Federation Chamber
Wednesday 12 May 2021
I don't know what Orwellian universe members opposite are living in when coming into this place and somehow wanting to be congratulated with these ridiculous motions coming into this parliament and trying to talk about what is right and what is wrong or what is black and what is white. It is bizarre. Do any of these people ever actually visit early educators and sit down with them? Do they ever actually go to centres and talk to parents, or is it all just made up in their own minds? Let's look at the facts. At the height of the COVID pandemic, child care was—and it remains—essential work. Cheaper child care remains in my community and across Australia for many Australians the No. 1 priority. But I want to look at the government's childcare support plan, because it shows they are out of step and out of touch.
Families, child care and early educators are worse off under the Prime Minister's botched system, and it's not good enough. We know during COVID that we saw families and workers discriminated. It locked people out of child care. This nonsense of 'free child care to everyone with a job' was an absolute con. Families in my electorate were denied places, and, shamefully, healthcare workers on maternity leave who were called back to work through the pandemic missed out. Meanwhile, non-essential workers who were told to keep their kids at home for the health and safety of the community were still charged gap fees by centres. When the minister gave a commitment to grant exemptions on these fees, it was overruled by the Prime Minister's office.
Families are still being let down right across Australia. We have the most expensive childcare fees in the OECD. I repeat: we have the most expensive childcare fees in the OECD. I'm not having any lectures from the member for Higgins, the member for Chisholm or the member for Lindsay, who are so out of touch with their own communities that they think we've got a good system in place. I suggest to those members: get out of your Canberra bubble and actually talk to your constituents; actually listen to what they've got to say.
The government also failed childcare centres themselves, putting enormous financial pressure on them. I challenge any of them to say that during the pandemic they went to their centres and the centres said: 'This is great. We've never had it so good.' They didn't. They all struggled. All the owners and all the providers were saying, 'This is a botched system.' A third of the childcare businesses were barred from accessing JobKeeper, even though they were obligated to stay open and carry out their essential work. And let's not forget that childcare centres were the first that the government targeted to rip away JobKeeper—the very first.
Workers in my electorate lived from pay cheque to pay cheque before the pandemic. I remember, back in 2019, speaking to locals who sent their kids to an early learning centre in the suburb if Bellbird Park, and they were already sounding the alarm. That business was struggling to pay its workers, and they were struggling to make ends me. Fast forward to 2020 and the work of carers was more important than ever. While they risked their own health to take care of other essential workers' children, the government passed the financial burden on to the sector, which was already struggling. There was no free child care for those people. It is false and misleading for this government to come to this place and say so.
Last night's budget proved that throwing money at the government's childcare plan will not fix it. Labor understands that a broken system needs to be overhauled, not just patched up, especially since families won't receive a dollar of relief from the Morrison government until July 2022, which is—what a coincidence!—after the federal election. I bet the member for Lindsay is not putting that on her glossy brochures. I bet the member for Higgins is not telling everyone, 'Ts and Cs apply.' I bet they're not saying that. I bet they're saying, 'We're reforming the childcare sector—by the way, not till 2022, after we get re-elected.' We know what this government is about. What about the families—the majority of families—that only have one child in child care? What do they get? They get a big fat zero from this government.
This government has proven that it has no idea how to stop families, particularly women, from losing money or losing work to childcare fees. An Albanese Labor government will support women by reforming the sector so that the majority of people—97 per cent—will be better off. That is the truth of our policy. The member for Chisholm may call that bloated. I call it a government that's going to be on the side of the people.
