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

On Tuesday night, we saw the federal budget delivered, and what became really clear as it unfolded was that that document is a document to buy votes and get this government, this hapless government, to the other side of an election. What the budget failed to appreciate, and what the Treasurer failed to appreciate, is that Australians have been struggling under cost-of-living pressures for some time. They have been struggling with the cost of child care and the cost of energy and a whole range of things that have been putting pressure on households. Of course, the other part of the puzzle that has been there for a long time is that Australians have not got a decent wage increase. There have been declining real wages in this country as, in this government's own words, a design policy of their government.

We have a budget now that ignores the future, ignores a long-term plan for the future, ignores what other challenges lie ahead and ignores what needs to be done to set Australians up for long-term prosperity. We've had the Prime Minister bragging about how many budgets he's been involved in. We're not 100 per cent sure whether that's seven or eight—there's a little bit of a counting issue there—but we do know that none of the budgets he's been involved in have taught him this very important lesson: the Australian people need to be in the centre of his budget—not his own electoral prospects. Unfortunately, that has not been shown.

I'm going to focus on one area where the government was silent on Tuesday night: the real issue of rising childcare costs. We have a government that continually tells Australian families that there is no problem with the cost of child care. Over this term we've had government ministers—I think we're onto the third minister now when it comes to child care—telling families they've never been better off when it comes to the cost of child care. They've come in and they've quoted hourly figures. Of course, if you're using 30 to 50 hours a week it really adds up, and the government has failed to understand that.

The latest data shows that fees for child care are up 41 per cent since this government came to office, and, in one quarter alone, they went up 1.4 per cent, between March and June 2021. Out-of-pocket costs are up by 6.5 per cent in 2020-21, almost double the cost of inflation. What has been the government's response on child care? Silence. We know that in the last budget they tried to be as tricky as possible, thinking that budget would be the budget before the election, not thinking they'd have to come back and actually be accountable to this House. So we had a tricky budget where, if you have one child in child care, you don't get a cent extra—you don't deserve any extra support from this government. Of course, that counts for 75 per cent of families using the system.

If you're struggling with the cost of out-of-school-hours care, the government said you deserve no extra in that last budget. There were so many people, Australian families, hoping with their fingers crossed that the government would actually address it, especially when UNICEF has ranked Australia 37th out of 41 countries when it comes to childcare policies. They found Australia is one of only eight countries in the world where child care consumes at least a quarter of the average wage. This is a dismal showing. We are falling behind the rest of the world, and no amount of spin and rhetoric can make up for it.

When it comes to early education and care, the government is also completely ignoring the challenges coming out of the pandemic for the early education workforce. Under this government, almost 15 per cent of long day care services have a waiver from the National Quality Standard for staffing reasons. This is having a significant impact out there. I am told this is also driving up the cost of child care. Already this year we've had Goodstart and G8, two large providers in this country, announce that they will have above-inflation fee increases. They are going to. They have no choice when it comes to the costs that they are incurring. This government has taken its eyes off the prize when it comes to early education and care. They've said: 'This is not what we are here to do. We don't care whether people have access or not, and we don't care how expensive it is.'

Of course, when it came to the COVID pandemic they were slow. They were slow to act, time and time again, to ensure that early learning services could keep their doors open and to ensure people could get care. If the government haven't learnt their lessons from COVID, if they haven't learnt the priorities of the Australian people, the priorities of families, when will they ever learn?

It is really clear that we need an investment in our early education and care system. We need to be supporting families with the cost of living when it comes to child care, because this isn't just good for those families that get cheaper childcare fees; it is good for the economy, and this is the point that the government is failing to recognise. The government are happy to spend money—or at least announce money—for roads. As the shadow minister for infrastructure would say, we often don't see those roads.

An honourable member: Or the car parks.

Or car parks. The minister for infrastructure will announce the money—though maybe not deliver—but he refuses to acknowledge that affordable early education and care is infrastructure for families. It helps us grow the economy. It increases women's workforce participation. It increases productivity in this country. But it's not surprising that this government doesn't understand this. One of the government MPs did say that women using child care were outsourcing parenting, and another said that women might be forced back to work if they invest in early education and care. Under this government—and I'm so pleased to recognise this; it was the shadow minister for women who pointed this out earlier this morning—Australia has dropped from 12th to 70th in the world for women's economic participation and opportunities, as assessed by the World Economic Forum. The government is failing to see the significant economic reform that is right under its nose—that is, invest in education and care, help women get back to work and remove that economic disincentive.

In quite clear contrast, Labor have a different approach. Labor have been clear that we see early education and care as an essential service. We will lift the maximum childcare subsidy rate to 90 per cent and increase the childcare subsidy rate for every family earning less than $530,000, and we'll extend the increased subsidy to out-of-school hours. This will drive down the cost of child care. We will also task the ACCC with investigating price regulation to ensure that families are the ones that are getting the benefit from government support, that children are getting the benefit from this government support. It is only Labor that has a long-term plan, whether it's in child care, whether it's in energy prices or whether it's to get real wages moving again. It is only Labor that has a long-term vision to get our country back on its feet after the pandemic.

Soon there will be a choice. There'll be a choice for the Australian people: a short-term vision with a vote-buying exercise to get them—that is the coalition, the current government—through the election, or Labor's long-term plan that will really invest in the Australian people, invest in the skills we need in the country, including investing in early education and care. We will invest in child care, we will invest in energy and we will make sure that our country and our people have the services and the support they need so they can get on and do what they do best, and that's building our country.

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