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

There needs to be a royal commission into child care. I listened very closely to the minister, and I have every respect for the member for Blaxland. I do. I listened closely to him in question time. I heard what he said, and I appreciate the approach he has taken, but it's not enough. If it's good enough to have a royal commission into aged care, then we should be, at all costs, protecting our children. What we've seen in recent weeks and months has been beyond the pale. Charge after charge has been laid against monsters in this system—workers who had a history, who, for whatever reason, were allowed to continue in the system, who should never have been re-employed in child care and who are now before the courts on multiple charges of heinous, unspeakable crimes against beautiful, helpless, innocent, vulnerable tots, because that is what they are.

When the former coalition government put in place a royal commission into aged care, we did it because we needed to protect those vulnerable members of the community who were in their twilight years. But in one sense, if you think about it, the difference between those in the aged-care system and those in the childcare system at the opposite end of the spectrum is that our bubs can't speak for themselves. They are babies, and they are in child care because their parents are working. Their parents need to work. There is a cost-of-living crisis. They also learn a lot. They develop a lot whilst they're in child care, before kindergarten and before primary school. Child care should be a loving place. It should be a supportive place. It should be a place where the workers treat those children as if they were their own. Yet, albeit in very minuscule numbers, this is not the case.

But it only takes one monster to cast a very poor light on what is actually happening, and I think what we now need to do is shine a much bigger light to see what is actually happening. If this leads to better processes and protocols in the system, then that is a good thing. As the minister said in question time today, there will always be bad people. Sadly, he is very right. But, if we can weed out some more of those bad eggs, then that has to be a good thing. If we can put proper processes in place and get the federal government, the states and even local councils, some of which run childcare centres, together on the one page, working cooperatively and collaboratively, then surely this must be a good thing.

At the end of the day, our children are worth more than what we're giving them at the moment. It must be such a bad thing for those Victorian parents whose children have been subjected to some of the things that are being alleged. Could you imagine the worry, the hurt, the anguish and the angst of those parents who sent their children in good faith and now have this future for them and their children and their families? Centres which have put profits before children's safety—those centres, those facilities, should be shut and shut permanently, and the monsters who have perpetrated these evil acts should never see the light of day. That is why we need a royal commission into child care.

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