Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Minister for Education. Will the minister update the House on the government's action to restore affordability, flexibility and accessibility to the childcare sector?

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wright for his question—a real-world person delivering real-world results for the people of South-East Queensland. Our election commitment was to restore affordability, flexibility and accessibility in the childcare and early-learning sector in Australia, and we are well on the way to doing just that. We have had to work our way through a litany of Labor failures, and I should probably highlight just some of them. Labor's biggest failure was that childcare fees rose 53 per cent in six years under Labor. Our response: a once-in-a-generation Productivity Commission inquiry, the first review of the system since the 1980s—

Ms Kate Ellis interjecting —

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Adelaide will desist.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

an inquiry, I should add, that members opposite did not support, because obviously they thought the system was working perfectly well when in fact it was not. Labor's other big failure: the Early Years Quality Fund, their dodgy union slush fund, which gave this promised short-term pay rise. It was actually just a bribe to sign up union memberships. Our response: the biggest-ever professional development fund for childcare educators—a $200 million investment. Labor's failure: 1,000 pages of new red tape and regulation, which the national regulator said would add $140,000 in costs in administration only—

Mr Thistlethwaite interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Kingsford Smith!

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

to a 75-place childcare centre. Our response: working with state and territory ministers to get rid of that over-regulation. Labor's other failure in the rural and regional sector: to abolish child care in occasional care services. Our response: to bring it back, which we have done. Labor's failure was, again, to preside over a 30 per cent reduction in compliance checks, leading to an explosion in cheating and rorting. We have established a dedicated compliance task force, which has already taken action and recovered taxpayers' money. Labor's failure: failure to allocate a single cent to universal access to preschool beyond the end of 2014. Ours: to restore it for 2015.

The member for Wright, like other members of the Liberal and Nationals parties, brings to this parliament the lived experiences of families who are struggling, managing the childcare juggle—homework, commute, before-school care, after-school care, the work-family balance on which so much depends. We have a plan. We are building a better system, we are working to fix Labor's mess.