Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Opposition senators raise their arms at the reference to $58 million. Is it nothing, Senator? What the former government did in this sector was one of the most outrageous elements of the previous government. Today we have a much broader agenda that is being delivered and being implemented. We have promises such as: access to early childhood education for four-year-olds, which is being delivered, and national quality standards, which are being delivered. And, yes, we do have promises around accessibility to child care, which are being delivered.

In your usual trite way, you address the commitment in relation to childcare centres, but it is what you do not say that is critical. You do not say that the number of childcare centres has grown by 1,000 over the relevant period. So our earlier promises are less relevant today than they were when they were made. They were made at a time when the previous government was deliberately denying us market data so that this sector could not be planned competently. So we come into government, we deal with the collapse of ABC child care—which had been allowed to grow into an enormous monopoly of delivery—and we stabilise the sector. Then, after we have had access to the relevant information, we are able to assess what the real growth in the sector has been and we see that accessibility has been improved by changes in the market and that an extra thousand childcare centres have been delivered within the market. And only a fool would proceed with a policy once they understood what change had occurred.

Those opposite talk about integrity, quality and character, but I look back on just this one issue you claim is a broken promise and I remember what Prime Minister Howard allowed his minister to do in this sector. Let us look at some of that whilst I am on that point. Let us look at the fundraisers and the lobbying that was allowed to occur in ABC child care. That is the nature of the character of the former government—which you do not find in this government. You cannot find the casualties that occurred under the Howard government amongst our ministers. (Time expired)