Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] I'm pleased to join this debate on the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Child Care Subsidy) Bill. I'm always pleased to follow the member for Bendigo, who made an outstanding contribution and really highlighted some of the important issues in our sector and, as always, has advocated for working people and working families. I want to take this opportunity to wish her and all of her family congratulations, and I look forward to seeing her and the whole crew up in Canberra soon.

This is a really difficult day. We have just got news that New South Wales has had probably their hardest day in the pandemic. We have cases around South-East Queensland. And Victoria is dealing with a major outbreak. Despite all of this, our childcare workers and our early educators have been a constant source of reliability and reliance for Australian working families.

Our early educators have done an amazing job of keeping our early education centres ticking along throughout this pandemic. My family is no exception. We have a beautiful baby daughter, and she has been going to pre-kinder and hasn't missed a beat. She's growing and learning and playing and doing all of that, even as I speak right now. I want to thank all of her educators, all of her early childcare workers, but also all of the workers around the country who have really turned up each and every day. They are absolutely on the front line, and they pour their hearts and souls into looking after our little people. They do it with expertise, they do it with skill, and they do it with energy and effort, and we really appreciate it. I want to start this contribution by saying thank you to our early educators for everything you have done, for everything you'll continue to do and for the work that you do not get paid enough for. Your work is valued and important, and we need to support you in that quest.

The Labor Party has a really simple approach when it comes to early education and child care. We do not see access to child care and early education as a welfare measure. We see it as an economic one. We see it as an economic imperative for this country to make sure that families, especially working women, are able to get back to the workplace if they choose to and access affordable child care or early education services. It's not about supporting families and welfare and all of the things that the government likes to label Labor's policy on; it's about making sure that families are able to get back into the workforce. We know that child care has become extremely unaffordable under this government. The cost of child care, including in my own electorate of Macnamara, has become unaffordable for too many families. It has become a barrier for families, especially women, returning to the workplace, especially on days four and five.

Affordable, good local early education and child care is crucial. It's not just crucial for families; it's crucial for our economy. It's crucial for careers. It's crucial for women to be able to get back into the workforce and return to making money and receiving superannuation. This doesn't even go into all of the benefits for the child and the development of young people and young Australians. Of course, that is central to our philosophy. Of course, that is central to the way in which Labor sees it. We value the social interaction, the learning, the play and the activity that comes with our outstanding early education centres. On top of that, the big struggles for families at the moment are around affordability and access to early education and childcare services, and we need it to improve. That's why Labor, like so many times throughout our time in opposition, has come up with constructive suggestions to help Australian families. It wasn't about politics; it was about constructive suggestions.

We released our alternative childcare plan as part of the budget-in-reply a couple of years ago. If an idea comes from Labor, this government has to fight it. There is no grace; there is no humility; there' s no attempt at trying to find good outcomes for the Australian people. Everything that Labor suggests, this government tries to shut down, and our childcare policy is no different. We put forward a plan to help Australian families afford more child care. What did we see? We saw the then minister for child care, Minister Tehan, come out and criticise it, label it, and use his big platform in the media to criticise Labor. He wasn't willing to work constructively and admit that there's a problem in that Australian families can't afford the increasing cost of child care and early education, that maybe the Labor Party is right and is connected to the needs of working families, that maybe, in the interests of the Australian people and Australian working families, instead of just criticising the Labor Party, we should work together and listen to good ideas. But, of course, that is beneath this government, and that is beneath the ability of the Prime Minister.

We're seeing exactly the same thing happening with this vaccine rollout. The Labor Party has put forward a really constructive suggestion. We want to see Australians get vaccinated, plain and simple.

We want to see more and more people protected from this awful virus. We have 260-odd cases today in New South Wales. Five people have lost their lives. We want to see an incentive for people to get vaccinated. That's why we put forward the idea of $300 for people to get vaccinated. Just like the childcare policy, the Prime Minister is incapable of showing any grace, any humility or any willingness to work together in the interests of the Australian people. It's all about politics with this bloke. It's always about fighting elections and not about doing what's in the interests of the Australian people. The Prime Minister could have had a little bit of humility and just said, 'Look, we'll consider it. We'll consider Labor's good-faith policy proposal. We understand that there's a massive need. This is a difficult thing. We're all in this together.' Imagine if we had a leader that was actually capable of sounding like a leader? Instead we have a Prime Minister who is constantly looking for fights with the Labor Party. That's all this is. It's all he ever wants to do. Whether it's child care or our incentive ideas for the vaccine rollout, this government is not interested in working collaboratively, this government is not interested in leadership, and this government is not interested in doing what's right for working Australian families. All it is interested in doing is punching on with the Labor Party. That's it, and it's pretty sad because the people who lose out are working families across the country and the people who miss out are Australians who we need to get vaccinated in order to get through this awful pandemic.

The Labor Party obviously isn't going to stand in the way of this bill, but, like so many things, our proposal would leave families better off. Our proposal would leave around 86 per cent of families better off. Almost a million families would be better off under the Labor Party's policy to make sure that child care is more affordable. It's hardly surprising to see that the government is angry with the Labor Party putting child care on the agenda when you see some of the comments made by government members in their own party room around child care. We see reports in the media about how government members say that child care is outsourcing parenting. That's how the dinosaurs in charge of this government see child care and early education in this country. It's hardly surprising, because it's not just in the party room. Senator Rennick—the gift that keeps on giving for the federal coalition party room—invoked Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and insisted that the best place for children is at home, not child care. What? What planet are these people living on? What planet are these dinosaurs living on where they cannot see the value of early education, the value of play, the value of learning, and the value of our early educators who turn up to work each and every day to help develop and grow our young Australians to become everything that they can be? We know that essential learning happens in those formative years. We know that it is so important for young Australians to have access to social situations, to reading and to playing. For Senator Rennick and his colleagues to say that child care is outsourcing parenting or that a child's place is at home and not in child care just reinforces the values of the federal Liberal Party and the values of the Morrison government. They want to take Australia back to the 1950s. They are doing it in terms of climate change—they are not accepting the science on that—and their values of the family structure are really clear and apparent when it comes to their comments on child care. The Labor Party is in a completely other world to the federal government. We do not see this outdated way of thinking as being in any way appropriate. We have faith in and we back our early educators. We thank them for turning up during this pandemic each and every day to help our youngest Australians learn, grow and develop.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of the local early educators and all of the workers and staff in the electorate of Macnamara. We have some outstanding local childcare and early education facilities. Many of them are community run or council run facilities, and many of them are run by local families who give up their time to help volunteer on the board. They are outstanding organisations, and we really are so grateful for all of the effort they put in to help our youngest Australians grow and develop.

Unlike the dinosaurs in the coalition party room, we support our early educators and we want to see our childcare and early education system be one that's more affordable. We want to see Australian families able to access good education and early education. We want to make sure that our families are not put off by the rising costs of child care under this government—that child care isn't a barrier to getting back into the workplace but rather an essential part of the Australian economy, enabling Australian women to get back into the workforce and, most importantly, enabling our youngest Australians to learn, grow and develop.

I just want to point out and pay thanks to the member for Kingston, who, throughout her entire time as the shadow minister, has led and pushed for greater support for the workers, our amazing early educators, and more resources for our littlest Australians, while also making sure that the Labor Party is putting forward constructive ideas and constructive policies that will help get Australian women and Australian working families back into the workforce with access to quality education at affordable prices. I want to acknowledge her contribution.

Finally, I would say we support quality education and early education; we support our educators, and we sincerely thank them for all of their work during these difficult days of the pandemic and for all of the time that they've put into our youngest Australians. We say thank you very, very much.

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