Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I will respond to the points from Senator Duniam and Senator McKenzie as well. In terms of the substance of these amendments, we've been very clear about where we think the review should take place. We believe that there are challenges in this sector, which is why we have asked the ACCC, and why we've provided them with $10.8 million, to undertake a price inquiry into child care in 2023. This will consider the effectiveness of the existing price regulation mechanisms, the drivers of rising early education costs and the impact of these childcare subsidy changes on out-of-pocket fees. We've asked the ACCC to do that and we think it's complementary to the legislation that we hope to pass today. The government has also committed to tasking the Productivity Commission with conducting a comprehensive review of the sector. That review will commence in the first half of next year. Both of these reviews, we think, are comprehensive, and therefore additional reviews are not required at this time.

There's no doubt that there are challenges in the sector. It's obviously not for other politicians to lecture colleagues on self-reflection, but surely those opposite have to be a little bit self-reflective. They've just concluded 10 years in government, and we've inherited a mess that we are trying to fix. They make no mention of that in their contributions here. They say that they support this bill. I have not heard one positive comment out of any of them in their contributions to this bill, which is what we took to the election and are hoping to implement here today. We know that there are challenges in many communities around workforce, which is why we are actually delivering a workforce action plan.

We also, in the budget, committed almost half a billion dollars to the Community Child Care Fund, which obviously goes to supporting many childcare places in communities where they don't have the necessary support. That's something we are going to continue. This helps ensure families have access to early childhood education in areas where there are not a lot of services. I also note that some state governments have announced substantial reforms in the space, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria, which will be around establishing new services in areas of need.

Through the provision of more subsidies to families, there will be an increase in demand, and obviously that will go towards the market responding and creating more spaces and services at the same time. And our workforce initiatives, which are comprehensive, including fee-free TAFE and additional higher education places, will increase the availability of educators to meet demand. So there's a combination of things happening in terms of the government's response. They go to the Community Child Care Fund but they also go to the increase in demand that will come from this legislation, meaning that the market will respond and create more places at the same time.