Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I briefly wanted to comment on this bill. I didn't get the opportunity for a second reading speech. I do support the amendment being put forward by Senator Duniam but I don't support the bill as a whole, and I briefly wanted to outline the reasons for that. I do support more assistance for families needing to fund child care, especially those on low incomes. Of course, this bill does also provide significant assistance to families earning up to $530,000 a year, which is not a poor man's wage.

I am opposed to spending another $4½ billion on extra childcare assistance while we apparently cannot fix the issue of an underfunding and a grossly unfair tax system for families that look after their own children. We've spoken a lot today about the lack of child care in parts of our country. There's a whole workforce out there that could be used to look after children. They're called parents—they're called mothers and fathers—but they are penalised by our tax system every day if they are to make a choice to look after their own children.

Right now, if you're a single income family on $150,000 a year, you will pay $17,000 a year more tax than a family that splits that income—say 60 per cent or 30 per cent, or $100,000 and $50,000, across each parent. It's the same household income: $150,000 a year. It's the same number of kids. And the difference in tax is $17,000 a year. The decision to look after your own child should not be the most expensive financial decision you have to make in your life. We should be encouraging that, because all of the evidence shows that a child who can be looked after by their mother or father, especially in the young years of their life, does really well. It's really good for them to have that parental care, especially in their first year of life.

I just want to quote from some research done by some researchers, including Dr Baum, where he says:

This article identifies the effects of maternal marketplace work in the initial months of an infant's life on the child's cognitive development. Results suggest that such work in the first year of a child's life has detrimental effects. Where significant, the results also indicate negative effects of maternal employment in the child's first quarter of life.

They are the stats. We spend so much money on education, on schools and all these things, and the people we have out there who can do some of the best things for a child's community development—the mothers and fathers of those children—are discouraged from looking after their own children.

I want to read into the Hansard an excellent article written by Virginia Tapscott in the Australian a few months ago. Senator McKenzie obviously read the same article. Virginia is a stay-at-home mum, somewhat unexpectedly—I don't like using the term 'stay-at-home mum'; they're really 'work-at-home' mums. They were working at home before it was cool. It's much harder work than I do. Whenever I've had to look after my five kids and needed a break, I could come here to this place and get a break from them. My wife doesn't always get that. She works a lot harder than me. Virginia says:

I think it's a ridiculous notion that women need to position themselves in a workplace in order to be valued and earn respect. The unfinished business of feminism is demanding respect for women in all their roles. Before becoming a mother I championed individual success and completely envisioned myself as a working mum. I was socially conditioned to expect this by the "women can have it all" movement and it made my transition to motherhood awkward as hell. When my first son turned one I felt a sense of urgency and panic that I should be getting back to work, that if I didn't go back now I'd never be allowed back in.

We are perpetuating that psychology across our community, which ridiculously places work ahead of the home. The home is the most important thing in our nation. Every profession out there is actually there to defend the homemakers. They're the ones who bring up the next generation. It's the most important job in our community. Anyone thinking that staying back late, working for a big investment bank or a consulting firm, doing spreadsheets or PowerPoint slides, is somehow more rewarding in their life than changing nappies or making lunches has a warped sense of priorities.

This bill perpetuates that warped sense of priorities. We should be respecting motherhood, we should be respecting fatherhood and we should be funding it through our tax system.

The CHAIR (12:17): I put the question that the amendments moved by Senator Duniam, amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 1731, being moved together by leave of the committee, be agreed to.

Question agreed to.