Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] I speak to the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Subsidy) Bill 2021. The bill removes the annual cap on childcare subsidy, CCS, payments to families and increases the maximum rate of the childcare subsidy for second and subsequent children where a family has more than one child under six years of age. These are the two measures that were announced in the 2021-22 budget. The measures, once implemented, will clearly provide some amount of relief to some families from the expensive and burdensome cost of early learning and care, and for that reason the Greens will support the bill. Any funding boost for early learning is welcome, but let's be real: the proposed bill will not fix the fundamental problems with the current system of early childhood education and care, which is underfunded, with some of the highest fees in the world. The most sensible and equitable move would be to make child care universal and free. Expensive early learning has held women, children and families back for far too long. The benefits of free early learning and care for families and the whole community are beyond doubt.

While I'm talking about children, their education and their future, I can't not talk about the very dark cloud hanging over their lives—the cloud of the climate crisis. The IPCC report that came out yesterday was devastating. Science and scientists are telling us that, even under the most ambitious emissions reduction scenarios, the world is now likely to heat to 1.5 degrees or more above pre-industrial levels by 2040. The other big tragedy is that the Liberals have tied our country to the least ambitious targets, while they spruik coal and gas, and the Labor Party—