Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make some remarks on the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Budget Measures) Bill 2010. I am very pleased to speak on this today because it is important that we place very clearly on the record that the coalition are opposed to this legislation. This bill sets the cap for the childcare rebate at $7,500 per annum and completely suspends the indexation of that rebate until 2014. Currently, the cap is set at $7,778. Not only will there be a reduction in the cap; there will also be the associated suspension of the indexation.

As a mother of two children, who are now 18 and 16, of course I remember when they were much younger and when I needed to avail myself of childcare services. What is extraordinary about this legislation is that the government are making it harder, not easier, for families to access child care and to get assistance for childcare fees. To me, that is the antithesis of what this government should be doing for families, particularly families in regional areas. It is quite extraordinary that the government should do this for a savings measure—I think it is predicted to save $86 million over four years. Since when did the working families of this country become the cash cow for this government? We should be assisting families with their childcare expenses not making it harder, as Julia Gillard and this government are proposing. Aren’t we supposed to make sure that the future of this country is in the best possible hands and that families have the best possible assistance to bring up their children from day one, from when they are babies? Extraordinarily, this government seem to be turning their backs on the working families whom they purport to assist.

This childcare rebate is so important to so many families. Many of the people I speak to, particularly in the regional areas, say to me how important it is that they have this financial assistance to assist them with their childcare expenses. But around 20,700 families will be affected by this legislation. Over 20,000 families will face this cap on their childcare rebate, with no chance of any increase whatsoever over the next four years. That is simply wrong. I do not know if the Prime Minister has had a brain snap but that will not assist working families with the costs of child care no matter which way you look at it. It will do exactly the opposite.

It is yet another example of this government saying one thing and doing another thing. It is all about the words. It all about spin. It is all about the political spin for the next day’s media cycle and getting the words out. It is not about the reality of delivering for the Australian people, particularly working families who need the assistance. The government seem to be completely at a loss to come up with any sort of substantive policy or any vision for the future for this country. If part of their vision for the future is to make things tougher for working families and to make it harder with childcare expenses, are they on the right track! Sorry for the sarcasm. They are completely inept. They have absolutely no understanding of what families need out there in our communities, particularly our regional communities. That is very obvious given this legislation before us today. It is quite extraordinary.

They have no ability to think about anything other than getting re-elected. What good is that to the Australian people? Every single day, every waking thought for the Prime Minister and her band of merry men and women is, ‘Gee, what are we going to do today to make sure we get re-elected?’ As my very good colleague Senator Ferguson said earlier, we see an extraordinary arrangement in government at the moment. But that is a conversation for another day. It is all about getting re-elected; it is not about doing the right thing by this country. Colleagues, when did you last hear the word ‘vision’ used by the government? When did you last hear the government talk about their plan for the future of this country? When did you ever hear anything at all from the government about how it wants the country to look in 10 years time, 20 years time or 30 years time? You will not hear any of that, colleagues, because they are a vacuum. This Labor government have absolutely no idea how to govern. They have no idea how to set a path for the Australian people. It is all about spin. It is all about getting the words out. It is all about making sure they get re-elected next time—which might be a little tougher given the current arrangements.

The Australian people are rightly disappointed with this Prime Minister. A lot of them are telling me that she has not been up to scratch. They had much higher expectations of what this Prime Minister would deliver for this country. They are quite rightly very disappointed that the Prime Minister of the country appears to have no vision or ideas for where this country is going to go. It is all just reactionary. It is all just spin. It is all just words. Interestingly enough, I have an intern in my office, Nawaaz Khalfan, who is a very bright young boy about to start his university career, and he said to me: ‘Where is the country going? Where are we headed under this government?’