Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2013. As we already know, this is a cobbled-together bill of various issues and various amendments to different acts. It is effectively 'the bill of bad surprises' for the Australian people.

There are really not very many good things in this bill. Of course, it is no surprise that the federal government has put them all in together, whether it is backflipping on gambling reform, ripping money away from students or, indeed, ripping money out of the pockets of parents with a freeze on the childcare rebate indexation. And it is being done in a way that does not give much time, much information or much notice to the Australian people that the federal government wants to act so recklessly on issues that impact directly on people's lives. It is only two weeks before Christmas and I assume that the federal government believes that people have clocked off and that no-one is really paying any attention to what is going on in this place today. It is all very unfortunate, because the money that will be ripped out of parents' pockets because of this piece of legislation is significant.

I want to talk specifically in relation to the freezing of the indexation on the childcare rebate. This effectively means less money going back to parents once they have paid their childcare fees. Most families will be really shocked and surprised that the coalition, who had previously not supported a freeze on the childcare rebate indexation is are now legislating for it and in a way that is sneaky; it is being done in a way that is trying to avoid scrutiny. The government would like this all done today, ticked off—and we can all go home. It is a case of: 'Oh well, those poor parents will find out sooner or later that they are not getting the rebate for their childcare fees.'

On a conservative estimate, the number of families which the freezing of the indexation would impact on is 150,000 across the country. That is a lot of families. That is a lot of the childcare hours. The government went to the election saying that they were concerned about the cost of child care, that they were interested in listening to the views and concerns of parents in relation to the cost of affordable and quality child care, yet here we are, five minutes to midnight, and the coalition is introducing legislation that they are trying to ram through the parliament that takes money away from families and makes child care more expensive.

The Greens will not be supporting this move. We will move amendments to this legislation to remove the freezing of the indexation, because it is wrong. Not only is it wrong because no-one had been told that the government wanted to do this; it is wrong because we know that childcare costs have increased by an average of seven per cent over the last couple of years and the freezing of the indexation of the childcare rebate will take the rebate back to the level it was in the 2008-09 financial year. It beggars belief that the coalition are happy to rip thousands of dollars out of the pockets of families in order to get this legislation through. It is all because the coalition have no means of revenue raising. They have a huge black hole. They are spending $11 billion on locking up children in Nauru, yet here in Australia they are telling parents that they are about to take thousands of dollars out of their pockets by freezing the indexation on the childcare rebate. What gall the coalition have! They went to the election saying that they would work hard to deliver affordable child care, and they have not delivered.