Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Human Services, representing the Minister for Education, Senator Payne. I refer the minister to recent reports about the increasing cost of child care. Can the minister outline some of the factors that are putting upward pressure on the cost of child care in Australia?

Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, it is a great pleasure to congratulate you on your election to the position of President. I thank Senator Seselja for his question. I think in the last sitting period I updated the Senate on the Department of Education quarterly data which showed that childcare fees over the six-year term of the previous Labor government had risen by 53 per cent, an absolutely extraordinary legacy that was left to the coalition to clean up. The senator has asked about a very important matter, which is: why have childcare fees increased by such an extraordinary amount in such a short period of time? As those on this side of the House well know, one of the major factors leading to those sorts of fee increases in business is an ever-increasing red tape and regulatory burden. The strangling of our economy that had been caused by those opposite has hit the childcare sector as well; it is no exception.

We can see firsthand the impact of that obsession with red tape and regulation. The National Quality Framework—Labor's national quality framework—imposed around 1,000 pages of laws, regulations and guidelines on childcare services. They smothered those organisations and extraordinarily increased their administrative burdens. In fact, a report by the National Regulator into the NQF found that the ongoing cost to administer the 1,000 pages of new laws and regulations was upwards of $140,000 a year for a long-day-care service with 75 places and 15 staff. How can you possibly be expected to do business in that environment, and to look after children properly as well—that obviously being the focus of the entire operation—when the National Regulator determined that that was the case, and when providers around Australia, like Little Cottage Preschool in Penrith—which might be familiar to some of those opposite—have said exactly the same thing? (Time expired)

Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister provide some further examples of where regulation has pushed up the cost of child care?

Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a very good question from Senator Seselja; you will not be surprised to hear, Mr President: do you know that there was one childcare centre in Queensland which was marked down in its accreditation assessment because, in the room for children from zero to two years old, there were not enough pictures at children's eye level? A similar service, also in Queensland, was conducting Earth Hour during the day so that the children could be involved. That service was marked down in their assessment because it was too dark for the children. How can they win? They turn on the lights, they get hit by the carbon tax; they turn off the lights, they get hit by regulation. What are they supposed to do? A service in Katoomba told us that their service was marked down because a child fell asleep, and the assessor told the service they had failed to provide adequate rest periods. The service in Penrith that I was speaking about earlier had 700 different regulations to comply with daily, and it was absolutely constraining the capacity to run their service. (Time expired)

Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. Can the minister update the Senate on what steps the government is taking to tackle the huge increase in the cost of child care?

Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Notwithstanding the fact that some of those examples which I have provided are so ridiculously silly that they would almost make you cry with frustration, they are genuine examples of excessive regulation. We, on the other hand, are serious about reducing unnecessary red tape and helping to ease the cost pressures on families. And we have started to do that. We have removed the need for childcare centres to obtain individual supervisor certificates, and we are working with the states to reduce some of the overly burdensome regulations which surround staff-child ratios. I do not hold out any great hope that those opposite are going to have any interest at all in the deregulation process that the government is undertaking, but we hope that some of our new senators—some of our new colleagues in this place; members of the crossbench, for example—will have a very serious look to ensure that child care is flexible and affordable for all Australians. Indeed, I note that my new New South Wales colleague, Senator Leyonhjelm, commented— (Time expired)