Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Human Services (Senator Kim Carr) to a question without notice asked by Senator Nash today relating to child care.

There is no doubt that the answers that were given today by Senator Carr to the questions on child care were nothing short of embarrassing. Here we have a minister who is supposed to be across these issues and who is supposed to understand these issues but who could do nothing more than bluff and bluster and refer to his briefing notes in some vain attempt to try and cobble together some sort of response to the Senate questions. It is simply not good enough. I think that families in this nation, particularly in regional areas, want to know that the ministers in this government are competent. They certainly did not get that today from this minister, Senator Kim Carr. It is really and truly an embarrassment for the government to have a minister that is so inept and so unable to properly answer questions of this nature which are vitally important to families right around the country.

The government is trying to say that it is improving child care for families. Nothing could be further from the truth. Time and time again, we see the failure of this Labor government to properly implement policy that is going to improve the situation for families with regard to child care. We have now seen Goodstart, Australia's largest childcare provider, saying that there is going to be an extra $2,000 in childcare costs as a result of Labor's policies. So here we have a policy under Julia Gillard with regard to child care that is going to increase costs for families by $2,000. For that in any way to be seen as any kind of policy success is just completely ridiculous. I do not know that the government is actually spending much time out there talking to families. I do not know that it is actually spending any time in these childcare centres. I am sure, to give credit where credit is due, the minister might possibly be but I certainly doubt that the minister representing is, and I doubt many of his colleagues are either—because, if they were, they would understand the very real concerns that are held out in these areas, particularly in regional areas, when it comes to child care.

We have seen the Goodstart Early Learning childcare provider, the largest childcare provider in Australia, estimating in its annual report that fully implementing Labor's national quality framework will see fees for long day care rise by about 20 per cent. So we are looking at over 60,000 families having around a $2,000 hit. It has actually cited it as a 'burden which would be unaffordable for many parents'. What is this government doing? As the government, it is supposed to be making it easier for families. It is supposed to be making child care more affordable. It is supposed to be making it easier for families to get on with the business of trying to juggle work and family, which I know my colleagues on this side of the chamber actually understand.

Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We do!

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Senator Kroger, and I will take that interjection. Yes, we do; we absolutely understand and the contrast between us in the coalition, those on this side of the chamber, and those on the other side, in the Labor government, is absolutely stark. The government walks the walk and talks the talk but does not deliver for families, and it is ongoing and I think the people out there right across Australia have simply had enough. This is on top of a 20 per cent increase in childcare costs since the Prime Minister came to office. We have seen the childcare rebate slashed from $8,179 to $7½ thousand. We have seen the baby bonus slashed, making it more expensive for a family to have more than one child. We have seen Labor's broken promise to build 260 new childcare centres. The list goes on and on.

How Senator Carr can sit on the other side of this chamber and try to claim that they are doing a good job is simply ridiculous. We are seeing further pressure on household budgets under the Labor government and further pressure from the rising cost of living. What we are seeing is a Prime Minister who is starting to seem as if she has a problem with Australian mothers. We hear this talk about Tony Abbott having a problem with women, but I think the Prime Minister has more of a problem with mothers. The Prime Minister broke Kevin Rudd's promise to deliver 260 new childcare centres across the nation. Her changes to Medicare have doubled the cost of IVF treatment, resulting in 1,200 babies not being conceived. Within a few short weeks the Prime Minister will boot single mothers onto the dole. It was under Prime Minister Julia Gillard that the government attempted to stop Defence personnel getting free trips home to visit their mothers at Christmas and most recently the Prime Minister has slashed the baby bonus for second and subsequent children. I would say that this is a Prime Minister that has a real problem in developing proper policy for the betterment of the Australian people, and families right across this nation understand that.

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am absolutely astounded that this debate has degenerated into a personal attack on our Prime Minister and former education minister, who has been absolutely resolute in her support of Australian families. Whilst everybody is entitled to their own opinion, I am not sure they are entitled to their own facts, so I would like to put the record a few facts about what we in the Labor government have done in respect of looking after families and in particular I will be referring to child care. Take paid parental leave. We have delivered on Australia's first paid parental leave scheme. Eligible working parents are paid up to 18 weeks of government funded leave, at $606 a week before tax from 1 July 2012, and, very importantly, 160,000 families are benefiting from paid parental leave.

We know that the opposition leader, the Hon. Tony Abbott, has his version of parental leave and we also know that is going to be funded out of a new tax on business—if he ever gets the opportunity to implement anything like that. We know that the new schoolkids bonus provided 1.3 million families with $410 a year for kids in primary school and $820 for kids in secondary school to meet education expenses. We are also paying out the full amount of the education tax refund so that, importantly, families can get extra support right away. We know that there is the teen dental scheme with more than 1.5 million check-ups for eligible teenagers. For health checks we have allocated $25.6 million for Healthy Kids checks, supporting families who want their four-year-old to get a health assessment through their GP. There is $120.5 million in the maternity reform package, a key element of the government's health reforms plan to deliver improved maternity care particularly in regional Australia and to give women more choice. There is $66.6 million to expand support for eligible midwives, $25 million to restore access to additional indemnity insurance for eligible midwives, $9.4 million for improved access to information support, $11.3 million for expanded medical outreach services to rural and remote areas, bringing care closer to home and family, and $8 million for workforce support.

In respect of child care we have, as Minister Carr said, increased the childcare rebate from 30 to 50 per cent of out-of-pocket expenses. We have raised the annual limit for each child from $4,354 to $7,500. We have increased the childcare benefit giving extra assistance for 650,000 low- and middle-income families each year. A low-income family using full-time child care now has around 80 per cent of its childcare fees covered. There are more places. Let us not forget that we saved the centres at risk from the collapse of ABC Learning in 2008, stepping in with $58 million to ensure continuity of care for around 95,000 families. As a result, 90 per cent of these centres are still operating. The opposition gloss over those sorts of facts very glibly. Probably quite rightly, they give us no credit for that, but I am sure that the families who had their children in ABC Learning centres strongly recognise the fact that we stepped in and made sure that those very good centres, those very well built centres, continued to operate.

We are funding an unlimited number of childcare places. The number of childcare centres has increased from 11,449 in December 2007 to 13,807 in December 2010. With the states and territories we are setting up 38 child and family centres, offering integrated services like child care, playgroups, family support and child and maternal health support. What is very clear, and this always comes up at question time with the opposition, is that if you have a position and you state it vehemently ad nauseam, hopefully, in the opposition's opinion, that will then become a fact. But what is becoming increasingly clear to me is the need for us to continue to restate the facts to the opposition so, hopefully, they may then consider the merits of their argument—so instead of singling out a point they will take the whole picture and look at it properly. (Time expired)

Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I feel sorry for Senator Galllacher that he has to stand up and defend the merits of Prime Minister Gillard's so-called empathy with women and, in particular, mothers as to the difficulties that they have and choices that they have to make in weighing up how they remain in the workforce and balance that with childcare and working considerations.

I say that because it was only last sitting week here in question time that Senator Bob Carr chose to impugn me as a mother and hide behind my children in deflecting a question, in deflecting scrutiny of his portfolio. Rather than answer a very direct question, he sought to hide behind my children and directed extraordinary criticism and abuse at me as a mother. I raised this with the Prime Minister to seek a qualification of those comments, her support for the institution of motherhood and an explanation of how that related to the development of policy. The Prime Minister not only did not respond to that directly but had an adviser write to me to say it had nothing whatsoever to do with her and it was a matter for the Senate if there was concern that one of her cabinet ministers was impugning another senator as a mother. So, Senator Gallacher, I have great sympathy for you because, if the Prime Minister is not prepared to stand up for women not only in this place but around the country, I do not think we can hold out much hope for the policies she implements in relation to child care.

That question in question time went to the fact that the National Quality Framework smacked of policy on the run and sniffing the breeze. This issue was hurting the government, certainly in the electorate of Chisholm, where I had a huge number of parents come to me seeking advice as to how they should deal with the implications of a National Quality Framework which not only increases their costs in providing child care for their kids but in many instances reduces the availability of childcare places on the ground. That is essentially what we are talking about here. It is choice that families are seeking. They need to be given choices so they can balance the very difficult life, work and family decisions that they have to make.

In every policy decision that the government have made since the last federal election we have witnessed policy on the run—not, as Senator Cash rightly pointed out this morning, based on deep-seated principle but based purely on what they believe the electorate wants to hear. It has a political basis; it is not based on any principle. This is yet another example of that. It does not take a chartered accountant to ascertain that, if you reduce from one to four to one to five the ratio of staff members to children, and at the same time increase the academic requirements of staff, it is going to increase the cost for providers of providing childcare places and therefore reduce or eliminate the choices that families have. I applaud the Leader of the Opposition's announcement that if and when we come to government—and I hope for all families that it is sooner rather than later—this approach will be explored by the Productivity Commission. (Time expired)

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What an opportunity—to follow on from Senator Kroger and her ramblings. Yet again, we hear a personal attack on the Prime Minister. When all else fails, we can rely on those opposite to attack the Prime Minister personally. I want to correct the record in relation to the assertions from Senator Nash about whether those on the government side visit childcare centres. I would like to inform the Senate that it was only in the last two weeks—the first week of the sitting break—that my colleague Lin Thorp and I participated in the 'walk in the shoes of childcare workers campaign' at a childcare centre in Launceston. It was a great experience to see firsthand what those opposite, including Senator Kroger, alluded to: ensuring that early childcare workers are actually rewarded with the remuneration they deserve and their qualifications are accepted and respected in the community. We not only saw and spoke to the staff but participated in looking after the children—and before anyone interjects, yes, the children were safe and well when we left!

I put on the record that not only is the criticism by those who have contributed to this debate today misleading but the Howard government had 11 long years to do more for the childcare industry and ensure that our early childcare educators are acknowledged and rewarded for their work and families have greater access to child care. They did nothing. Over the next four years the Labor government, under Julia Gillard, will invest more than $20 billion in early education and care. This is $13 billion more than was provided in the last four years of the Howard government. We are providing record levels of assistance directly to families through childcare benefits and the childcare rebate. Over the next four years we will provide $16.4 billion in direct fee assistance for Australian families through childcare benefits and the childcare rebate.

While the coalition and those opposite are perfectly happy to leave the childcare rebate at 30 per cent, with an annual cap of just $4,350 per year, the government increased the rebate to 50 per cent of parents' out-of-pocket expenses and increased the maximum for each child in care to $7,500 a year. It has been suggested that in recent times there has been a price hike of up to 11 per cent, but that is certainly not the average cost increase that we are seeing across the sector. The fact is that long day care fees in Australia have increased marginally above trend growth at about 7.6 per cent for the year to March 2012.

This was predicted as part of the national quality reforms—that is, changes to staff-to-child ratios and new qualification requirements—and we have always been upfront with the public about that. We respect those who look after our children because, after all, they are the most precious commodity we have in our community—that is, our children. They deserve the very best child care and early childhood education possible.

Of course there are waiting lists and in some areas there is still greater need for childcare places. We are working to resolve that. Those opposite have not got a policy. Their policy is: employ a nanny. I suggest that Mr Abbott ought to employ a nanny to keep those people over there up to date with their own policies so that they are able to come in here and talk about the facts rather than try to mislead the Senate. Nannies! Nannies are an option, but they are certainly not the option for the majority of Australian families.

As I said, it is this government that has already committed the $22.3 billion of early learning and care initiatives. More than $20 billion of that is to directly help with childcare costs, the childcare benefit and the childcare rebate. We want to make sure that parents can be assured that their children are being looked after, being educated by those with the best qualifications. We want to do more to keep people who are well qualified to look after our young children in the childcare sector. (Time expired)

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers given by Senator Kim Carr today in response to questions from Senator Nash about the increasing costs of child care in Australia. I noted that Senator Carr made the comment that this side is always looking into everything every time the government announces a new policy. I suggest that the reason we constantly do request to look into things is that so often many of the negative consequences and implications of these policies have not been thoroughly considered, such as the potential negative impacts on our communities. These policies are made without a thorough investigation of those consequences for the very people they are purporting to help.

So often these policy announcements are a little bit like trying to crack a walnut with a sledgehammer. In the instance of child care, in the recent debate we have seen that child care is being forced out of the reach of many Australians. I understand that there are an estimated 110,000 parents who may no longer be able to afford to return to the workforce. In deciding to increase the requirements of childcare operations, we have to ask: has the government looked at the impact on Australian families of these increases? Has the government looked into whether the changes are going to improve the accessibility, the affordability or the flexibility of childcare services for Australian families?

Child care is so, so important, and every mother will tell you that child care and the quality of child care are the most important things she considers when she lets go of her child for that first time when she goes back to work. Many parents need child care because they do have to go back to work. Their finances demand that they go back to work. Other parents go back to work simply because they choose to; they want to go back to work. From the perspective of employers, many of them need their staff to come back to work because there is a lack of people in their particular pool that they are drawing from or possibly because the skills of the people who are off on maternity leave or have just had children are very, very important to their particular business. On the productivity front, denying access to appropriate child care denies Australia a huge section of the workforce. This is particularly true of the more skilled areas of our workforce. Many of our professional women are in high demand in the workforce and we have an obligation and a responsibility to give them every opportunity to put their skills back to work if and when they choose to do so.

As I said before, as parents we all want the very best for our children and this includes child care. But in the pursuit of excellence we need to be careful we do not regulate ourselves out of the market, and that seems to be what is happening here. Changes to child care over the past five years are making this fundamental service so overburdened it is becoming completely out of reach and totally user unfriendly. The coalition certainly welcome the positive elements of the national quality framework, but my understanding is that the implementation of that particular framework has so many demands in relation to regulation and compliance that it is estimated that the cost of child care over the next few years will increase by up to $2,000 every year.

The 20 per cent increase in childcare costs that have occurred under this government have hit every family, but they hit people in the country so much more. The increasing training requirements for childcare staff often cannot be accessed in regional areas. I understand that centres with more than 29 children will require a teacher with a four-year tertiary qualification. Where on earth are people and communities in the country going to find these highly qualified people when at the moment they are struggling to attract doctors and nurses and teachers?

The nine-to-five economy is not one that exists in the country. I can tell you stories about the lack of flexibility that is denying people the opportunity to go back to work. Seasonal work is an example. People work double shifts or they want to work early in the day to get away from the heat of the day, but so often these people are denied the opportunity to go back to work because they cannot access appropriate child care. I know firsthand the dilemma that women face in making the decision to go back to work from a financial perspective—the combined effect of the reduction in family support payments and the cost of child care means these parents are actually financially better off staying at home and living off the government purse.

Another impact that is acutely felt in the country is the lack of professionals who are prepared to go to the country. If they cannot get good childcare services, they are just not going to come any more. We need to stop putting this burden of regulation on our people so that we can get on with being productive in this country. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.