Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

This is a bit of a farce really. Where is the minister? He's not taking it seriously enough to turn up. But I will direct some questions to the minister at the table, and I hope he takes the next government opportunity to jump to answer them. Call me old-fashioned, but, when I came to this place, that's exactly what ministers did: they took consideration in detail seriously. There would be a couple of questions from both sides, and then the minister would jump to answer the questions. That's what accountability is. I hope that the minister will jump after my questions. I will be really brief, to give him the time to do just that.

Firstly, the government has been claiming that the out-of-pocket expenses are going down, but of course childcare fees increased 4.4 per cent between March 2019 and March 2020. Inflation went up by 1.8 per cent over the same period. The childcare subsidy is pegged to inflation, not fees. The question I have for the minister, firstly, is: did the value of the childcare subsidy decline over the year to March? It's a pretty simple maths question, and I hope the minister can answer it.

Secondly, the last ABS data before COVID showed out-of-pocket costs for child care increased by 6.2 per cent between the March 2019 quarter and the March 2020 quarter. They increased by 7.2 per cent over the December 2018 to December 2019 year. They increased by over seven per cent. Can you explain how the childcare system is working for families when out-of-pocket costs are growing? I invite the minister at the table to answer the question.

See this speech in context