Amanda Stoker (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Kitching, you're a good person and you're an honest person, and because you've got an honest face it means I look at you across the chamber as you say what you do, and I know that not even you believe the bull that you've just been sharing with us, because you know as well as I do that, pre-COVID, we came into this position with record workforce participation for women. At 61.2 per cent, women were participating in the workforce more than they ever had. You know as well as I do that, despite the fact that those opposite love to pretend that they are the party of working people and they are the party of women, the cost of child care—childcare fees—went up by 53 per cent in the last term of Labor in government.

So we're not going to stand here and be lectured to by those opposite about how they're the party of affordable child care. The very fact that senators stand up in this chamber and pretend that child care is a women-only issue is itself disturbing. We on this side know that caring for children is a responsibility that belongs to both parents. It's not something that lies simply on women. It belongs to the entire family. But you'd never know that from what's said by those opposite. You'd think that it only matters to a woman whether or not children are cared for. You know, we operate in the real world. A real world where blokes, like Senator Seselja, like my husband, like many thousands and millions of men across this country, are equally invested in—

A government senator: What about Slade Brockman?

Slade, too. Slade is a fabulous father who cares just as much for the care of his children as the many other men in families.

Senator Watt interjecting—

I can't speak for you, Senator Watt. You can speak for the legalisation of dope, but you can't speak on this issue, because in your party child care is treated like something only women can talk about. Over here we know it's a whole-of-family issue. That's why those opposite will only ever talk about child care in the sense of institutional care in a childcare centre. You'll never hear them talking about income splitting and how that might help the whole family. You never hear them talk about the possibility of tax deductibility of in-home care. You'll never hear them talking about sharing the burden of raising children across the whole family with income splitting. No, it's all about the institutional solution. It's a closed-minded approach. It denies the reality of how many people choose to live their lives and it denies the fact that there is an uncomfortable truth in Labor's childcare policy, a very, very uncomfortable truth. That is that Labor's childcare policy is one that would tax middle-income families to subsidise the child care of the very, very wealthy. If you don't believe me, let me give you the maths. A family in Townsville earning $80,000 a year as a family under the policy of Mr Albanese and those opposite—Labor's signature position from their budget reply—would be subsidising a Sydney family earning $360,000 a year. They would subsidise those on $360,000 a year with the money of the Townsville family earning 80K. Where I'm from that doesn't make much sense. To make it even worse, they want to bake in permanent spending of $6 billion over four years with no plan to pay it, as well as baking in a subsidy for childcare workers to the tune of $10 billion a decade, again with no plan to pay it.

So we won't take lectures from those opposite. We know the care of children is a whole-of-family issue. We are prepared to approach it that way. We've put record funding into child care—$9.2 billion, growing to over $10 billion in the coming years. We put forward the very first Women's economic security statement and we renewed it. We came into this COVID crisis with record women's workforce participation. That is an approach to women's working success and the success of caring for children and families that we can be proud of and that should be an embarrassment to those opposite as they plan to take from middle-income earners to subsidise those on the Sydney harbourside. Well, good luck to them! We know which Australians we're fighting for.