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

I note the minister refuses to accept the fact that this bill will not add any additional places in his home state of Queensland. Minister, you talked about the reviews that you're proposing: ACCC and Productivity Commission. For those of us who don't live in capital cities, it is our lived experience that unless you explicitly ask bodies to examine the impact of government policy on rural, regional and remote communities, on workforce participation of rural, regional and remote women, on the development and growth of country kids and on our future prosperity then it just doesn't happen. And, unfortunately, our experience under your government thus far shows that it doesn't happen. You've in fact cut the very funding mechanisms that have built childcare centres and facilities in country communities—the Building Better Regions Fund and others, that you want to typify as wasteful spending in our communities—which have led to families being able to access child care, often for the very first time. So excuse me if I'm not dancing in the streets over $4.7 billion to satisfy middle-class income earners in capital cities and your union mates from United Voice.

I particularly want to put on the record in the time that I have available to me, the hard work of Anne Webster, the National Party member for Mallee, who has championed this issue for so many of her country towns and regional centres. Seven towns in the Mallee right now are without child care: Birchip, Boort, Cohuna, Murtoa, Pyramid Hill, Rainbow and Wedderburn. In other larger centres there are long waiting lists. One centre in Mildura has a waiting list of 200 kids, and this is a regional capital that exports to the world. There is latent capacity, particularly of women in that community and, all bar for the access to child care, they cannot pursue their careers and their jobs to provide for their families as a result of this. You say that many state governments are stumping up. Well, cooee Daniel Andrews, you've got five days.

Labor has not only ignored the need for services in the Mallee but deliberately scrapped the funding provided for this, as I said, in the form of round 6 of the Building Better Regions Fund and the Community Development Grants Program. Anne Webster has people in Mallee who want to go back to work—professionals who offer their towns vital experience and skills but who can't, simply because there is no place to place their children safely to receive quality childcare education in a safe manner. Minister, how many additional places as a result of $4.7 billion of funding are going to be available in rural and regional Australia as a result of your government's legislation?