Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Probably nothing before the parliament today will be more important than this particular bill, the Early Childhood Education and Care (Strengthening Regulation of Early Education) Bill 2025, and I commend the member for Lalor. She is absolutely 100 per cent correct when she talks about the necessity of having the building blocks in place for children to ensure their safety is paramount. The foundation of our society is our kids, and to preserve and protect them and give them every opportunity has to be first and foremost in all our considerations. Anyone who is a parent or a grandparent, any sane thinking person—anyone at all—would be horrified in recent weeks by what has allegedly happened in Victorian childcare centres.

I heard the member for Fisher talk about this yesterday in the Federation Chamber. I saw the interview Senator Duniam did on Insiders just recently in relation to this. Senator Duniam from Tasmania served on the committee on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. He has made some very good, sound, sensible, sane comments in relation to this. I've heard the opposition leader, the member for Farrer, also express her outrage as a mum, as a grandparent and as a good person in relation to what has been reported out of Victoria. The Prime Minister spoke about it too. I was doing a television interview when the story first broke—and I know the Victorian Greens tried to make some mileage out of this—and I said this was, in the early stages, very unfair to Premier Jacinta Allan and her initial reaction and what she has put in place in that state to respond to these dreadful allegations.

The Early Childhood Education and Care (Strengthening Regulation of Early Education) Bill 2025 amends the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999 to prioritise quality and safety considerations when assessing whether providers can receive the Commonwealth's childcare subsidy. It also expands powers to publicise actions taken against providers, and it enables authorised officers to conduct unannounced service visits and spot checks. In the main, that's what this bill will do.

As Leader of the Opposition Ley has said, when there is good legislation or sound policy being brought forward, the coalition will support it. The coalition will certainly support any measure, any provision, to protect children; it absolutely will.

The bill also includes additional administrative matters. If we go through the particular points I just mentioned, whether providers can receive the very generous subsidies provided federally to continue their operations is of paramount importance, because if they're not doing the right thing—in any way, shape or form—then they shouldn't be providing child care. In a cost-of-living crisis—in a modern, functioning society—there are often two-parent families going out and needing to work to bring home the money to be able to afford to live, to be able to afford to provide the best lifestyles for their children. Single-parent families—whatever the case may be, families need to have child care.

In rural, regional and, particularly, remote Australia it's not so much affordability of child care; it's availability of child care. There's a childcare desert, but that is another matter entirely. Parents need to be absolutely certain that the childcare centres that we have are going to look after their children and that their children are going to be happy and healthy in those carers' care. When they drop them off in the morning, or whatever the case may be, and they pick them up in the afternoon they need to know that that child has been looked after. As a parent and as a grandparent I know how important this is. I know how much my daughter and son are going to need child care in the future for their children, and I know that, certainly, when they do drop their children off they expect to be able to have that child looked after 100 per cent, every bit as well and as good as they would look after that child.

In the main, our childcare providers, our childcare carers, do an amazing and remarkable job. They love children. They do the right thing by those kids. When you have incidents such as this one out of Victoria recently it is absolutely beyond words. Unfortunately, it's not an isolated case. As bad as it is and as widespread as it seems to be according to the police reports, there have been other allegations of dreadful activities taking place in childcare settings. We know about Operation Tenterfield in August 2023, where a Queensland man was charged and later convicted of 1,623 child abuse offences against 91 children in Brisbane, in Sydney and overseas over a five-year period up to 2022. Words absolutely fail me sometimes—when you think about what sort of mind, what sort of man, what sort of evil monster this person is. They should never, ever see the light of day again. I'm sorry, but they just shouldn't be let out of any prison facility. That's where they belong, and that's where they should spend the rest of their natural lives. I'm not a judge, I'm not a magistrate, but I think people expect that there's no coming back from where that person's mind is despite whatever rehabilitation they might receive in the king's pleasure, as it was once called. They do not deserve to be let out.

Elsewhere, we've had reports and investigations. We've had all these sorts of things, but the time for talk is over. The Commonwealth will do whatever it can, in the provisions that it has at its disposal, to work with state and local authorities to make sure that our children's safety is first and foremost and to make sure that kids are well looked after. As the Leader of the Opposition said, child safety is above politics. She's absolutely right. I know the Prime Minister, a person of good heart, understands that as well. I was just speaking to him in the corridor then about any number of topics and he, too—like any parent, any politician and any normal person—is appalled about what has transpired in Victoria. We are unwavering in our support for the changes, which better protect children in care settings.

We have to give confidence to the one million families who rely on child care. You could imagine the angst, the anguish, the heartache and the not knowing of those parents whose children are now having to undergo checks and medical procedures. What effect does that have on those children? Maybe some of them will be too young to know. But others will have recurring flashbacks to what should have been a happy childhood.

I think that kids in our society are growing up too quickly. I believe that the measures being put in place by this government to ban social media for under-16s is a good thing. People can bleat until the cows come home about whatever they think about that, but I think we are expecting our children to grow up much too quickly. I heard the member for Fisher in the Federation Chamber talking about the proliferation of pornography, which is just a few clicks away for kids as young as eight who are then able to access dreadful images online. This bill allows three things. They are to financially penalise providers, allow name-and-shame provisions and enable authorised officers to conduct unannounced visits. That is a good thing.

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