Rod Kemp (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Hansard source

The government will not be supporting these amendments. I have listened carefully to the arguments that have been put forward. Senators who have spoken do not seem to understand some of the implications of the Labor Party amendments. One that has been drawn to my attention is that the proposed amendments would make a hypocrisy of the current voluntary relinquishment process. Senator Siewert, in practical terms, based on the amendments drafted by the opposition, the government would have to reject the child-care services’ voluntarily offered relinquished places unless we had an application for more from somewhere else. I think it just shows you the inflexibility of the amendments that have been proposed by Senator McLucas, which seem to have a rather serious unintended consequence. That is just one of the arguments why we will not be supporting the Labor Party amendments: they restrict the ability to redistribute places from providers that are not using them to those in areas of need.

The government does not accept the opposition amendments because they are counter to the purpose of the government’s provisions. The opposition amendments partially duplicate other provisions of the Family Assistance Administration Act. Prescription of administrative process is unnecessary red tape, in our view, in a sector that needs more flexibility, not less. To our mind, it is odd that the Labor Party would restrict the ability to redistribute unfilled places to areas of need when they often quite wrongly—I have been in the chamber when they have done this—claim that there is a child-care place shortfall. The substance of the opposition amendment is that funded places should remain idle for at least 12 months before they can be put to better use.