Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

On the many points raised by the member for Indi, I say as follows. She would be aware that there was a major disruption to the childcare market following the voluntary administration of ABC Learning. She would be aware of that from newspaper reports. She also may be aware of it because there were so many Liberal Party members sitting around the board table of ABC Learning they could have had a branch meeting. They could have had a branch meeting at any time that they choose to whilst they were sitting there—including, of course, former minister Larry Anthony. So, if the member for Indi wishes to seek any advice about the nature of that disruption to the childcare market, she is not short of numbers in her telephone book to place a call to. And I suggest that she does place that call.

Of course, because of the policy and other settings of the former government when faced with the collapse of ABC Learning, we have had to sort out what was a huge mess. We have sorted it out piece by piece, bit by bit, working through it to give as much safety, certainty and security as we possibly could to Australian parents caught up in this. The shadow minister alludes to some centres that have closed. Yes, that is true: some centres have closed. But I invite her to consider what would have happened when ABC Learning announced it was going into voluntary administration if the Australian government had not stepped forward to ensure that there was an orderly process that worked its way through. At some point I would hope that members of the Liberal Party might volunteer some apologies to Australian parents who were caught up in that catastrophic corporate Liberal Party mix.

On the paid parental leave questions that the member asked me, I would say the following. We are, of course, dealing with budget estimates here. I would suggest to the member for Indi that she may want to take a leaf out of the book of the member for Boothby. What I would say about the member for Boothby is that he is a very vociferous user of the questions on notice process. He appreciates that—

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