Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not know whether you listened to me about their debt ratio. People in the mortgage belt have tightened their budgets almost as far as they can go. They have cut out extra trips in the car to save on the petrol bills, they have given up indulgences at the supermarket, they have even forgone some of their children’s sporting activities just to make certain they have a roof over their heads. When you have trimmed all the fat you can, what else remains to trim but the costs of a family home?

Already we have seen a 400 per cent increase in mortgagee sales in Penrith over the last year. Court applications for property repossessions in New South Wales have increased 60 per cent in the last two years—I hope my coalition colleagues heard that. As of the end of last year, 2,778 bankruptcies had been registered in New South Wales. This trend will continue as long as the government fails to rein in inflationary pressures and reduce the upward pressure on rates. If interest rates rise again under this government, we will see more and more people turn to charities for assistance, charities which are helping a greater proportion of people traditionally classified as ‘middle-class’. Families will be driven to the wall and they will not forget the role played by this government.

With all of the price pressures facing many families in Western Sydney, residents are understandably looking to bolster their earnings potential. Notwithstanding the barriers to gaining more work put up by Work Choices, Western Sydney families are also seeing their efforts frustrated by a lack of support in the system. I speak particularly about child care. Child care in Australia, with no national planning approach, has been allowed to degenerate into a shambles whereby either there is not enough of it or it is prohibitively expensive.

Yesterday’s ‘Persons not in the labour force’ survey, released by the ABS, states that almost 100,000 were not in the workforce because of the poor state of the childcare system. Nationwide 58,200 people cited cost as the No. 1 issue. The cost of child care, particularly for the zero- to two-year-old sector, has blown out to such an extent that it is discouraging women from returning to work after the birth of their children. The out-of-pocket expenses for families using child care are at record levels. Analysis of CPI figures shows that over the past 10 years, out-of-pocket childcare expenses have doubled nationwide and soared 88 per cent in Sydney. Increases in the cost of child care have outstripped price hikes for fresh fruit, petrol and holidays. Over the past year alone, out-of-pocket childcare expenses, which are the costs after parents have received the childcare benefit and rebate, have risen a further 12 per cent.

The federal government has abandoned child care to the free market and walked away from its responsibility to make the system accessible and affordable. Care for three- to five-year-olds is more profitable and less costly for operators, so the important zero- to two-year-old age bracket, which is more resource intensive, is falling by the wayside. This has been a problem for many years. This inaction by the government means that a significant share of the potential workforce is being denied the opportunity to work. The government is saying to families they have the choice between working and raising children, but they cannot have both.

The three issues I have outlined today—Work Choices, interest rates and child care—are placing significant pressures on families in Western Sydney. They are trying to get ahead and share in the economic prosperity, but the policies of the coalition are stymieing their efforts. We need a government that understands the pressures they face and a government that is willing to make changes to restore balance and fairness. After 11 years, the coalition has only demonstrated its lack of determination. Only a Labor government will give people that chance.