Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Rebate) Bill 2011. This bill represents another important step by the Gillard government to support Australian families as they try to juggle their important participation in the Australian workforce while maintaining the joy and lifetime responsibility of caring for their children.

My electorate of Robertson has a high proportion of families with young children, and the childcare rebate is already delivering for many of them. At last count, there were 5,333 Central Coast families in the seat of Robertson who were availing themselves of the government’s childcare benefit and childcare rebate across 100 services. According to those latest figures, that adds up to almost $5½ million in support for 7,230 children—no small achievement. That is a proud contribution by this Labor government to family life on the Central Coast.

Many of these families rely on childcare services, and rely on them being accessible. Indeed, I am often reminded as I meet people in my community of the need for more childcare places and the need for greater accessibility. Our work in making sure parents and providers meet at the point where our kids get the best possible learning and social growth experience continues.

I was particularly reminded of the importance of child care, during last year’s election campaign, when I ‘walked a day in the shoes’ of the childcare workers at ABC Green Point with the Minister for Early Education and Child Care. It was a great event organised by the United Voice union. We danced, we sang and we nearly got to participate in dress-ups. As a professional educator from the secondary and tertiary sector it was also a great experience on that day for me to be among fellow professionals in the early childhood sector and to more deeply understand in their context the very valuable work that they do.

In the previous government, Labor took great steps to improve access to childcare for Australian families. Indeed today’s bill follows up on previous legislation arising out of the 2008-09 budget, which raised the childcare rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent. What a difference that made for people in my electorate and across the nation. This investment in early years learning stems from our fundamental belief as a party of working people that access to child care is not just a necessity for Australian families, it is a right that enhances family living and certainly enhances experiences of learning for the very young. The Commonwealth government has a very vital role to provide assistance to ensure that child care is accessible, affordable, and of a quality that will set our kids up not just to be learners but happy, confident learners as they enter more formal schooling settings at primary and infants school.

Because we are a Labor government we continue to support working families, and today in this legislation we seek to build on what we have already achieved. In providing for more flexible options with regard to how the childcare rebate is paid, this bill increases the flexibility and the accessibility of this rebate to very many families. Also, this bill provides much needed flexibility with regard to how this rebate is to be paid.

In my opinion, the most important provision of this bill is the ability it gives to families to elect to have their childcare rebate paid on a weekly basis direct to their childcare provider. This option enables the childcare rebate to come in the form of a fee reduction when paying for the childcare expenses. The provision of this option also enables far greater certainty in regard to the payment of this rebate. Firstly, it offers certainty to the parents in that the rebate is paid and fee reduction offered on a weekly basis and when the usage report of a child’s attendance is due. For childcare operators, it provides the benefit of the childcare rebate being paid directly to them, and that is an efficiency improvement. This reduces the transaction cost and provides for a more efficient allocation of payment.

Whilst this option has been provided, I also support this bill because of the increased range of choices it provides parents. Parents who still wish to receive their childcare rebate directly to their bank account have that option. They can have it paid either weekly or fortnightly into their accounts according to when the attendance report is due. There also remains the current option of having the rebate paid directly to the parent’s bank account on a quarterly or yearly basis.

This flexibility is in stark contrast to the situation that existed under the Howard government, when parents had to wait until the end of the year to receive the assistance, with no other options. We get it. We on this side of the House understand diversity and the diverse needs of parents across Australia. This legislation makes it absolutely clear that Labor listens to the people. Labor is the party of paid parental leave. We continue to legislate the changes necessary to support families and our young people, including our very youngest, who have their first experiences of sharing in a larger community than their family in early childhood settings. I recognise that some parents may prefer the yearly lump sum payment, but many more parents have made it clear that the direct payment of the rebate to the childcare provider is an option that is far more appropriate and is a means of administering this rebate that they are happy with.

This legislation will benefit all areas of the Commonwealth similar to mine—areas that have a high proportion of young families. In my region, the New South Wales Central Coast, we have a very high proportion of young families, mainly because this is a regional area not far from Sydney that offers a great quality of life. But it is an area where many young families have moved away from the network of support of extended family and friends in Sydney and moved to the coast, where mum, dad and a couple of kids really have to manage amongst themselves. In that sort of context, while the Central Coast is an ideal place to bring up a family because of its natural beauty, healthy environment and warm and welcoming community, there is still the pressure of trying to have support for the care that you are undertaking while you are continuing to work and participate in the national economy.

One additional feature that puts pressure on families in places such as the seat of Robertson is that many people commute for their work, either to Sydney or to Newcastle for employment. Indeed, around 30,000 workers on the Central Coast make a daily journey down the F3 Freeway or on the CityRail train service to employment away from the coast. They are willing to do so because they love living on the Central Coast, they love its environment and they love the people. They also love the opportunity that they are providing for their children to enjoy all of the amenity of where we live. As a result of our particular geography, we have families with young children and with mum and dad both commuting daily. For these families, access to reliable, quality childcare is absolutely critical. We do need more families to access this benefit, and clearly we can continue to improve in this area. But this bill will make a difference and it will make the childcare rebate far more accessible to families with young children.

The Australian Labor Party will always be the party for affordable, accessible and quality child care. Let us not forget that this government has had to undertake change and reform to the childcare sector due to the terrible mismanagement by the previous Howard government. The mismanagement included but was not limited to allowing an unsustainable monopoly to dominate a quarter of the childcare market. Let us not forget the unsustainable situation brought about by those opposite, which caused so much stress to so many parents and childcare workers, when they were uncertain whether their childcare provider or their workplace would remain open. The previous government’s actions—or inaction as the case may be—resulted in this market situation where child care was often unaffordable and inaccessible to many Australian families. Child care is too important to allow a situation where one company is allowed to dominate and then collapse.

The contrast could not be clearer between this government and those opposite, who presided over the whole ABC mess. The member for Indi knows well that the Prime Minister brought the industry back from the edge of the precipice to which the member for Indi and her colleagues in the late unlamented Howard government pushed it in a fit of free market ideological zealotry—lest we forget the incompetence and indifference to Australian working mums and dads of the ideologues opposite. By contrast, this government’s reforms will continue to provide a stable base for the childcare industry to benefit both providers and parents.

I understand the immense importance of early childhood education. As a former educator I know that early identification and early intervention in childcare contexts provides an important opportunity in addressing learning and behavioural concerns that are identified in children. Early intervention improves the prognosis for children with learning and behavioural difficulties. Early education providers have a fundamental role in preparing children for the next stage of schooling and identifying any issues that individual children might face in transition. Whatever the issue, it is certain that support and identification is enhanced when early childhood carers and parents share their concerns and support our kids in early education settings.

If child care is hard to access or unaffordable, children miss out on an important foundation for their future life and learning. The provision of quality education for all children and young people has always been a fundamental Labor value. As the member for Robertson, I will always fight for quality education for our kids. A quality early childhood education is essential for our young Australians. It needs to be accessible to all the children in Australia. This bill achieves this and I commend it to the House.

See this speech in context