Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Improving Assistance for Vulnerable and Disadvantaged Families) Bill 2020. This bill will amend provisions relating to additional childcare subsidy in the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999. The bill will strengthen and broaden access to additional childcare subsidy, with the period of time in which a provider can apply for additional childcare subsidy being increased from 13 weeks to 12 months for children under a long-term child protection order, such as those, importantly, who are in foster care. This is a huge increase. It represents a quadrupling of the previous limit. It is a commonsense change recognising the support that vulnerable children need over longer periods of time.

Additional childcare subsidy provides additional childcare fee assistance to an individual or provider, in limited circumstances, for children at risk of serious abuse or neglect, to ensure these children have streamlined access to and continuity of child care. In my first speech I spoke about the importance of improving early childhood education and how in fact it's a critical enabler for children, ensuring that children are able to achieve the best possible life outcomes. We know that a child's brain grows to 90 per cent of its adult size by the time the child is five years of age. It's incredibly important that we give access to as many children as possible, particularly those children who are vulnerable, those who come from vulnerable situations, because we know that investment in those early years yields tremendous results over a long period of time.

I was involved with a program in the south-eastern suburbs of Perth—a childcare facility that is linked to a school, which is quite a unique application of child care. It is a pilot program at Challis primary school called the Challis Primary School Early Childhood Education Centre, and it's amazing. Senator Birmingham visited that school several years ago. It's a wonderful example of how you can provide connections with families in those very early years when they're raising their children, and for many families it's a new experience, particularly if it's a first child. Connecting them with the supports that are necessary to raise a child and give that child the very best possible start at life is really important. I bring this to your attention because it's a model that I think could be further examined, and it is something that this government has looked at.

In the context of this legislation, ensuring that we're providing access to quality childhood education is really important. Childcare services are really important. In this particular program, kids who start school in year 1 in the south-eastern suburbs of Perth, in Challis or in Armadale, now start school at a level that is better than state average. This is a low-socioeconomic-status school and school area, and these kids start school better than the state average when it comes to literacy and numeracy. And their improvement across the year, even in just that first year, is also at a better rate than that of other schools across Western Australia.

It shows you that that interaction and involvement from the very early years, from zero years and right through, are really important to improving the outcomes for vulnerable people. These are kids who need the very best start in life. They're surrounded by circumstances that are trying and troubling, and it is about giving them the very best start at life, as their parents are wanting to. It's amazing to see the transition and the results. That program has now been running for some years. They now have longitudinal data to back up the evidence of the importance of this early investment. That is why this government is absolutely committed to ensuring that this investment is here, so that we are providing children with the very best opportunity.

Under this program childcare providers will be able to enrol children who are in foster care under an additional childcare subsidy for an initial period of 13 weeks, giving an individual foster family sufficient time to lodge their childcare subsidy claim and have it assessed by Services Australia. Existing provisions whereby providers are required to notify Services Australia when a child is no longer considered to be at risk will continue to apply. As Australians return to work, as businesses re-open and as children return to classroom learning, the government will resume the childcare subsidy to support families to access affordable child care.

This bill is yet another example of the strong consultation this government undertakes. We know government is not all-knowing. We consistently seek to improve. We listen to the community and we update our programs as the feedback comes in. This legislation is an update of the legislation, the regulations, based on on-the-ground feedback and, importantly, stakeholder consultation. The aim of this bill is very simple: the Morrison government seeks to support families while maintaining a strong and vibrant childcare sector across the nation.

I recently undertook a road trip, travelling many thousands of kilometres—in fact, 6,000 kilometres—up through the great state of Western Australia. I spent pretty much that whole time in one single electorate, in Durack, which just shows you how big that electorate is. I drove from Perth all the way up through the Mid West and then the Pilbara, and then into the Kimberley. It was a very insightful trip. I spoke to enormous numbers of people—whether they were shires or businesses or community groups; different stakeholders—about the challenges in their area. One of the recurring themes that I heard was that the need for child care was actually an integral part of the rural community, particularly in those towns where there's a heavy reliance on FIFO, a fly-in, fly-out workforce. These towns actually want to build their residential workforce, and they're wanting and needing—and they see the demand for—good-quality child care and ready access to child care so that they can attract more and more people into their town. This is something that we as a government support, because we recognise the importance of that. This flexibility should also be available to vulnerable and disadvantaged Australians, and that's what this bill will achieve. It's going to provide that flexibility.

This amendment is, of course, happening in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. The government's primary aim during this time supports families and business. Child care is integral to achieving both of these outcomes. Under the childcare relief package, around 99 per cent of childcare providers kept their doors open. What a fantastic outcome. When you consider, in particular, the breadth of the shutdowns that occurred in our economy, keeping the doors of childcare providers open not only allowed people to continue working but also provided the ability for those people to attend their workplaces as required, particularly those who were in the healthcare sector.

I spoke to one particular provider in the CBD of Perth. They're the major childcare provider, right next to Royal Perth Hospital. When we were in the depth of the pandemic crisis in Perth—and, thank goodness, we're not through it but things are much better in Perth now, and much better in Western Australia, compared to in March and April—this childcare provider kept running. They kept their doors open, and they ensured that they were providing important and valuable childcare services so that the parents could go to work. These were nurses and doctors, people who were running the hospital, and cleaners. This is right next door to the Royal Perth Hospital. And it was made possible because this government recognised the need. We provided the flexibility for that provider to be able to keep their doors open, even though they were seeing a reduced number of kids come in because the overall demand was a little bit lower than it would normally have been.

Since 13 July, the transition package that was designed and implemented included a payment of 25 per cent of a provider's pre-COVID revenue. This has supported centres across Australia. I'm pleased to inform the Senate that centres in Victoria have received appropriate assistance to the tune of $33 million, recognising the severity of the ongoing situation there. This bill shows clearly that, following the return to the demand-driven childcare subsidy on 13 July 2020, we are committed to improving access to child care for vulnerable and disadvantaged children. This, in turn, provides support for disadvantaged families. There is much red tape in this sector. This bill also seeks to cut this red tape both for families and for providers. Cutting this red tape means that access to child care is going to be easier overall, and cheaper, and more time will be spent on important priorities than on compliance and overcoming access barriers.

So I'm glad that the opposition is supporting this bill. Senator Gallagher expressed earlier her support for cutting red tape in the sector, which is great. Child care is one of the most overregulated sectors of our economy. I hope that Senator Gallagher is equally excited about freeing up other sectors of our economy, but I do digress. It is important, at this time, that the government and opposition work constructively together—as we mostly have, I have to say.

The coalition is committing to providing record funding for child care. We are committed to quality, affordable child care as an important structural feature of our economy. We recognised this when we took steps to protect the sector during the coronavirus pandemic, and we recognise it now, but that does not mean that the coronavirus settings should be made permanent, as some have claimed. Our once-in-a-generation reforms have already delivered a 3.2 per cent decrease in out-of-pocket costs to parents. Further, we have strengthened assistance by preventing $3 billion of taxpayer money being falsely claimed. This fraudulent behaviour weakens the system and hurts all Australians, and preventing it is a priority that we are delivering on.

Our new childcare package represents the most significant reforms to the early education and care system in 40 years. This is incredibly important. This is a priority for government because we recognise the value of quality child care, education and development. We know that it sets children up for life. We know that it enables the economic participation of parents, allowing them to get out there and work. That combination ensures a better future for our children. We know that, when you invest in children, you see a multiplier effect right through their lives. The cost reductions and the reduction in other challenges and social issues that follow, particularly for disadvantaged families, are profound and significant; they're material. It's something that this government remains committed to because we recognise the importance of quality education. And that is why, even through the challenges of this pandemic, we've remained committed to child care. We have provided flexibility to providers to allow them to keep their doors open, even though they may have seen a reduction in the number of children turning up because parents are working from home or for various other reasons. We've continued to keep those doors open because we understand and recognise the importance of early childhood education for children and also for the economic participation of parents. I commend this bill to the Senate.