Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a new member of this parliament, it's interesting the way the straw man argument is used when it comes to debating these things: 'Those opposite—they don't like what we've done; they don't like what we've done.' We actually supported the bill. When this parliament works really well, it is when offers of amendments and suggestions to improve existing bills get made, and I'd like to be part of that. But this motion doesn't say that the subsidy bill is a bad thing. This motion says that there could be improvements made to it, improvements to allow access, particularly in regional and rural areas, and improvements to create a workforce that can help us make sure that we can staff these places.

A report earlier this year from the Mitchell Institute showed that around one-third of Australian families, nine million Australians, live in a childcare desert—that's where you can't even get child care. I've been through this myself. When we had our first child, my wife wanted to get back into the workforce as soon as possible. We struggled to find a childcare place in Shepparton, and Shepparton's quite a large centre. We eventually got something, but, if we had have been out somewhere smaller in my electorate, such as Nathalia or Murchison, we would have had no options. That affects productivity. My wife, Lisa, who's a professional in the dairy industry, which is a critical industry to us, wouldn't have gone back to offer her skills to that particular industry. We're not saying that subsidies aren't important and that the substance of that part of the bill is bad; we are saying that we need to add to it by helping to create more childcare places, particularly in areas that don't have them, childcare deserts.

I've consulted with some people around my electorate on this subject. That's what you have to do as a local member. You go and say, 'Okay, this is the substance of what it is; what do you think?' Ronni Druitt is the CEO of the Goulburn Regional Pre School Association, which does a lot of this childcare stuff. Ronni said: 'You can quote me, Sam'—I should refer to myself as the member for Nicholls—'government can build as many childcare facilities as it wants, but the sector does not have any educators to fill roles. I had one childcare service in Cobram where I had room for an additional 20 children but could not offer those spots as I had limited staff.' She went on to say that places such as Avenel have no child care and that the closest child care is in Seymour, and it's full. Murchison, Rushworth and Colbinabbin don't have any child care at all. At Strathmerton, kinder is getting many enrolments, but there's no child care available in spots close. An amendment to this bill to address the childcare desert and to put some funding and incentives towards building some new facilities would be a great addition.

Ronni Druitt also went on to tell me about the information available on the Australian Childcare Alliance, which is the apprenticeships incentives that the previous government put in place. She said that the incentive program was fantastic. They got a lot of apprentices and educators learning how to be childcare educators, but that ended on 30 June 2022. As far as we're aware, there's no ongoing funding for that. If someone can tell me that that program's going to continue, it's a program that the previous government put in place that people in my area are saying worked, that would be good to look into. We believe in child care not only because of the productivity that I talked about of having all sorts of people go back into the workforce but also because of the socialisation that those young people get. The future of work is understanding and empathising with each other's humanity, and being able to communicate with people and solve problems. You develop that as a young person by having interaction with other people. You become empathetic, you learn about their lives and learn about communicating with them and that happens in child care. I'm sure everyone here is very empathetic and all had good childcare experiences. The member for Hawke, I'm sure, would say that. We're not against child care. We just want more of it, particularly in parts of the country, like the one where I live, which are the regional and rural areas. We're supportive but there can be improvements.

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