Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We know that the educational outcomes for children are an important investment for any government. We know that, for working families—particularly with professional women—allowing them to have support to go back to work, to participate in the workforce, to pay taxes and have childcare funding to help them do that is significant to the productivity of this nation. We had an entire Productivity Commission report into how we could lift the level of workforce participation of women in this country, and they said that, overwhelmingly, proper funding for child care is what is needed.

We have one of the lowest participation rates of university educated women in the OECD. We send a lot of women to university. We help pay for their university degrees, but, once they have children, we do not give them the support that they need. Here we have a middle-aged bloke in this place telling professional working mothers that they do not deserve support in child care. Women across this country—working mothers across this country—would be appalled to hear that we have a senator in this place who thinks that they do not deserve assistance in being able to go back to work, to pay taxes and to contribute to this country, having a bit of support along the way in terms of child care.