Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Child care is an issue of great importance to hundreds of thousands of families across the whole nation, and particularly in my electorate of Greenway, a young electorate with the number of families growing significantly every day. I thank the member for Sydney for continuing the dialogue on the issue and thank members who spoke before me, especially the members for Lindsay and Bowman, for their contributions to the discussion of this issue.

For many families, life is a balancing act between work and home commitments. As a member of the Standing Committee on Family and Human Services, I have seen first-hand how delicate that balance can be to achieve and maintain. These are sentiments that are echoed in my electorate when I am out and about speaking to Greenway residents. Child care, as we all know, is an integral part of that mix and of critical importance to many parents. As a mother of two, I understand this on a personal level as well.

Part of the reason for the new challenges facing families is the employment opportunities that have opened up to women. Under the Howard government, employment opportunities have increased dramatically. There was a 25 per cent increase in paid employment for women from March 1996 to December 2005. This has been an important achievement for this government. We recognise the talents and contributions of women and believe that women should not be excluded from or limited in their workforce participation.

The discussions relating to child care and family balance are necessarily complex and challenging. It is not easy to synthesise the issues that face families and simply call for additional places. No two families are the same and the challenges facing each family are distinct from those of the family next door in their totality. However, there are common challenges that thread through the families of this nation and, as a parliament, it is important that we note them, listen to them and, where possible, act to ease the burden.

Because families are so vastly different, I want to recognise that there should be a number of options open to parents when choosing their child-care needs. Some have already been mentioned. Some will need long day care places, others will require in-home care, there is family day care, and still others may need a hybrid system that acknowledges the different working and living patterns of Australians in the 21st century. In an electorate like mine, Greenway, there are a high number of people who are working shiftwork; often two parents in the home are working shiftwork. What are their options for child care?

We need to continually assess the rigidity of the child-care system in this country and we need to adapt. But this readiness to adapt and the willingness to adjust where necessary is not a responsibility that is solely shared with this government or indeed this parliament. It is an issue that requires input and flexibility on behalf of all levels of government and by the community as a whole.

It is important to note at this point that, while vacancy rates have been mentioned throughout this debate, the figures will vary from electorate to electorate and across this nation. In the northern part of my electorate, there are a number of new centres and they do indeed have vacancies. The members opposite talk about their electorates having unique characteristics, but we need to look at the whole picture here. Anecdotal evidence has been given by members opposite, but it is also important to acknowledge that there is a family in my electorate earning around $34,000; there is a child-care centre that has just opened in Quakers Hill; and, after government assistance, that family only needs to pay $13 a day per child. Here is a business that is working with government to ensure that there is flexibility and affordability for families.

This government has invested significant resources in assisting Australian families. Spending on child care has doubled when compared to the Australian Labor Party’s last efforts. Over the four-year period to 2008-09, this government will spend $9.5 billion assisting families. Good initiatives such as the child-care benefit and the child-care tax rebate have been introduced over the past decade. The child-care benefit sees families receiving over $2,000 per year in real assistance. This is real money. Similarly, the child-care tax rebate provides up to $4,000 per child per year additional assistance for working families. For low-income families, the government assists them with nearly two-thirds of their child-care costs. (Time expired)

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