Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the Greens' support for these amendments and thank them very much for it. It's absolutely critical that this review happens, and I'm pleased that, on the strength of their support, this review will happen. It's very disappointing that the government don't accept these amendments and won't be opening themselves up to scrutiny on the impact of this bill.

I want to speak very quickly about the importance of looking at Indigenous children's attendance in child care, noting that this bill does increase the number of hours that Aboriginal families are able to access child care from 24 to 36 hours across a fortnight without having to undergo the activity test. We asked questions in the committee stage which weren't able to be answered and still haven't been answered. They included: what is the average number of hours that Indigenous children are taking up already? They're already eligible for 24 hours, so what's the average number that is being taken up? Given this bill will open it up to 36 hours, if the current average is below 24 hours, then just increasing the number doesn't change anything. There needs to be a much greater emphasis put on activation and engagement in Indigenous communities, in helping people. And, of course, you need to have places for those people to go to in the first place. This review is really critical to ensure that the objectives of this bill are met. It's a lot of money—$4.7 billion—a lot of taxpayers' dollars, going into this program, and we have to make sure that it's targeted and meeting needs.

Right now, in Western Australia, we have an absolute crisis going on in Indigenous communities, not just in remote and regional parts but even in the capital city of Perth, where there are young people—young teenagers, in particular—who are committing crimes. They are out and about, particularly in the remote parts of the country, in places like Kununurra and even in Broome. You wouldn't consider Broome to be remote, but there are now barbed wire fences that have been put up around premises to stop young children from going in and breaking into those places at night. I'd hazard a guess that the issues that are occurring in these communities are a result of a failing in the early years of those children's development.

I'm not in any way saying that we need to institutionalise children by just sending them off to child care, but I think there is a real need to make sure that investment is made into the development of children, particularly in those early years. We know that children's brains grow by 300 per cent in the first three years of their lives. We know that, by the time they're five, their brains have already grown to 90 per cent of the size of an adult's brain, and, in those early years, the frontal lobe of the brain is developed. Development of reasoning and of emotions like empathy occurs in those early years. If children aren't given the very best chance at life by being provided with the right environment to enable them to grow and develop, we know that they will be impeded for life.

Right now Banksia Hill Detention Centre, the juvenile correction centre in Perth, is at a crisis point, and it's sadly filled with too many Indigenous kids. I used to go in there as a youth worker many, many years ago, and I would encounter children with no empathy and no sense of the impact of their crime and what they had done. A lot of that stems back to what happened when they were very young children and the environment they were exposed to. Sadly, for many, it's the fetal alcohol spectrum disorder that they were born with because of the consumption of alcohol in utero.

These are issues that need to be resolved. I think early learning and early childhood development play a critical role in helping families, particularly young families. We have situations where children are having children—young teenagers are now mothers and are struggling to raise their children. Having the services there in communities to help them is absolutely vital to ensuring that those children can go on to live productive lives. If the mothers themselves weren't provided that opportunity when they were infants and when they were very young children, then we've got to make sure we stem the flow and we break that cycle. It's really, really critical.

I'm hoping that the $4.7 billion that is being put in will go, as Senator McKenzie was saying, into regional and remote Australia. We can't be sure that it will, because no modelling has been done, but I'm pleased that this review is going to happen. We'll actually be able to check the progress to see whether or not it has an impact on the ground where it's necessary so that we're able to ensure that young families, and young children in particular, in disadvantaged communities are given the very best chance at life. It's important to have a review that will look into this and check whether or not there is access and that that access does actually lift from 24 to 36 hours for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. That is the number of hours that they can access services without going through the activity test. Seeing if this change actually does make that impact is a very good thing.

I urge the government to consider joining with their partners in government to support this amendment because I think it's going to be very important. It would be a good show of faith to the Australian people and, indeed, to regional and rural Australia that you are on their side.