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

In my community of Casey, childcare deserts and the cost of and access to child care is a significant issue for so many. I spoke in the last parliament many times about the importance of this issue and about how adding supply to child care is crucial. I want to thank, again, Belinda Young and the Mums of the Hills for their advocacy work and doing everything they can to ensure that mums and families in our community can access child care. One of the challenges is this supply—the deserts—but there's also the inflexibility of child care. If you work in the city, you need to travel for an hour-plus to get into the CBD. Unfortunately, as we know, one of the challenges with child care is that so many children get sick. This is a challenge that parents have to face—being stuck in the city, an hour-plus away—when their children get sick.

I am passionate about making sure that every mum and every professional mum can be a great mum and have the flexibility and opportunities to work. That's why this week it was wonderful to meet with four parents and to hear from Amy, Jen and Cecilia and meet little George and hear their story and about their campaign wanting to drive more flexibility into the system. They're a volunteer led advocacy group established on 7 July 2025—this year—in reaction to the shocking allegations that we saw in my home state of Victoria and the offences there. We know that if you're with loved ones you are safer. I'm prepared to continue to work with them not just to make sure that our children are safe but to make sure that parents have flexibility, options and opportunities.

My family lived it, and many families live it. It's heartbreaking when mums feel that they have to choose between being a mum and having a professional career. We, as parliamentarians, have to do everything we can to ensure that they're able to do both. I always say it is heartbreaking. It's hard for mums. When they're at work they feel guilty that they should be at home, and when they're at home they feel guilty that they're not providing financially for the family. We can't solve that challenge. What we can do is make it easy for them to do both. I'm looking forward to continuing to work with Amy, Jen and Cecilia and meeting little George again so we can provide positive options for all families and make sure families have choice to deliver the best they can in the circumstances that they see fit to their family.

See this speech in context