Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion by the member for Sydney and thank her for moving it. I was also going to thank the government for joining in this debate, but I am a bit mortified by what I have just heard from the member for Lindsay, who was previously on the record as saying that the child-care situation was in a state of shambles. Looking around and seeing some beautiful schoolchildren here today whose mums might be at work wondering who is going to be supporting and helping them, I think they would be quite horrified by the member for Lindsay’s rambling statement today, which did nothing to address the issues to help those working mothers. To talk about 30-year-olds et cetera does nothing to recognise the people in her own electorate who are not the ones who had the ability to wait and develop careers. She even mentioned that they earned less money. What is she on about? Where is her solution? Her ginger group was meant to be meeting to do things about it. She has come in here and rambled. Instead of doing something bipartisan and good in this place for once, she has abused a motion we could have all spoken well to. It is quite a tragedy.

All working mums suffer enough. Every week there is a new report saying: ‘Don’t send them to long day care. Don’t leave them with someone else. You’re going to be causing them tragedies. You’re going to be hurting them.’ Then there is another report that says they should be going to child care because it benefits their social skills. We agonise about all this, Jackie, and, if you do not, I do not know how you can stand in this place having previously been on the tellie, holding up your son, saying that child care was in disarray.

A young family in my electorate recently called my office. They were quite distressed because mum had to go back to full-time work to support her family. She needed a place but could not find one. She had rung every centre within my electorate and was desperate. So my staff got on the phone and rang around again to every centre in my electorate and in the electorate of Deakin. We managed to find that woman two places. She now has to send her child to two centres because she could not get full-time care at one centre. She has a half-day at each centre. It is not a great outcome, but she came to the office with a large box of chocolates to say thank you to me and my staff. There is not a way around finding places. They are out there, but it is very difficult to navigate.

Also, as the member for Sydney has said—and as the member for Lindsay has also said—we do not actually know what the shortages are. There is no planning in place. The federal government has a system of planning for aged care but no system of planning for child care. So, if you are going to talk about zoning, maybe you should know what your own legislation does.

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