Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to be able to address this matter of public importance in the parliament today on child care, an area that matters very much to every single member, whether they be on the government, the opposition or the cross benches. There are many aspects about what we are doing with our Productivity Commission inquiry that are not political at all. Deputy Speaker Scott, if you as a dedicated rural and regional member have studied the terms of reference we recently released, you would have seen that every possible concern that could be raised by anyone in the sector about a range of issues—whether that be, as the shadow minister picked up on, educators' wages, flexible and affordable care or special benefits for vulnerable children—is captured by our terms of reference because we are completely serious about doing this properly.

I appreciate the shadow minister's various rhetorical flourishes. She did issue a release. I think the first paragraph encapsulates the slightly ridiculous nature of what is going on around this matter of public importance debate today. The first paragraph of her release of a few days ago states:

The Abbott Government must guarantee that no family will be worse off as a result of the Terms of Reference for a Productivity Commission review …

I can actually guarantee that no family will be worse off as a result of the terms of reference of a Productivity Commission review. I think that underscores the point. What we are doing is releasing the terms of reference. We are not releasing the final outcome. We are not releasing policy, which we will do at the end of this process. We have given the Productivity Commission until October 2014—which is quite a short period of time given the breadth of work that they have to undertake, but I know they will do a good job—to come back with some recommendations. I remind the shadow minister and her colleagues that this is where we are at. We are at the beginning of a long process. It would be a bit bizarre if there was a secret agenda to means test various rebates and to cut various support for families and we constructed an entire Productivity Commission review with terms of reference that I consulted on for six to eight months. If we constructed this whole exercise just as a smokescreen to do the things that the opposition have accused us of, it would be quite ridiculous.

As the Treasurer reminded us in question time today, the Labor Party often gets the numbers wrong. I want to remind the shadow minister of the numbers she spoke about when she was minister. On the back of major changes and reforms that the then minister introduced into the sector, the minister for child care, the member for Adelaide, in July 2011 told us in relation to the cost impact on parents as a result of these changes:

What we've seen is that the average increase will be some 57 cents per week this year and that will rise to $8.67 per week in 2014-15.

So 57c a week is where we are supposed to be right now.

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