Kate Ellis Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education
4:16 pm
Madam Speaker I wish to make a personal explanation.
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?
Kate Ellis Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education
I do. Sadly there are two different instances. Yesterday the assistant minister and today several backbenchers made the mistake of using the assistant minister's statistics and stated that I was the minister who presided over a 44 per cent increase in the cost of child care during my time in government. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics data, the childcare CPI did indeed rise by 44 per cent, but that was under the last coalition government and I most certainly was not the minister.
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
We are now getting into argument. It is necessary for the member—
Kate Ellis Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education
I am just saying: I was not the minister in the coalition government when childcare fees increased by 44 per cent. Furthermore, today both the assistant minister and many members opposite stated that I said that childcare fees would only ever increase by 57c per week. I have never said that. All I have done is to quote from independent modelling from Access Economics, which said that that would be increase in the first year, which is long past.
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
I think that went perilously close to debate but, nonetheless, you have made your point.