Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Labor will be supporting this bill today. The additional childcare subsidy for child wellbeing is a vital program that provides a safe and nurturing learning environment for children in extremely vulnerable situations at home. For most of these children it can be the difference between being able to stay at home or having to go into the child protection system. It's critical that the government treats this program with sensitivity and ensures families and providers are not overly burdened with red tape.

This Liberal-National government introduced a number of new requirements and rules that restricted access to the additional childcare subsidy in July 2018. This government like to bang the drum about cutting red tape. It's one of those media releases they put out on regular rotation, but they go out of their way to increase red tape for vulnerable families and the childcare providers trying to help them. In the first six months of the new system, the number of children receiving the child wellbeing subsidy collapsed by 21 per cent. These numbers have since recovered pre-July 2018 levels but only after a significant effort and resources from providers.

When asked in Senate estimates if the department was concerned about the drop, they admitted that they weren't and also confessed that they weren't even tracking families that had dropped out of the system. During the Senate inquiry into the government's first round of changes to the childcare legislation last September, the stakeholders all expressed strong views that the additional childcare subsidy was not working in the best interests of vulnerable children. The Early Learning and Care Council of Australia, Early Childhood Australia and Goodstart all called on the government to fix the red tape and restrictions on the ACCS.

Labor will support these changes because they fix some of the design flaws in their new system and will help to get vulnerable children the support they need, but the Liberals' childcare system still has many other serious flaws. This is a system which leaves one in four families worse off. It's a design feature where access to early education and care is reduced for 279,000 families. It's a system that only 40 per cent of providers and 41 per cent of families told the independent evaluation reviewers had resulted in positive change, and 83 per cent of parents told the evaluation that the new system had made no impact on their work or study. It's a system that has been forcing childcare providers to act as unpaid debt collectors for the government, because families are struggling to stay on top of the complicated activity and means tests. It's a system that has been riddled with software glitches that have left providers and families in the dark and staff without pay. It sends out blunt letters, telling families they owe the government money without any explanation. So far over 91,000 families, or 16 per cent of all families, audited so far have been hit with a childcare subsidy debt notice, which is more evidence that their new system is too complex and not working for families.

Childcare fees are already out of control in the new system. The CPI figures show childcare costs increased by 1.9 per cent in the December quarter, the fourth successive increase, and have now gone up by 7.2 per cent in the 12-month period. Fees are now 34 per cent up under the Liberal-National government. Families are now paying on average $3,800 a year more for early education and care under this government. The government was very confident that the new system would put downward pressure on fees and they were driving down the cost of child care. The minister was keen to spruik a new website as a game changer and told families to shop around, but less than half of providers are providing accurate fee information to the website. You certainly don't hear the minister making these claims any more. And, like in every other portfolio, the government has no idea and no plan on how to bring fees under control. The Minister for Education claims taxpayer funding of early education and care is communism. The Prime Minister calls the childcare budget a money pit. These are unacceptable comments from an out-of-touch Morrison government.

Labor will support this bill, but we also note our ongoing concerns with the failure of the Morrison government to manage our childcare sector.

(Quorum formed)