Deputy Speaker,

I am proud of the Albanese Labor Government’s plan for Cheaper Child Care.

And we’re very proud of the fact that 96 per cent of families who use child care will be better off under our plan.

As all parents know, childcare is one of the biggest budget-busters for working families.

We heard recently the story of Patti Lupari, a Sydney mother, who was shocked to find one centre charging $190 a day and up to $950 a week.

She called childcare fees the best form of birth control, a deterrent because it almost beat rent as being her largest expense.

Sadly, this isn’t a unique story.

The national daily average cost of child care is $120.90. That’s over $600 per week.

In my electorate in Darwin’s CBD it jumps to $141.50 a day, or over $700 per week.

A fifth of people in Darwin live in what is called a “child care desert”, meaning it is near impossible to secure a spot.

Nationally, 35 per cent of Australians live in a child care desert.

That figure is 86 per cent for regional residents in the Teritory.

That is almost nine out of 10 people struggling to afford child care.

In the Top End town of Katherine, 6 children compete for every available spot in care.

In the Barkly region further south, 11 children vie for every spot.

That is just impossible for families. Ten out of 11 families are missing out on care.

And that’s forcing them to make tough decisions about their participation in the paid workforce.

And THAT has a big impact on our national economy, as we’re in the middle of a worker shortage.

Down in Alice Springs, Benicia Acevedo had to wait 18 months to get her son Xavier into child care.

That’s despite joining a waiting list while he was still in the womb.

She said, and I quote:

“I have been very lucky… I have friends who have deferred going back to work for up to three years.”

Deputy Speaker, those parts of the country representing total child care deserts with less than 0.3 places per child, overwhelmingly cover regional areas of the Northern Territory, Western Australia, and South Australia.

As Hannah Matthews and Peter Hurley of Victoria University noted in The Conversation:

“Of the 1.1 million Australians with no access to centre-based day care within a 20-minute drive, almost all are outside major cities.”

This frustrating situation for parents is not acceptable.

And it’s even less acceptable for women, because we know women are disproportionately affected by a lack of access to child care.

It is still often overwhelmingly women who decide not to return to work because child care costs are too high, or when they can’t secure a spot for their children.

This is an equity problem as well as an economic one.

Women like Maddie Staff from Katherine feel pressure to work that makes childcare a necessity, not a nice-to-have.

She said in an ABC interview recently:

"Realistically, I need to go back to work.

“I only have 12 weeks maternity leave and with rent prices and the cost of living in Katherine, it is just not feasible for me to be a stay-at-home mum."

In the worst case, she considered leaving Katherine entirely.

And this knock-on economic effect of the childcare drought is felt in regional areas around the country.

And it’s contributing to our difficulties in facilitating keeping people in our regions, where they would otherwise prefer to live.

That is holding back our economy, both locally in those regions, and nationally.

That’s why from July 2023 the Albanese Labor Government will alleviate this pressure by:

• lifting the maximum Child Care Subsidy rate to 90 per cent for families with an income under $80,000,

and

• increasing subsidy rates for families earning less than $530,000.

The Government will keep the higher subsidy rate for families with multiple children aged five and under in care.

Our plan for Cheaper Child Care will make child care more affordable for around 1.26 million Australian families.

No family will be worse off.

And 96 per cent of families who use child care will be better off.

These are real benefits for Australian families.

A family on a combined income of $120,000 with one child in care will save $1,780 in the first year of this plan.

Child care costs have increased by 41 per cent over the past eight years.

This is a burden to many Australian families already struggling to make ends meet.

According to the ABS, last year 73,000 people who wanted to work didn’t look for work because they couldn’t make child care costs work for them.

Cheaper child care supports parents and carers, especially women, to enter the workforce or increase their workforce participation.

That creates opportunities for thousands of skilled workers currently locked out of our economy.

To attract and retain workers, the Bill also allows providers to discount child care fees for early childhood education and care workers.

I am particularly proud that this reform provides additional support to First Nations children and families in accessing early childhood education and care.

This is such a big thing for families in the Territory.

To help Close the Gap in educational outcomes for First Nations children, the Bill provides for 36 hours of subsidised early education and care a fortnight.

At the moment nationally only 4.3 per cent of children in early education and care identify as Indigenous despite being 6.1 per cent of the population of children aged 0-5 years.

In the Territory, that figure is of course much higher.

These simple changes will benefit around 6,600 First Nations families, boosting the hours Indigenous children are eligible to access for subsidised care.

And this is important.

In 2021, the Closing the Gap target to increase the proportion of First Nations children assessed as developmentally on track went backwards for the first time.

It’s unacceptable.

We need to turn this around as soon as possible.

With this Bill, the Albanese Government introduces reforms to help get more Indigenous children into early education.

We know access to high quality early education and care can massively impact a child’s readiness for school.

As the Minister for Indigenous Australians and the Member for Barton has said, and I quote:

“Getting Indigenous children into early education will benefit them for the rest of their lives… It will make a difference to Indigenous children across the country.”

The Government will also invest $10.2 million to establish the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy Partnership between the Australian and State and Territory Governments and Indigenous representatives.

The partnership will be co-chaired by the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, or SNAICC.

And it will help drive the development of community-led policies and programs that Indigenous families need for their children to thrive.

This Bill is good for parents, it’s good for mothers, and it’s good for First Australians.

It provides cost-of-living relief as well as integrating more parents who want to do paid work into the workforce.

This is a signature Labor reform which the Australian people supported at the election, and which the sector also supports.

We look forward to implementing it.

Thanks Deputy Speaker.