Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak today about an issue that is raised constantly by the people of Wentworth: child care—specifically cost, access and safety. Australia has some of the highest childcare costs in the world. Even with over $13 billion in subsidies each year, it remains prohibitively expensive right across the income distribution. I doorknocked a professional woman, on a really good income in Clovelly, who told me that they simply cannot have a third child, which they want, because of childcare costs.

What does this enormous public and private cost get us? Finding a childcare place, even in Wentworth, has been a challenge for years. And that's in the centre of Sydney. Just this year, multiple centres have closed right across the electorate due to lease pressures, rising costs and staffing difficulties. For families without nearby support networks, this means time off work for an arrangement locked in even before the child is born.

There will always be bad actors in child care, but, right now, parents are genuinely worried about the safety in our childcare centres. Australia's fragmented working with children programs are allowing perpetrators to reoffend or move across borders, while the subsidised model has attracted the very worst rentseekers to an industry unable to properly assess and monitor quality.

The system isn't working. The Prime Minister says he wants child care to be his legacy. I take him at his word, but this parliament needs to be far more ambitious and get to the heart of why child care just isn't working for Australians.