Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On this late evening, I rise to discuss a very important issue to my neighbours across the seat of Hughes: the childcare industry, an industry which plays a critical role in Australian society. Occasional, limited-hours, long-day and preschool services are all of importance to our children. The experience of attending child care in the early years often provides a child with their first social experiences and can be an important building block in their development before starting school life. The importance of early childhood education and childcare services cannot be underestimated.

My sister-in-law is a teacher at a local primary school. I have had many conversations with her regarding the benefits of early childhood education. It seems to be common knowledge within the teaching fraternity that children that have an early childhood education in one form or another are more likely to make a successful transition to primary schooling, with many students arriving at primary school already equipped with the basic skills in reading and writing and—equally important—a foundation in social skills and interactions with their peers. This sort of head start is something that all parents want for their children.

That is not to say that there are not many other avenues in which young children can have social experiences. One example that comes to mind is children's swimming lessons. Just like child care and preschool, swimming lessons introduce new experiences to our young children while teaching them valuable lifelong skills. Again, both contribute important features to our children's development.

However, some families are in need of greater flexibility than they are able to receive currently from their local childcare providers. We know that the latest census and ABS data tells us that improving female participation in the workforce is very much dependent on accessing affordable child care. Our challenge is to provide parents with a system that is less rigid and more flexible and provides as much choice as possible. For these reasons, the coalition is calling for, and has been joined by the childcare industry in calling for, a productivity review to find ways for parents to access more affordable and more flexible models of child care and to enhance the support provided to this critical industry.

I recall when my daughter attended the local preschool at Alfords Point before entering primary school. This was a great opportunity for her to spend time with new people and new friends aside from the neighbours and cousins that she had spent her early years playing with. It was an experience that has left her with lifelong friends and sparked a love of learning. She is currently studying at university, but I bet that, if I asked her where it all started, she would say, 'At preschool.'

However, my son, unfortunately, never had these opportunities. This is one case where a system with no flexibility can exclude those that need the most nurturing and care. That is something that I will continue to fight for every day of my life. But I must thank organisations such as the Autism Advisory and Support Service which step up and offer some of the social and interactive benefits of child care for children who would otherwise fall through the cracks. Helping children with special needs to receive a similar experience through their sensory playgrounds and inclusive programs is something we should commend the Autism Advisory and Support Service for.

Knowing how important the childcare industry is to the future of Australia, I have endeavoured to visit as many childcare centres as I can, dotted around the seat of Hughes. I always look forward to these visits, as the childcare centres in Hughes are fun places to visit. They are places of fun, laughter and learning. It is not hard to leave these visits with a smile on my face.

Most recently, I visited the Bullfrog Children's Centre, in Engadine, where I was lucky enough to be asked to read to the children before their nap time. Seeing the wonder in these children's faces as they went about discovering their world was a memorable experience. Another visit that sticks in my mind was a stop at Inaburra Preschool, in Bangor. I was able to speak with the many staff as they expressed to me how much they enjoyed going to work every day and being given the opportunity to foster and develop young minds and talents. It was also great to see the thirst for knowledge that many of these children already have at the ages of three and four.

A great example of the wide variety of activities and learning possibilities provided was a fun run I attended at Gumnut Childcare Centre, also at Engadine. This sort of innovation from the centre is what we as parents rely on when we place our most valuable possessions in their care. It is impossible to visit these places of early learning and not be of a mind that these services are invaluable not only to the mums and dads who are at work but also to the future of Australian society. These children are the leaders of tomorrow and they deserve the best we can give them.

It is because of this philosophy and my own personal experience that I find the new reforms to the childcare industry an attack on our future and our children. There has been some mixed opinion among local operators but there was consistency in one particular element, and that was the failure of consultation on the reforms, particularly on the ratios of carers to students that have generated such an upheaval in some centres while only marginally affecting others. I was contacted by one childcare operator who put it bluntly—because of the changes to the ratios they would either have to increase their fees or reduce the number of places available. Labor's reforms have had the impact of effectively removing childcare centres from the suburb of Engadine while doing nothing to combat the long-term waiting list that already exists.

I was also contacted by a constituent from the Menai area who has been fighting to get her youngest daughter into a preschool. This working mother of three had spent untold hours contacting centre after centre, trying to get the best place for her daughter, only to be told by several centres that no new enrolments could occur because of the new ratio regulations brought in by the Labor government. These reforms will have a knock-on effect. They will reduce the spots available in the community and they will force families who are already struggling with rising costs of living and the looming spectre of the carbon tax to make difficult, no-win decisions. Parents willing to work will be forced to stay out of the workforce, ultimately depriving their children of an early childhood education.

On the other side, I have also heard from operators who have run foul of the great tangled mess of regulations Labor is forcing on this industry. Most recently, a childcare centre in the Liverpool area contacted me to explain how for months they had been trying to obtain a copy of new regulations that the government had promised to send them but it had never left the warehouse. As the deadline was approaching for the new operations and they were making their plans, they could not finalise things. If the government cannot organise a courier to deliver something on time, how can we trust it to know what is best for our children?

The most compelling argument I have heard on this issue is that things such as child ratios are best placed in the hands of individual childcare centres and not determined by the arbitrary fist of bureaucratic regulation. Even those who have already made the choice to voluntarily operate on the lower teacher-student ratio which has been imposed feel that they were best positioned to make such determinations on staff capability, competitive advantage considerations and the needs of the local community.

Early childhood education centres and childcare centres act as a hub for the greater community and as a place where people can meet to share their experiences, ideas and wisdom with other parents and teachers. Every one of these centres is unique; every one of these centres is slightly different. This is because they know how best to provide for the individual needs of the children and the parents in the local area who need their services. But this big heavy government approach of setting and mandating ratios will quash much of this individuality, and you can be sure it will be the children who lose out the most.

We see in these reforms the mindset that Labor governments know best. But, as we have seen time and time again, nothing could be further from the truth. This is the same mindset that gave us pink batts and the BER, and now the government is trying to ram these regulations down the throats of the childcare industry—a truly scary thought.