CANBERRA - 17 June 2021

Deputy Speaker,

I want to congratulate the Member for Kingston on this fine child care policy she's developed in consultation with a whole range of stakeholders and a whole range of families from around this nation.

And it is a superior policy to the one put forward by those opposite.

I’m not interested in slinging insults across the chamber.

What I'll simply say is why it is a superior policy, and it should be adopted by those of opposite and implemented, except not in a year's time.

When I'm back in my electorate in Darwin and Palmerston, the capital of the north, talking to people, talking to mums in particular – I was at a child care centre just last week, meeting with parents, meeting with the childcare educators –  and the number one concern that young families express every almost every time this conversation comes up is unaffordability.

It is a simple problem, Deputy Speaker, that working families in my electorate are finding it increasingly difficult to afford child care.

They're paying more than ever before.

And it is no exaggeration to say that the system is completely broken.

And even those opposite must acknowledge that to some extent, because they had their effort at trying to come up with a new policy.

But it's broken.

The Prime Minister, he designed it, calling it a once-in-a-generation reform.

And it's not as if for the last seven years he’s been in government families haven't been struggling with child care.

But under this Government, child care fees are up 37 percent over that period.

And last year, just last year, a difficult year, the fee increase in the NT was 3.2 per cent.

You mightn’t think that sounds like much, but it is when it keeps going up and up and up.

Working families in Darwin and Palmerston can't afford these fee increases, and that is the message I'm sending to those opposite right now.

3 per cent or so in the last year, it's on top of all the other increases, and the cost of living as well.

What we're doing through the Member for Kingston’s policy is committing to helping families because their wages aren't going up, and particularly for those on low incomes – and those on low incomes, let's face it, Deputy Speaker, are rarely in the thoughts and prayers of those opposite, certainly not in their policy prescriptions.

Those on low incomes need this support.

Those who are committing to families, bringing up young Australian families, they need their support.

Now, when it comes to productivity, if we want to get more people into work, particularly women, then we need to get the settings right.

And that's what our policy does.

And the situation that we find ourselves in now, as a Member for Kingston said, is that 73 per cent of Australian women say that child care costs are stopping Australian families from growing.

I think that's a massive problem.

We want our parents to grow their families and be able to afford to do that.

So it's the role of those opposite, it's the role of whoever's in government at the time – us after the next federal election, hopefully – to do a number of things to get our country back on track.

And this is a big one in terms of productivity, in terms of supporting Australian working families, increasing productivity.

Now, independent analysis says that our early childhood education policy means there will be more support for families for longer.

More support for more families for longer, and that's a good thing.

Early childhood educators also love their jobs, but they're finding increasingly difficult to sustain them.

I visited Good Start Early Learning in Palmerston last week, and I want to thank the director Janelle Moore and Bella Zheng.

I’ve got the highest respect for the job that they do, but it is a reality that they're finding it difficult.

So what our policy will do is help families.

It will help across the board, and particularly at a time when people in my electorate are struggling with the prices of rents going through the roof, Federal Labor's policy that we will enact after the next election will help working parents.

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ENDS