BILLS - Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Cheaper Child Care) Bill 2022 - Second Reading

Ms WARE (Hughes) (20:20): I rise to support this amendment to the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Cheaper Child Care) Bill 2022. This side of the House supports the bill in principle. I speak on the sensible amendments put forward by the member for Moncrieff. I have risen a number of times in this place to talk about the impacts of the increasing cost of living and the struggles Australian families are facing. Child care is a major cost outlay for families, including those in my electorate of Hughes.

It is not just the cost of child care that I wish to speak about tonight. It is also about the childhood educators and the quality of care that is being provided. I have a personal interest in this. When my boys, James and Nicholas, were toddlers, I was on the parent board of their local preschool. I have a great commitment to and a personal interest in both the quality and quantity of early childhood places. If it were not for me being able to put my children into care at that stage, I would not have been able to continue my career when my children were very small.

I support incentives, including those proposed in this bill, that assist parents paying for high quality child care places. It is well known that access to child care places significantly raises the participation rate of women in the workforce.

I also acknowledge the work of early childhood educators, who are providing an essential service benefiting our youngest Australians and preparing them for a lifetime of education. These educators have been under pressure due to the pandemic over the last couple of years. This bill seeks to extend measures introduced under the former coalition government to assist families during the COVID-19 pandemic with fee relief. The bill does increase the childcare subsidy for parents. That is to be applauded. However, an increase in subsidies does not actually mean that there is any increase in childcare places. The bill provides a monetary figure of $4.5 billion, but not one single cent of that $4. 5 billion will be spent to create additional places or improve the quality of services being provided. The bill remains silent on details, including no plan to address the current workforce shortages; no plan to address access to care; and no plan to address the thin markets and childcare deserts, many of which are in regional areas. I note that many on my side of the House have spoken about this and about the horrifying shortages in their regional electorates.

This means that the government is proposing a very expensive measure, $4. 5 billion, but with no clear plan of how additional places for children will be provided.

The coalition believes in choice. We believe that parents who work or study should be able to access child care, whether through formal or informal arrangements. The coalition also believes in addressing concerns raised by childcare workers. These educators are at the coalface of delivering services to the most vulnerable, our children. We need to listen to them when they tell us that there are significant shortages of places. This bill does not address supply. Demand for childcare places around Australia is well outstripping supply, and for has been for some time. I know that many members of my side have already spoken about the shortages, particularly in the regional areas. But we need to listen better. We need to listen to childcare educators who tell us all the reasons that many of them are deserting the sector and going into other employment. This bill purports to increase the childcare subsidy for carers. However, with no increase in places, child care will simply cost more. That's basic demand and supply. It's basic economics.

The last time Labor was in government, childcare fees skyrocketed by 53 per cent in just six years. Out-of-pocket costs are already rising, and fees at childcare centres will most likely rise before 1 July 2023, when these measures are intended to come into place. This will presumably erode a significant amount of the increased subsidies before they're even in place. If we contrast that with the coalition's record, over 280,000 more children are now in early childhood education, based on measures brought in under the former coalition government. This was achieved by abolishing the annual cap on the childcare subsidy. Around 90 per cent of families currently using the childcare subsidy are eligible for a subsidy of between 50 and 85 per cent.

The previous coalition government targeted extra support that was introduced in March of this year made a real difference. We saw childcare costs come down immediately following March and through to June by 4.6 per cent in that quarter. We saw women's workforce participation reach record highs of 62.3 per cent in May of this year. That's compared to 58.7 per cent when Labor last left office, in 2013.

Through this bill, there is a stark lack of detail from the Albanese government. There is no plan to address the current workforce shortages, there is no plan to address access to care and there is no plan to address the already thin markets, particularly in our regional areas.

Parents that I speak to in my electorate tell me that they need more places—that they could work additional days if there were additional places for their children. Childcare educators tell of the reasons they are leaving the sector. Labor pretends to be the friend of childcare workers. This bill does not reflect that. Of the $4.5 billion costed in this bill, not a single cent will be spent to create additional places or services. This is simply not good enough. What answer can the government provide to frustrated parents in the Hughes electorate and throughout Australia who cannot access sufficient childcare services?

This bill also does nothing to address the struggles faced by our early childhood educators and does not look at the reasons why they are leaving the sector. These workers worked tirelessly through the pandemic, and now, on the other side, workers are leaving the sector in droves for other careers. Many educators have raised low wages, mental health issues, a lack of appreciation, increases in red tape and burnout as their top concerns, and there are currently more than 7,000 vacancies in the sector. What answer can the government provide to the early childhood educators leaving centres about how it will address their struggles? What answer can the government provide to the parents who may be receiving a higher subsidy but will be faced with higher costs and no increase in the number of places available to them?

In 2019 the Labor Party campaigned on a platform of higher wages for early childhood educators. Now they are in government, they seem to have dropped parts of that platform, and this bill does nothing to address that. With more children set to enter child care from July 2023, how will the government ensure there is a workforce to meet the extra need? This is the real issue in the childcare sector. The government's proposed bill, with $4.5 billion of expenditure, does nothing to address fundamental issues about the quality of child care. The amendment proposed, however, goes to the heart of the real issues facing the childcare sector.

Basic principles of liberalism promote the ideal that governments should facilitate an environment that empowers individuals to make their own choices for their lives, their families and their businesses. Without adequate childcare places, parents cannot make those decisions in relation to their own careers and in relation to the best needs of their family. To conclude, affordable and quality child care is of paramount importance to parents in my electorate and to Australian families throughout the country. It is a shame that the Labor government has squandered an opportunity to address the real issues in the childcare sector by not providing for additional spaces. For all of the reasons outlined, I commend the proposed amendment to the House.