Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I heard that there was to be this MPI on child care, I thought it must have been proposed by our side to outline the way forward in cleaning up Labor's mess. It never actually occurred to me that this MPI, 'The government’s refusal to promise that it will not cut childcare assistance to Australian families', would actually have been asked for by the previous minister with responsibility for child care, the member for Adelaide. The member for Adelaide should actually throw herself on the floor of this House and beg for forgiveness for what she did to this sector. The member for Adelaide, in her capacity as the previous minister, presided over and approved increases in the cost of child care of over 40 per cent. She brought in the National Quality Framework, stating that it would have an impact of around 57c a week, despite anecdotal evidence that it was going to be at least $5 to $20 per day.

The previous minister was asked to speak at a breakfast meeting with the childcare sector here in Parliament House, and she stood up there and said the usual things—a lot of platitudes about how good it was to be with them and everything—and then she said, 'This government has made child care more affordable.' We just heard the member for Kingsford Smith say that too. The only reason there were not guffaws was that there was such a big collective intake of breath as people looked at each other with incredulity, trying to figure out what the hell had just been said. These were the things that the previous minister presided over.

We just heard the member for Kingsford Smith saying that, during the Labor government, the number of kids in child care hit over one million and that the system works. The member for Adelaide was the minister who said: 'We need 260 new childcare centres around the country. This is what we are doing. This is a reforming government. We're going to build them.' After 38, it was: 'Job done. It's all over. Two hundred and sixty? Don't worry about it. We didn't actually need them. We only needed 38.' What was it about the former Labor government and putting a big number out there and then producing a very small one? Let's be very happy that the former minister actually built 38 and did not close 38. That would be the ultimate irony with these people.

This former minister produced over 300 pages of new regulation and red tape for the sector. With that 300 pages came 1,000 pages of explanatory notes. That does not reduce costs. That adds red-tape burden for childcare centres. That makes it harder for you to run your business. That makes it more expensive for parents to bring their kids into child care. All those things were cost burdens put onto the childcare sector by the then minister. The member for Adelaide also cut $2.6 million in funding for occasional care. So the track record of Labor and the member for Adelaide is absolutely abysmal.

I was a single dad for the blink of an eye, and I had two little girls in child care. I know what quality child care is. I knew when my kids had had a good day in child care or had had a bad day in child care. The people in child care do fantastic work. They should be respected for they do. They shouldn't be given platitudes, they shouldn't have been given false promises of pay rises when they had no intention of actually delivering.

What we will do is recognise, first and foremost, that child care is important and that the system is broken—that system needs review. We will charge the Productivity Commission with the task of looking at ways to make the child care market more flexible, more accessible and—wait for it—more affordable. I think the use of props was probably a little bit overdone and that one! That should be enough for the member opposite. That really should be enough for everyone opposite. The Productivity Commission is an unbiased third party sitting up here trying to make it more affordable for people, more accessible, more flexible. That is what we will do.

We will cut the carbon tax to the child care centres. We will make it easier for them to turn on their lights. We will make it cheaper for them to run their businesses all the way through. We will cut their red tape for them, making it cheaper to run their business all the way through. That flows through to every parent who has a child in care.

We understand the needs of the sector. We welcome this inquiry and say it is long overdue. We will clean up Labor's mess. I thank the House.

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