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

I rise today to speak in opposition of the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Measures) Bill 2014 in its totality. It is a regressive attack on Australian families. Not only is it a regressive attack; it is a sneaky attack. The government are not being up-front with Australian families about what they are doing. They are attempting to walk both sides of the fence. On one hand, they are saying that their Productivity Commission report is going to be the Holy Grail of child care. Meanwhile, in the midst of all the other nasty elements in this budget, they are about to force Australian families to pay between $3,000 and $6,000 a year by cutting the amount of support offered through the childcare benefit and the childcare rebate. It is just another step along the way of this government's attack on families, particularly those families who are struggling week in week out to meet the rising costs of living and the rising costs of child care.

The proposed changes will have a significant impact on families by making child care less affordable and therefore less accessible. We know from questioning in the Senate estimates process and the recent inquiry into the affordability of child care that over half a million families are going to cop higher fees as a result of the legislation we are debating today. Half a million families are going to cop a rise in childcare fees and be struggling to meet costs when their childcare bill comes in each week. Families with a household income of around $60,000 are going to lose $3,000 a year if this bill proceeds. Families on over $47,000—right down in the income bracket—will be hit with higher fees and less government support. For families with an income on $60,000 a year, who are going to be hit with an extra $3,000 year, that is over $50 a week. It is actually $57 a week more that families are going to have to be finding in order to cover their childcare fees. Families with household incomes of $150,000 per year will be hit with an extra bill of $6,000 a year, or $115 a week. Yet the Abbott government did not let Australian families know they were planning this before the last election. They have sneaked this trough the system, hoping Australian families would not find out that they are about to be slugged with a whole lot of extra fees—on top of the already increasing fees in this sector that families are struggling to pay every week.

We know that families are already copping the highest childcare fees in history, which have gone up by about 150 per cent in the last decade. Many families are forced to pay in the vicinity of $80 to $170 a day—and that is if you can find a childcare place. If you speak to families, you work out pretty quickly that most people have to get on the waiting list long before their baby is even born—if you are able to get into a centre that is close to your home or close to your work, that is convenient enough for the care that you need on the days that you need it.

We know that there is a struggle to find a place for children in the younger bracket—the nought- to two-year olds, the baby rooms, are where parents are struggling the most. Yet the cost of child care continues to rise day after day. In my home state of South Australia, parents are paying well over $80 a day just to put their child into a well-qualified, caring childcare centre.

We know from reports over the last few days that mothers are struggling to balance their books. Going to work and having to pay for child care, while going back into the workforce, is costing Australian mothers dearly. Mothers are only taking home a fraction of their earnings because of skyrocketing childcare fees. A mother from a low-income family who returns to work part time will lose up to 69 per cent of her income on taxes and the cost of childcare. Mothers on the minimum wage are effectively working for just $3.50 an hour, once you take into consideration the cost of child care.

This government's attempt to pass this legislation, with very little explanation and honesty with the Australian people, is nothing short of shameful. They are trying to sit on both sides of the fence. I heard the minister responsible for this area last night and over the weekend talking about the need for more support for Australian families. Meanwhile, she is ushering through massive cuts to household budgets and pushing up the cost of child care to half a million families across the country.

Let's be totally upfront about this. This is a cost-savings measure by the government. It is not about improving the quality of child care, it is not about improving accessibility and, obviously, it is not about improving affordability for families. This is about saving money for the government. Why are the government desperate to save money with their harsh cuts? Because they have not been prepared to stand up to the big miners, big banks and big business to ensure that those who can afford to pay their fair share pay up. Instead we see Australian families being slugged over and over again. We have the $7 co-payment. Every time a parent needs to take their sick child to the doctor, they are going to be taxed for it. Every time they need to buy medicine for their sick child, they are going to be taxed for it.

This attack on the affordability of child care is just another item on a long list of attacks on affordability for Australian families. I will be moving a second reading motion which will go to this exact point. Rather than the government raising revenue where they could easily find it if they had the guts—by ensuring we had a proper tax on the big miners, ensuring that banks pay their fair share in terms of a levy and ensuring that we raise money from the places that can afford it—they are attacking students, low-income families and families who have children in child care. This is an attack on the sick, the young and the working family.

The Productivity Commission is due to release its draft report only in the next couple of weeks, and yet here we have the government riding roughshod over whatever the Productivity Commission comes up with, in order to scramble back $350 million for the government coffers because they could not make the decision to tax those who could afford it the most. The government is not being upfront with Australian families about this. Where was the big announcement from Tony Abbott that he was about to cost Australian families on $60,000 a year an extra $3,000, an extra $57 a week? That is what parents who have their kids in child care are going to have to start coughing up. An extra $57 a week is a big hit on the household budget.

Where is the discussion about investing in the early childhood education of our children? Where is the big discussion and commitment to ensuring that those who care for our children and educate our children in these centres are the best qualified people they can possibly be? They deserve to be paid properly for those skills, that commitment to the sector and their ability to care for and educate the nation's youngest citizens. Rather than supporting those who care for our children, we are seeing the government take the axe straight to family budgets, putting pressure on childcare services to increase their fees further and to reduce the number of places available, making what is already a pressure cooker in terms of accessing and affording quality child care even harder for Australian families.

I asked some questions about this during the Senate estimates process. How many families were going to be impacted? Half a million. In fact, over half a million families are going to be impacted by this. What modelling did they do on what families would do if they could not afford the massive hikes in the fees that will result if this legislation is to pass the Senate? There has been very little modelling done, not much discussion, no consultation. This is all about penny-pinching by Tony Abbott, penny-pinching off Australian families who are already struggling to get their kids into good quality child care, to get to work and get back again to pick them up on time before they get charged even more. It does not take rocket science to work out that Australian families are struggling with the rising costs of child care and to find appropriate places for their children.

The Greens will be voting against this legislation in its totality and we reject the freezing of the indexation in relation to the childcare benefit, which will affect half a million families. We also reject the freezing of the childcare rebate cap, which will affect another 105,000 families. I urge the Australian Labor Party to do the same. We heard from Senator Carr that the bill will be split by the Labor Party to allow them to vote for one of the cuts but not the other. I urge the Labor Party to reconsider that. This is a bad piece of legislation that is going to hit Australian families immediately. This is a bad piece of legislation that should not pass, because all it does is allow Tony Abbott off the hook. Raising an extra $350 million by slugging parents who have their children in child care is not fair.

We heard Mr Hockey from the other place, swanning around the country only a week ago, trying to tell Australian families that the budget was fair. What is fair about forcing mums and dads to pay more when they have to go back to work five days a week, struggling to drop their kids off at child care, maybe another one at school—doing the double drop-off—and struggling to get out of work on time in order to pick the kids up at the end of the day before they start getting charged an even higher indexation of fees? What is fair about saying to those families: 'Because we don't want to make the miners pay their fair share, because the big banks continue to get left off, you are going to have to cough up an extra $3,000 a year—$57 a week'? What is fair about that? I would like Mr Hockey to explain how, if he were on $60,000 a year, he would have afforded an extra $57 a week just to ensure that his children had good quality child care.

The thing is, while we need a transformation or an overhaul of how we fund child care and early childhood education services in this country, while we need an overhaul of how we view and respect the importance of looking after our children at this most critical time, while we need an overhaul of the pitiful wages that are paid to those who care for and educate our youngest citizens, you cannot just keep cost-shifting the burden to Australian families.

Let's have a discussion about how we make the funding of early childhood education services and care more sustainable as a nation. Let's have a discussion about the fact that—and these are not my figures; these are the figures of the World Bank—for every dollar that is spent on early childhood education and care, the return is $17. For every dollar that we spend, we get an extra $17 return if we invest in early childhood education services. But we are not having that discussion, because this government just wants to sneak through a budget savings measure that is going to hit Australian families who have their kids in child care and to take the axe to the affordability of that care and education.

I think that many people out there in the Australian community, parents who dropped their children off at child care this morning and will be racing from work to pick them up at the end of the day sometime between five and six o'clock, will be really shocked to know that this government is about to hike the affordability of child care for their family. Whether it is an extra $57 a week or an extra $115 a week, it is a massive hit on their family budgets and it is going to have a devastating impact on the number of places available in childcare services.

There are some other attacks on early childhood education as announced by this government in the budget. They are not all in direct relation to this legislation, but very concerning nonetheless. There is the lack of commitment to funding preschool and kindergarten, to the universal access to kindergarten and preschool. I am very concerned that we are about to see $400 million passed up because we do not have commitment from this federal government to keep that scheme going. They are going to push it back to states and blame the states, making it even for difficult for Australia's youngest students, our preschoolers and our kindergarten kids, to access good quality early education prior to going to school. We know how important that early intervention is when it comes to the academic development and the social development of children.

We have seen this government cut the JET program, which is about supporting young mothers who need to be able to educate themselves in order to get back into the workforce or find a pathway into employment. That JET program is about to be cut as well. So while we have the government out there saying that every young person under 30 now needs to earn or learn, what they have done for those young mothers who are under 30 and who are struggling to afford the cost of child care and being able to get themselves back to TAFE or uni or to do a diploma or certificate to get themselves back into the workforce, is to cut the amount of access they have to childcare support while they are studying. So earn or learn—except if you have children. If you have children, just suck it up! That is basically the attitude of the Abbott government. It is not fair. It is not good enough. It is an attack on not just the wellbeing and social and educational development of the nation's children, but it is also an attack on Australian families who deserve better, and who thought better of the coalition prior to this budget being handed down. The Greens will vote against this legislation. I will be moving a second reading amendment as circulated in the chamber.