Senate debates

Thursday, 21 June 2007

Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Legislation Amendment (Child Care and Other 2007 Budget Measures) Bill 2007

Second Reading

6:50 pm

Photo of Ursula StephensUrsula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition (Social and Community Affairs)) Share this | Hansard source

The incorporated speech read as follows—

This Bill relates to a number of the Government’s recent Budget measures including those relating to child care—the one-off increase in the child care benefit and the change of the child care rebate from a tax offset into a direct payment. Labor supports these initiatives in as far as they go to helping families with the spiralling costs of child care, and we support this Bill.

Labor welcomes this extra support for Australian families, and we also welcome the Government finally acknowledging that there is a crisis in the affordability of child care in Australia, something they have consistently denied. You’d have to say this is more a pre-election fix than any real understanding of the many difficult issues families face.

Australian families are right to be sceptical of the Government’s genuine understanding of the cost pressures they face. For too long the Government has insisted that there was no problem with child care affordability in Australia.

Minister Brough has recently claimed that paying high fees wasn’t too much for families because, he claimed that “Few people have more than one child in formal care”. Yet figures from this own Department show that one third of families receiving CCB have two or more children in child care. Clearly the Minister does not understand the cost pressures on families who are juggling caring for their children and returning to work or study.

And of course we can’t forget the Prime Minister saying a few months ago that ‘working families in Australia have never been better off’. The Prime Minister is usually very careful with his words. He says things very carefully because he is a very clever politician. But he’s slipping. These comments show just how arrogant his Government has become. This Government thinks that things are so good that families should have no complaints, that they’ve never had it so good. After 11 long years in power this Government is more and more out of touch with the realities faced by thousands of working families who are struggling to keep up with their mortgage repayments, keep the car running, and keep up with the increasing costs of child care.

So after all of these statements, after months and years of families being told that there’s no problem with child care affordability, that they’ve never been better off, families are rightly sceptical that moments before an election the Government has scrambled to do something on spiralling child care costs.

I want to take a moment just to recall how much families have been paying for child care in Australia. How much their child care costs have risen, so we can put this one-off pre-election child care benefit increase in perspective.

The average cost of child care in Australia is $240 per week, with some fees as high as $350 per child, per week.

Childcare costs are rising five times faster than the average cost of all other goods and services.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, out-of-pocket childcare costs for families in the last four years have increased by 12.7 per cent, 12 per cent, 12 per cent and almost 13 per cent last year.

Independent analysis by Saul Eslake of the ANZ Bank, undertaken for the Taskforce on Care Costs shows that child care affordability has declined by 50 per cent in the last 5 years.

So we have had year-on-year increases in child care costs, at over 12 per cent every year, and then moments before the election, when the Government is under political pressure from families, a pre-election 10% bonus increase appears. Parents have a right to be sceptical.

Juliet Bourke, Chair of the Taskforce on Care costs, whose own research says that costs are rising on average at 13 per cent per annum, said after the Budget “Increasing the Child Care Benefit by 10 per cent takes parents back to the position they were in a year ago.”

Let me make it clear that Labor supports the increase in the Child Care Benefit. We think that any help the Government provides for families is welcome and long overdue. We are just sceptical of their sincerity, and doubt the Government has any real understanding of the pressures on families, because the Government has spent so long denying there’s any problem at all.

Our other concern is that this one-off increase won’t make a real difference to affordability for families because it will be absorbed by increased child care fees.

There have already been reports of centres increasing their fees by 10 per cent, the same amount as the Government’s CCB bonus.

According to one report in the Courier Mail newspaper on Thursday last week, one centre in suburban Brisance wrote to parents recently to explain their 10 per cent fee increase from the first of July, and that “the Government has increased the CCB rate from $2.96 to $3.37 per hour. This will make our fee increase a lot more affordable to families.”

Already the benefit of the increase this Bill implements will be eaten up by higher fees for families at this child care centre.

The newspaper article goes on to say:

“The nation’s largest childcare provider, ABC Learning, also is set to increase fees.”

The paper does not report what these increases will be.

On Sunday, Melbourne’s Herald Sun reported that the City of Port Phillip is set to increase daily fees from $66 to $76. An increase of 15 per cent. Glen Eira Council will also increase fees for children under two from $68 to $75, and from $64 to $69 for children aged three to five. That’s up a10 per cent increase for those families.

Labor is concerned that families across the country will miss out on the benefits of this increase because childcare operators use this one off increase to net a windfall gain.

Another report in the newspaper on Thursday also puts paid to another claim from the Minister and the Government. The Minister has been very quick to claim that there is no problem with child care accessibility in Australia. But parents know the reality, and just do not believe these denials by the Minister.

The Minister said in the parliament last week: “there is no shortage of child care for the zero to two age group, preschool age or any other age.”

A very categorical statement by the Minister on vacancy rates.

Well the Minister’s claims have been shown to be completely false by another recent report in the Daily Telegraph, and the headline that pretty much speaks for itself:

‘Yes there really is a crisis—Waiting lists refute Government’s child care claim.’

The article describes the situation faced by residents in inner Sydney. The article reveals that at the Waverley Child Care Centre there are 900 children on a waiting list for fewer than 70 places, with an average waiting time of more than two years.

And it is not alone. There are two other centres in the Waverley Council which have about 50 places and waiting lists of about 700 children each.

The children’s services co-ordinator of the Council told the Daily Telegraph: “You actually have people on the phone crying,”

It was also reported that the situation for places for newborns to two year olds was desperate.

So here we have direct evidence that contradicts the Government’s claims that there is no shortage of child care, and in particularly that there is no shortage in the nought-to-two age group.

The Government makes these claims about child care shortages at their peril. This is because the claims that there are no shortages are based on analysis that disregards parental choice. The Government’s claims about no shortages refers to availability in both family day care and in long day care. So when parents are told there are vacancies, the parent’s preferences for family day care or long day care are ignored.

Unlike the Government, Labor supports parents’ choice as to the type of child care they want for their children. We believe that there should be a range of care settings available, and that all should meet the highest quality standards. Unlike the Government we are not in the business of telling parents they should take one option for their child if they prefer another. Nor are we in the business of denying the reality for many parents that they can’t find the child care they need.

That’s what Labor has committed to addressing the shortage of child care in Australia, and have committed to a $200million investment to build up to 260 new child care centres on primary school sites and other community land. We want child care to be both affordable, accessible and of the highest quality.

The other child care measure in this Budget is to change the Child Care Tax Rebate from a tax offset into a direct payment administered by Centrelink.

These amendments to the childcare rebate are simply the Government finally delivering on a promise made at the last election.

At the 2004 election, the Coalition promised the rebate would be paid from 1 July 2005. But after the election the Treasurer made families wait until 1 July 2006 to receive rebates for the 2004-05 year.

Parents have had to wait up to two years to get their rebate.

Government should also be more honest with families accessing the rebate about the number likely to receive a payment of $8,000. In the recent Senate Estimates hearing, officials from the Families Department admitted that the average rebate per family would be $813. Minister Brough admitted a few days ago that many families would only receive about $300–$500 from the rebate.

Few families are likely to receive payments of the order the Government has claimed.

Not $8000 per child, but $800 per family. That’s the reality, stripped of the spin. In fact the Government won’t even own up to how few will get the full $8000.

Labor does support the decision to pay the rebate through Centrelink to ensure low income families accessing child care benefit from this assistance.

What is clear is that the Government only ever bothers to address child-care costs in an election year.

In addition to the two child care measures I have previously mentioned, this Bill also amends the Social Security Act to allow all students who received the Carer Allowance (child) Health Care Card (HCC) at the time they turned 16 years to continue to have access to a health care card while they are full-time students until they reach 25 years of age. At present only those students who qualify for a Low Income Health Care Card or an alternative income support payment, such as Disability Support Pension, have access to a concession card after they turn 16 years of age. This measure will help approximately 25,000 full time students aged 16-25 years, who are ex-Carer Allowance (child) care recipients, and Labor supports this extension. We believe fundamentally that all Australians should be able to access an education, and this assistance will help more young Australians with a disability to remain in education beyond the age of 16. We support this measure.

One area where this Budget failed was to provide a comprehensive agenda for early childhood. Labor wants a future for our children where their care and development are matters of national importance. The value of early childhood education and development is overwhelming endorsed by volumes of well documented research.

Yet under this Government, Australia spends the least in the OECD on pre-primary education. Our spending at just 0.1 per cent of GDP, compared to the OECD average of 0.5 per cent.

And according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 100,000 four year olds in Australia do not attend preschool.

The Government’s whole approach to early childhood is a mess. No coherent policy agenda. No clear directions.

In contrast the Opposition is providing fresh policy ideas and showing a new direction for early childhood education.

Labor believes that early childhood programs are an opportunity for foundational growth that all Australian children should have, and we will provide it to them.

Labor has committed to providing all four year olds with 15 hours of early learning per week for up to 40 weeks per year. We will provide $450 million each year in new Commonwealth spending to ensure this occurs, and to make sure this service expansion does not increase fees for parents.

Labor wants a fresh agenda for early childhood. We want to see child care accessible and affordable to parents, and maintained to the highest quality standards. We want to see early learning and development integrated with high quality care, to set our children on the path to future health and prosperity.

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