Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

We serve Australia, and we see early childhood education and care funding as crucial. I'm in a party whose leader is female. She's in fact a grandmother, and she has a very talented and hardworking daughter who also has young kids. I'm a parent, and I know what's involved in raising a child—not as much as a mother knows; nonetheless, I am a parent. And I remind people that Maria Montessori probably did more work on early childhood education, human development and human behaviour than anyone who has ever lived and anyone who's alive today. Her research, her findings, were profound. She said that the critical years for the formation of both character and intellect are birth to six. So early childhood education is fundamental. Character and intellect are developed then.

I'm going to be brief, because the main point I want to make is to thank Senator Pratt. She approached us, and our offices then spoke. This is an important topic, as I said. But what we didn't see, what we didn't hear, was an articulation from that office of the problem. That's not a criticism of that office. It's just that basically my staff asked, 'With this inquiry, what is it you're going to achieve?' And we were given the Labor Party policy in return.

The secretariat in the Senate is already busy and very stretched, so we need to see evidence of what will come from this, from all the work that will be involved. I want to point out an example of someone who works with us very well, and that is Senator Deb O'Neill. She came to us in the previous weeks with her bill regarding more protection for franchisees and for car dealers in particular. We worked with her, and we've worked with Senator O'Neill in the past. That's the sort of person we like to work with. That's what we need: facts. And, Acting Deputy President Sterle, we've worked well with you. You've come to us with facts. It is the same with Senator Sheldon, with Senator Gallacher and with Senator Gallagher. We appreciate people coming to us. We will work with anyone. We'll work with any party, provided that we are given the facts, the data, the substance that people want support on. We've worked with Senator Patrick and take great delight in working with him, and Senator Griff and Senator Lambie, and the Greens; we've worked with the Greens.

Perhaps I should point out that the Liberal-Nationals coalition learnt first, and they learnt very quickly, that we do work honestly and sincerely, and we stick to our position until we're given evidence otherwise. And then we will come on board, so we can be critical and questioning. But that's our job, because we serve the people of Australia. So, while I thank Senator Pratt for approaching us on this, we need the substance, we need the facts, we need the data. That's all I needed to say, apart from the fact that One Nation sees early childhood education as critical and sees child care as critical. But it needs to be based on fact.