Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senators for their contribution to this debate. The Family Assistance and Other Legislation Amend­ment (Child Care and Other Measures) Bill 2011 contains important amendments to the Family Assistance (Administration) Act and other legislation to improve accountability in the childcare sector.

The government, and indeed families across Australia, know how important this is. The overnight collapse of ABC Learning in 2008 was quite simply unprecedented and the government's quick and decisive action meant that 90 per cent of the centres continue to operate for Australian families today. Had government support not been provided, almost 100,000 families may have been faced with the prospect of having to find alternative care arrangements with little or no notice. Since 2008, the government has introduced a range of new measures to better ensure the financial viability of childcare providers, including strengthening approvals processes and requiring additional notification of closures of centres.

The amendments in this bill represent a part of our commitment to improving accountability within the childcare market and protecting the market from unscrupulous operators. This bill broadens the powers of the secretary to refuse the approval of a childcare service for the purposes of family assistance law. Combined with other measures, this will give the Australian government greater scrutiny over operators and their past practices, including the power to look at whether service operators are fit and proper persons. The bill also enables the Australian government to offset and recover payments owed by one childcare service from another childcare service operated by the same operator.

These measures will also enhance the government's ability to deal with phoenixing, where an operator who accumulates debts exits and then re-enters the market under a restructured company. Under the current arrangements, the government can only consider the exact operator and their history in the industry. Importantly, the bill will support the government's $273.7 million investment in a national quality framework. The changes to protected information will support the national quality framework by enabling the Commonwealth to share information on childcare services within the state and territory regulator bodies. This will benefit services by not having to provide the same information to more than one body.

In summary, this bill makes a number of amendments that will improve transparency of the childcare sector and protect families from unscrupulous operators, and I commend it to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.