Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education and Training, Senator Birmingham. Will the minister please update the Senate on what the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit found in relation to the Early Years Quality Fund?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bernardi for his question and his very astute and accurate interest in the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit inquiry into the former government's Early Years Quality Fund. The inquiry found that the fund is yet another example of Labor's mismanagement when it comes to public funds.

It was not the first report to have a look at the Early Years Quality Fund and find Labor's failure in its management. In 2013 a PwC review found that some $300 million had simply been used as a vehicle to increase union membership. In fact, as a result of the fund that Labor structured to help its union mates, unionised EBAs in the childcare sector quadrupled in a short period of time from 100 to 400. In 2015 the ANAO found that the fund was inherently unfair and inequitable.

Here we are in 2016 and the public accounts committee has painted a similarly damning picture of Labor's fund. It unfairly benefited those in the know, ensuring that when the funds were made available they expired in only 13 hours, going to those who the Labor Party had no doubt tipped off. It was a union driven $300 million cash splash in which we saw 12 agreements being signed just one day prior to the election.

This is a clear example, along with many others, that the Labor Party cannot be trusted with money and cannot be trusted with childcare policy. Their 2008 increase in the childcare rebate simply saw childcare fees accelerate, driving increased costs for both families and taxpayers in the long run. It is a demonstration that in their policy settings the Labor Party will always put their mates and those preselecting them first and put taxpayer dollars last.

Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I ask the minister if he could advise whether the Early Years Quality Fund actually achieved its objective of workforce development?

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was union development!

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Macdonald is dead right there. Senator Bernardi, no, it did not achieve its objective of workforce development, but it certainly achieved the real objective the Labor Party had, which was union development and union recruitment. They designed a program to help their union mates out. Indeed, they let the unions design the program. The ANAO found that United Voice provided the wage schedules within the program. United Voice developed them, not the department. United Voice sent them straight to the Prime Minister's office and, from there, they went straight into the program. The PwC found that the fund was used simply as a vehicle to increase union membership. When the union was challenged as part of the inquiry as to whether they used it to drive up membership, they said, 'Why wouldn't we?' Of course, that is what they had been invited to do by those opposite when they took taxpayer dollars as a vehicle to lift their membership— (Time expired)

Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. I thank the minister for outlining that tale of woe. What is the government doing to reform the childcare sector and fix the problems that Labor left behind?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unlike those who left a situation of spiralling costs for both families and taxpayers, we have developed a program that will see almost $40 billion invested over the next four years, with $3 billion in additional funding to make sure that we provide the fairest possible childcare system for families and the greatest appropriate support for children, not for the union mates of those opposite.

We want to make sure the highest rate of subsidy and support goes to the lowest income families and that the greatest hours of subsidy go to those who work the greatest number of hours. We have had a proper process for this. We had the Productivity Commission conduct an open review. We invited submissions, even from United Voice. They were welcome to make a submission, but we did not let them write the policy. We did not let them design it. We made sure that everybody could have their say in relation to this policy and that it was well thought out, appropriately developed and good for families, children and the taxpayer. (Time expired)