Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's been a tough few years for Australians who work in early childhood education. They have struggled with the strains of the pandemic, and now, having come out the other side, workers are leaving the sector for other careers in record numbers. Despite the rhetoric from those on the other side, the coalition has always been a strong supporter of getting Australians back into the workforce after they have had children, and we have a strong record in this space. In fact, under the previous coalition government, the women's workforce participation rate was at an all-time high of 62.3 per cent in March 2022. This is compared to just 58.7 per cent when Labor left office. This is because we believe in choice. We believe that parents who work or study should be able to access care for their children if they wish to do so.

We introduced once-in-a-generation reforms to the childcare system in 2018 to provide more subsidies to families who need them most. We established a safety net to cover up to the full cost of full-time child care for disadvantaged children. On our watch, the annual cap on the childcare subsidy was abolished. Around 90 per cent of families using the childcare subsidy are currently eligible for a subsidy of between 50 and 85 per cent. This goes a long way towards getting more parents back into work without spending all of their earnings on child care.

In March 2022 we provided higher childcare subsidies for second and subsequent children aged five or under, and we delivered this ahead of schedule, to help relieve struggling families. As a father with two children, I know—and the member for Hawke would know—that the second and third child can add a lot of pressure to the family budget. So that was a really important initiative that is making a difference for Australian families and allowing mothers and fathers to get back into the workforce.

But under Labor it's a very different story. Early childhood educators are leaving the sector at rapid rates, and all the Albanese government can do is talk about their fee-free TAFE places. This does not provide any immediate solutions to the shortages that we currently have. Free TAFE courses will not deliver this relief for a workforce under strain today. Something is needed right now. We all know economics 101, supply and demand—if we don't have the supply, and the demand is there, which it is, the cost is going to go up. The consequence is that we have centres capping enrolments and asking families to keep their children at home because they don't have the staff to operate at full capacity.

Subsidies are one part of the equation. However, a subsidy is worth nothing if you can't access a childcare place. There is little use in having lower out-of-pocket costs when parents can't even get their children into care due to worker shortages and childcare deserts. A report from the Mitchell institute from earlier this year showed around nine million Australians live in a childcare desert, where centres have just one place available for every three children. This government has no immediate plan to create extra places or supporting staff but somehow thinks the system will cope with the influx of enrolments come July 2023. But I guess we really shouldn't be surprised, because, the last time Labor held government, childcare fees skyrocketed by 53 per cent in just six years.

While the top line of this policy looks great and it looks like it provides the support for child care we all want to achieve, the devil is in the detail, as with most ALP policies. The government promised its childcare policy would deliver cost-of-living relief, but its spruiked subsidy increase isn't set to come into force until July 2023. They've changed the price tag on this policy four times now. First it was $5.4 billion. Then it was $5.1 billion. Then it was $4.5 billion. Now it's $4.7 billion.

Labor needs to explain to Australian parents why its plan to ease cost-of-living pressures related to child care won't come into effect for another eight months and how it will address the industry shortages. It is clear there has been no modelling and no due diligence done on this policy. Again, it shows that Labor cannot manage money. This is a policy that is heavy on political spin and light on real support for Australians and working families.

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