Casey will attest to. There are families who drive an hour one way to do drop-off and then an hour back the other way to go to work, families who have to choose who goes to work and who looks after the children, and families who are struggling to get by because in this economy both parents need to work to pay their bills.

Every time those on the opposite side of the chamber open their mouths to talk about families and how they are better off under them, I want them to think about the families in regional Australia. Better yet, why don't you get out of your metro seats, I say to those opposite. Get out of the cities and go and visit them, as my colleagues and I have been doing. Go and listen to the parents in Lismore, who are still waiting for the services to be reopened or rebuilt. Go and speak to the parents in Casey in Victoria, where there's one early learning place for every 15 children. Or visit Grey, in the great state of SA—the biggest child care desert in the country. If you really cared about all families, you'd make sure a policy for access to early learning benefited all families.

This government talks a big game, but it has no idea how to actually deliver it. The coalition believes in choice and flexibility—that all families should have a choice. Right now, so many of you don't. We want to see actual cost-of-living relief delivered for families, something we know that this Labor government is incapable of delivering. All they have delivered to Australian families is higher inflation for longer. What all Australian families need is lower inflation, lower mortgage rates and more cost-of-living relief, which this government is failing them on.

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

Is there is a seconder for the motion?

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I find it quite astonishing that we've just heard how dreadful it is that we're making decisions that are going to reduce the cost of living for families, like bringing down childcare prices and giving workers a pay rise. At the same time we've just listened to a list of complaints rather than any substantial contribution. It makes me lament the fact that, in this place, there is not a contest of ideas on this very important issue of the cost of living and early childhood education. It's just an opportunity to politicise things that shouldn't be politicised, in my view, like making sure that early childhood educators get a much-deserved pay rise and that families have lower childcare costs. That should be above politics, but yet again we're seeing really cheap attacks from the opposition.

We saw this sector neglected for almost a decade. Families had been struggling to access the early childhood education services they needed. In contrast, we're working to build a universal early childhood education and care system that's accessible, affordable and inclusive. I think these are aims that people in this place should support, no matter what political party they're from. We've already made some really good progress on this front with our cheaper childcare reforms, making early learning more affordable for more than a million Australian families. Of course, we know there's more to do, because you can't undo 10 years of damage overnight.

We've received the final report from the Productivity Commission, helping us to chart the course to universal early learning that meets the needs of families across all of Australia. In my own electorate, I undertook a survey on this very important issue and made a submission on behalf of my electorate to the Productivity Commission, as well as hosting roundtables with Minister Anne Aly. I know people in my electorate are very concerned about the state of early childhood education, and the neglect that we've seen from those opposite. They are really eager to be engaged in the next steps that our government is taking to improve the sector.

We can't achieve our vision for accessible, affordable and inclusive early childhood education without a quality and sustainable workforce. We know that, and that's why our government is funding a 15 per cent wage increase for early childhood education and care workers. I'm unapologetic about the fact that we're doing that. Those opposite might see it as a problem, that we are giving a mostly female workforce a much deserved pay rise for educating the youngest members of our community, but I simply will not back away from this very important commitment from our government. This overdue pay rise for workers in early childhood education will commence from December this year. I want to acknowledge the many advocates who have been meeting with members of parliament, right across the country, to convey the importance of this pay increase. Importantly, we're increasing the pay for workers in early childhood education and care while keeping costs for childcare and education low for families—reducing those costs. Measures in this year's budget have built on what we've already delivered to date and are paving the way, as I mentioned earlier, for what will follow in response to Productivity Commission's report.

Again, I would hope that this is something that members in this House can get behind, because this is about the youngest people in our communities getting vital education in those first five years, which we know have lifelong benefits. We know that through investing in early childhood education and care we're investing in children, but we're also investing in the productivity of the nation when more parents are able to go into the workforce. We know that this is something that primarily impacts women. Through increasing wages for early childhood educators, we are getting a triple benefit by making sure that those hardworking educators are staying in this very important field of work.

I'm pretty sick of the negativity I'm hearing from those opposite. This is something where, I would have hoped, we could have had a vision for the future—for the children who are in education now and the benefits that they will bring to the country when we invest properly in the first five years of their life.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Supply and demand are very basic economic concepts, and clearly concepts that those opposite, including the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, don't understand. If you increase supply and demand stays the same, prices will come down. But, in over two years of this government, we've not seen one policy initiative to increase supply in the early childcare sector. All of their initiatives have been aimed at reducing prices by providing wage subsidies. I understand that, in and of themselves, they have a role to play, but only if you increase supply, because if there is only a fixed amount of places then guess what? Prices go up. That's economics 101.

A constituent in my electorate, Carly from Mooroolbark, recently contacted me about this issue, and this is what she had to say: 'The cost of day care is absurd. They've just announced they are increasing it again. My child goes two days per week, and it's now going from $149 per day to $159.50 per day, of which we are subsidised 50 per cent—no change from Labor's supposed cheaper child care.' Another family in my community has gone from paying $162 per day to paying $175 per day after the increase in the subsidy last year. Another family has had a $13 a day increase, from $129 to $142 a day. I could sit here all day and use examples from my community, or any community across the country, of prices going up despite what the government promised.

The reason they can't deliver cheaper child care is that they're not investing in supply. They're now going to subsidise wages, but they're not prepared to commit to a long-term plan. As the member for Moncrieff said—and I commend her for this motion—the government have committed to this for two years, but, after two years, who's going to pay for it? The people that need the child care. The government have also capped price rises at 4.4 per cent over the next 12 months. So they're capping the increases that our childcare centres can have at a time when the cost of food for young children is going up, the cost of energy at the centres is going up and wages are obviously going up. If they've taken out a loan at that site, their interest rates are going up. So every cost is going up, and the government are saying that 4.4 per cent is all they can increase fees by if they want to get access to this subsidy. The government don't have any real plans to address the cause. It's all about treating the symptoms. It's bandaid solutions that make it worse.

Child care is an essential part of life. We need to continue to invest in it. I was lucky to recently visit Hansen Park Pre School in my community, and I want to thank Amy and the parents and friends committee there but also the educators for the work they do. Prior to my entering politics, my wife, Rachel, was the president of our local preschool, where my children went, and I've seen firsthand the amazing volunteers who put in so much for the community to make sure that children can get the early childhood education and support they need. But, again, they're being let down by this government. They're being let down because there's no investment in supply. You can talk about price, and that is important, but it doesn't help those who cannot find a place. In my community, we are definitely a childcare desert. There are currently nine million Australians who are living in a childcare desert, with little or no access to early learning education.

The member for Moncrieff came to my electorate, and we met with Belinda and the team at Mums of the Hills. We talked to many of the parents who are having to put their children on waitlists as soon as they are born and having to pay a fee, in many cases, just to get onto a waitlist. For every 15 parents who are trying to get into child care, there is one place available in my community. And what do we hear from the government about addressing these deserts in my community and many regional and peri-urban communities? Nothing. For two years, we have heard nothing from this government on how they are going to increase childcare places. It's very easy to talk about a subsidy, but it doesn't help if you can't get a place. That's why, again, this government has the wrong priorities. They're not addressing the cause of these issues; they're addressing the symptoms. That's why, after two years, there is not one Australian who is better off.

Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question to those opposite is: how do we increase the number of places at childcare centres? This is something that we all want to be able to do. The only way you do that is to get a workforce in that can sustain increased spots. We want to make sure that these kids are getting good-quality education and that they have well-qualified early childhood educators looking after them. How long does it take to qualify to be an early childhood educator? You can do a TAFE course diploma in a couple of years, so really the hard work of trying to get more early childhood educators in the system needed to have happened a few years ago. Who was in government then? Those opposite. When we talk about the lack of early childhood educators in the workforce, this isn't something that has sprung up in the last one or two years; this is something that has been problematic for many, many years. We ought to have had the foresight to train these early childhood educators some years back so that they would now be in the workforce.

Last week I visited Abbotsford Long Day Care Centre. It's a really special early childhood education centre; you feel it as soon as you walk into the place. It's one of those places where the early childhood educators have been working there for years, sometimes decades. It's a not-for-profit organisation and a community run centre that has been in Abbotsford for almost 40 years and has a strong reputation in the community. Parents play an active role in the running of the centre. I met one of those parents. He spoke to me about how much his three-year-old son had benefited from the rich learning environment that Abbotsford Long Day Care Centre had offered him. I did a video with the centre director, Kylie Lawson, in which we spoke about the importance of early childhood education. Early childhood education benefits the child, their families and our society. I know it; you know it, Deputy Speaker Young; and the parents and educators at Abbotsford Long Day Care Centre know it.

Unfortunately, those opposite failed to value this importance of early childhood education. They're complaining about the government providing help with childcare costs to families. It begs the question, 'Why?' It's because they really don't want to look at their own record in this space. Over their nine years in government, a period of historically low inflation across the global economy and across the globe, childcare prices skyrocketed. They didn't just neglect the system; they also neglected the workforce. They neglected those people doing the hard yards looking after our kids—and it's them that we really need to support.

During the May budget there was a moment when the Treasurer was speaking that struck me. I looked up in the public gallery and saw a row of women who were in tears. They were in tears because of an announcement the Treasurer had made—that we had put a provision in the budget to help fund an increase in the pay for early childhood educators. The next day, bright and early after the budget, I went to a post-budget breakfast run by the Community Child Care Association and Community Early Learning Australia. I got to meet those early educators. They were still emotional the day after the budget, because many of them had been asking for years and years for their work to be valued. In that budget speech, where we talked about ensuring they got a pay rise, they finally felt as though they were being valued—that their work as educators, where they were providing a rich learning environment for our kids, was finally being recognised and valued, and that they were finally going to be paid what they are worth. That was what the announcement the Prime Minister made yesterday was all about: recognising the important contribution of these early childhood educators who had been fighting for so long to finally be valued. We said to them, 'We see the important work you do, we value it and we are going to pay you what you are worth.'

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moncrieff for her very important motion. The positive impact of quality early childhood education cannot be overstated. It is simply transformational. Kids who receive educational care earlier are better equipped for the challenges that life throws at them. It sets them up for success at home, at school and throughout their life. A resilient early childhood education sector is also a game changer for parents and carers, particularly in regional, rural and remote communities. When high-quality child care is available, parents can choose to return to work sooner or work more days per week. At a time when the cost of living is so high, access to child care makes it easier to provide for a family. If we get more parents working, we can help to address workforce shortages in areas such as teaching, health care, construction and so many others. Regional workforces are under so much pressure, and affordable and available child care is one of the best tools we will ever have to fill the jobs we need. Unfortunately, though, this is not the reality across most of Australia.

In rural and regional Australia, childcare deserts—areas where there are three children for every childcare place— are everywhere. Just last week, new ABS data showed that a lack of child care is the No. 1 reason stopping women from entering or re-entering the workforce. When families can't access child care, women pay the price, losing out on career progression, superannuation accrual and social connection. It has consequences for the family budget and for the opportunities offered to that beautiful, developing child. This system is failing us. That's why in mid-July I hosted two play date events in my electorate with the Parenthood, one of Australia's leading advocacy groups for a better and fairer childcare system. I want to thank Maddy Butler and the Parenthood for their commitment to addressing regional childcare shortages and their engagement with the people in my electorate of Indi.

Our play date events were an opportunity to go beyond the statistics and hear from parents, grandparents and carers directly what childcare shortages mean for parents in my electorate and what they want to see done differently. I thank all the parents and carers who came out to the Wangaratta and Wodonga libraries and those who wrote to me to share their stories. But what I'm hearing has me seriously concerned and reinforces exactly what the experts and the numbers are saying. I heard from parents who've lost track of the number of waitlists their child is on and have been forced to wait for years for a place to become available. I heard from parents driving hours every day to get their kids to where a spot is available, meaning only one parent can work full time. I heard from grandparents who have given up work so they can step in to provide child care, because otherwise their own adult children would be in financial trouble.

Frankly, something has to change. While I commend the government for increasing the childcare subsidy, which is critical, and for its commitment to fund a wage rise for early childhood educators, which is so desperately deserved, more urgent action is required. We need to do more to train passionate and skilled early childhood educators. Recent research by the Australian Education Research Organisation shows that one of the greatest indicators of success in the first year of school is the quality of early childhood educators in that period. That is why it is so crucial and so fundamental that we support more Australians to build a career in this sector and that we value and recognise the life-changing impact this work has. That means paying early childhood educators more, and I support the government's commitment to fund the 15 per cent wage rise for employees. It means exploring all options to ensure more Australians study early childhood education and teaching in regional areas. This could involve expanding access to fee-free courses in regional centres and making sure that placements prepare, extend and develop the educators of the future. Finally, it could mean funding local governments and not-for-profits to provide childcare services in regional towns and communities where the for-profit sector won't fill the gap. This will require leadership by government, but, if we're to create truly universal access to childhood education in regional Australia, it might be what is needed.

I'm inspired by the work of organisations such as Thrive by Five, the Parenthood, the Mitchell Institute and the Centre for Policy Development who are showing us that a better childcare system is possible. But I would also like to note the commitment of my state counterpart, Annabelle Cleeland, the Nationals member for Euroa, for her ongoing engagement with me to address childcare shortages in north-east Victoria. Universal child care is a policy I support. (Time expired)

Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we have a reason to celebrate, because, after so much advocacy, our early years educators have achieved a much-deserved pay rise. Backed in by the Albanese government, early childhood educators make it possible for millions of Australians to do their job and support young children's early learning and development. The role they play is so important, and our government recognises and values their contribution to families across the nation. That's why I'm so proud that we will fund a 15 per cent wage increase for early childhood education and care workers.

This significant wage increase is an important next step in the government's reform of the sector. It will be phased in over two years, with a 10 per cent increase from December 2024 and a further five per cent increase from December 2025. This $3.6 billion investment from our government recognises the vital role that early childhood educators play in fostering better learning outcomes for children.

In my electorate of Corangamite, early-years educator and amazing United Workers Union advocate Raelee Fechner told my office this pay rise will be a game changer. She said:

It's a good move, some educators are working two to three jobs, and with this pay rise, they will have a much better work-life balance.

It will encourage more educators to stay in the sector, and that's good for kids because consistency in the classroom leads to better learning outcomes, and that's why this pay rise is so important—not just for workers but for families.

I remember well, back in 2018, catching the bus to Melbourne surrounded by early-year educators and standing with them as part of their Big Steps campaign, fighting for better pay and conditions. I'm so proud that our government has listened and acted and is working closely with the sector to deliver better outcomes for these workers, who for too long have failed to be recognised for the important and demanding work they do. Of course, we understand there's more to do, and that's why we're working to build a universal early childhood education and care system that's accessible, affordable and inclusive.

For a sector facing worker shortages, this significant pay rise is meaningful progress. To safeguard that progress and ensure we continue to grow the sector, our government is rolling out fee-free TAFE opportunities so that more young Australians can pursue a career as an early childhood educator. On top of this, it's now more than one year since our cheaper childcare laws came into effect. While I know the member for Moncrieff, who moved this motion, cares about early-years educators, I would like to remind her that our cheaper childcare policy has cut the cost of child care for more than one million Australian families. If you're a family on a combined income of $120,000 and you have one child in care for three days a week, this has cut the cost of your child care by about $2,000. That's $2,000 in savings for almost 6,000 families in my electorate of Corangamite. Many of these families are now also receiving more pay in their pay packet, with a tax cut of about $2,000. That's real cost-of-living relief.

The biggest childcare provider in the country, Goodstart, recently released a report showing that out-of-pocket costs have gone down and that those benefitting more from the cheaper childcare subsidies are families on low and middle incomes. The Albanese government recognises that they are doing it tough, and that's why addressing cost-of-living pressures is our No. 1 priority. Cheaper child care not only puts money back into the pockets of families; it also enables parents, especially women, to decide whether to go back into the workforce, if they wish, or increase their hours—and their pay packets.

Under our government, every early childhood educator who pays tax will now get a tax cut as well as a pay rise. Working parents will also get a tax cut and access to the cheaper childcare subsidy. The Albanese government is delivering tax cuts, pay rises and cheaper child care so that Australians can earn more and keep more of what they earn and early-years educators can receive the respect they deserve.

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

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