Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Human Services (Senator Kim Carr) to a question without notice asked by Senator Nash today relating to child care.

There is no doubt that the answers that were given today by Senator Carr to the questions on child care were nothing short of embarrassing. Here we have a minister who is supposed to be across these issues and who is supposed to understand these issues but who could do nothing more than bluff and bluster and refer to his briefing notes in some vain attempt to try and cobble together some sort of response to the Senate questions. It is simply not good enough. I think that families in this nation, particularly in regional areas, want to know that the ministers in this government are competent. They certainly did not get that today from this minister, Senator Kim Carr. It is really and truly an embarrassment for the government to have a minister that is so inept and so unable to properly answer questions of this nature which are vitally important to families right around the country.

The government is trying to say that it is improving child care for families. Nothing could be further from the truth. Time and time again, we see the failure of this Labor government to properly implement policy that is going to improve the situation for families with regard to child care. We have now seen Goodstart, Australia's largest childcare provider, saying that there is going to be an extra $2,000 in childcare costs as a result of Labor's policies. So here we have a policy under Julia Gillard with regard to child care that is going to increase costs for families by $2,000. For that in any way to be seen as any kind of policy success is just completely ridiculous. I do not know that the government is actually spending much time out there talking to families. I do not know that it is actually spending any time in these childcare centres. I am sure, to give credit where credit is due, the minister might possibly be but I certainly doubt that the minister representing is, and I doubt many of his colleagues are either—because, if they were, they would understand the very real concerns that are held out in these areas, particularly in regional areas, when it comes to child care.

We have seen the Goodstart Early Learning childcare provider, the largest childcare provider in Australia, estimating in its annual report that fully implementing Labor's national quality framework will see fees for long day care rise by about 20 per cent. So we are looking at over 60,000 families having around a $2,000 hit. It has actually cited it as a 'burden which would be unaffordable for many parents'. What is this government doing? As the government, it is supposed to be making it easier for families. It is supposed to be making child care more affordable. It is supposed to be making it easier for families to get on with the business of trying to juggle work and family, which I know my colleagues on this side of the chamber actually understand.