Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

It's hard not to be cynical about whether this Labor government has any commitment whatsoever to those nine million of us who don't live in capital cities in this country. We have before us a piece of childcare legislation that doesn't add one single additional place to ease the overall burden in our country and, more significantly for those of us that live in communities where we are in a childcare desert, there's no creative thinking about how families and particularly women who live in rural and remote Australia are going to be able to access child care so that they can actually get back into the workforce.

Everyone in this place talks a big game about the workforce participation of women and how they're so keen to facilitate that. But do you know what? It just matters where you live with these guys. It absolutely matters where you live. If you are a woman who lives in one of these childcare deserts then you can't actually access the childcare places that you need. As Senator Duniam made clear, these are thin markets. They are not necessarily communities that can support the long and expensive daycare model. So it actually required a little bit of thinking other than just tapping into United Voice and saying: 'What do you need? We're in government. Let's make sure you have everything you need as one of our key stakeholders and constituencies and basically do nothing to assist rural and regional women, rural and regional families and children with their childcare needs.'

The government have announced $4.7 billion in the budget. It's quite incredible. That's a hell of a lot of money to spend in a policy area where they won't make a fundamental difference to the most marginalised and most vulnerable in these communities. They're more interested in helping out middle-class suburbs in capital cities—and we might ask why they're more interested in assisting those families—over people who cannot actually access this service at all.

I would seek the Greens' support for the opposition's amendments here. These are sensible amendments that seek to hold a timely review into this legislation to see if it actually does deliver the types of outcomes that we all want to see with our childcare system.

We want to see greater workforce participation by women but we also need to make sure that these services don't depend on geography, on where they're being delivered. Minister, could you please tell me how many extra childcare places are being delivered in your home state of Queensland as a result of this bill?