Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

In rising to take note of answers given today I am going to concentrate on the answers given by Senator Scullion on child care. I say at the outset that we are very mindful of the fact that this was Senator Scullion’s first lot of questions from the opposition, but I am aware that ministers do come into this chamber with a brief for a very important reason. There is a very serious issue that has arisen today in terms of Senator Scullion’s answers. Perhaps after taking note he might want to come back into the chamber and correct the record because the ABS childcare consumer price index figure is actually based on out-of-pocket expenses. According to the ABS:

In summary, benefits available under the CCB—

that is the Commonwealth childcare benefits—

are deducted from the actual child care prices (the gross prices) in measuring the cost recorded in the CPI ...

I think I heard Minister Scullion at least twice today suggest that their difference in childcare costing was much lower because of all the benefits that are provided by this government. He went on to rattle them off. In fact, that is not the case. Those costs are based on all of those benefits being deducted. So it is most unfortunate that in the minister’s first line of questioning from the opposition he sought to mislead the Senate—I notice that question time was broadcast today—and mislead the country. Perhaps there is the need for this minister to be better briefed and to read his briefs.

Essentially, I asked Minister Scullion today if he could just simply answer one question for this chamber—that is, what was the $83.20 a week that the Treasury figures used based on? That is really quite a simple question that I thought he could have given us quite a comprehensive answer on. But the minister has failed to answer that because in fact the Treasury figures are rubbery and incorrect. This government sought to blame parents for the lack of choice, availability and affordability; it is a line that this government has run. They cannot defend their policies and they cannot defend the basis on which their costings are used and they simply blame other people. In this case they blame hardworking parents who simply want to get access to child care that they can pay for.

The truth of the matter is that the out-of-pocket childcare expenses for families have doubled under the Howard government. The ABS consumer price index figure shows that if you took March 1996 as the base, so let us say that is 100, the childcare cost index in our cities has now risen to 201.78. It has more than doubled under the Howard government. Let me reiterate that these figures are calculated on the basis of removing benefits from any government policies, so they actually do not look at the gross prices, they look at the net prices. So Senator Scullion was wrong when he gave us an answer that rolled up all of the benefits. The childcare costs do eat up more and more of a family budget. Even after the Commonwealth childcare benefits are deducted, their out-of-pocket expenses are actually skyrocketing.

This government will say, ‘But we also give a 30 per cent rebate.’ It is actually a tax offset; it is not a rebate. It is not cash that parents ever see in their hands; it is a tax offset at tax time. We know that on last year’s taxation returns parents were claiming for 2003 and 2004, so you have to wait two years to realise any benefit under the childcare tax rebate that this government gives out.

The reality in this country at the moment is that child care is in crisis. I know that in Darwin five-day-a-week long day care is averaging $220 a week. We know that childcare costs eat up about 22 per cent of the average weekly earnings. Not only is it extremely expensive and unaffordable; it is not there. Parents cannot get the childcare places that they want. They are not available. There are not enough of them in this country. Child care is not accessible and not affordable, and the fact that parents simply cannot access child care on days they want it and at a price that is not eating into their family budget does not simply make them too choosy, as this government would want to label them; it actually makes them quite desperate. We often hear that both parents have to work, and they wonder why when most of the salary of one parent is being eaten up in childcare costs. (Time expired)