Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, congratulations on your appointment. Recently I met with the wonderful Wilston Kids Care team and Wilston State School Principal Guy Hendriks. Wilston Kids Care is an exceptional example of a parent-run out-of-hours school care facility in my electorate of Brisbane. The Wilston Kids Care team, including Chris Noonan, Vic Ernst, Shannon Lea and Kaylene Pointing, provide an invaluable service to the parents of Wilston State School. As a parent-run facility, their focus is on accessibility, quality and affordability. They accommodate up to 100 children before school and 200 children after school.

However, organisations like this are under threat because of the huge burden left by the previous government's incompetent implementation of the National Quality Framework. That is why the Abbott government has committed, as a priority, to undertake a Productivity Commission inquiry into all forms of child care, including out-of-hours school care. The new Assistant Minister for Education, Sussan Ley, has already coordinated meetings with state and territory ministers, including the Queensland Minister for Education, Training and Employment, to discuss the National Quality Framework and its impact on all forms of child care.

We are a government that has hit the ground running from day one. We are working to keep our commitments and we have made a strong start. As a working mother of now-adult children, I understand only too well how important it is for families to have access to affordable and flexible child care. That is why I welcome the Productivity Commission inquiry into child care.