Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed, Senator Sterle is right: we do hope that providers will be nimble and agile in responding to these reforms and that they will absolutely, in a deft way, be able to provide the types of services that parents demand. Currently, long day care, in-home care and family day care services operating all normal working days must operate all normal working days in at least 40 weeks of the year and provide care for any particular child for at least eight continuous hours on each normal working day. As a result of the simplification for providers under our new arrangements, they will only be required to operate for a minimum of 48 weeks per year. Otherwise there is flexibility for them to create and provide new services to meet parents who may not be demanding that level of hours or those arrangements. It is unacceptable that parents who routinely only require—perhaps for early learning outcomes—sessions of four or six hours of care per day are routinely charged for 10 or 12 hours for that care. (Time expired)