Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The contribution by the member for Bowman shows that he really does not understand the issue. My electorate is one of the lowest income electorates within Australia. ABS data will confirm that. I rise to support the member for Charlton's excellent motion on child care. In doing so I condemn the Abbott government on its short-sighted cuts to family day care. Furthermore, I call on the Abbott government to reverse its $157 million cut to family day care and in doing so I call on members opposite to stand up in their party room and tell the Prime Minister that they do not support this attack on Australian disadvantaged families. It is estimated that more than 80 per cent of family day care in Australia will lose funding, which will make those services unviable.

Family day care is a grassroots organisation which provides care to over 165,000 children across Australia, over 1,500 on the Central Coast of New South Wales and 900 in Lake Macquarie. Many of those children who receive family day care in Lake Macquarie and Wyong shire live in the Shortland electorate. Family day care also supports 98,000 families in Australia and 719 families in Lake Macquarie. This support enables the parents of those children receiving family day care to work or undertake study so they can ultimately obtain a job. The Abbott government says it wants all Australians to work, yet it is ripping funds from services that make this possible. This is unconscionable and must be reversed.

The mean-spirited Abbott government budget announced changes to the eligibility for family day care providers to access funding through the Community Support Program, a program that is designed to address disadvantage—and disadvantage across different areas: high levels of domestic violence, high levels of single parent families and high levels of unemployment. These are issues that are predominant in many areas within the Shortland electorate.

Lake Macquarie council will lose $300,000 from the Community Support Program from 30 June when the Department of Education will stop all community support contracts with family day care providers. All providers have to reapply for funding. In the Lake Macquarie part of Shortland family day care is provided by Lake Macquarie council and it currently operates with an average of 261 full-time places, which is equivalent to 6.5 child care centres providing 40 child care places. There are currently 298 children on the waiting list, of which 188 are less than two years old and 27 our unborn. It is cost neutral to Lake Macquarie council and relies on approximately $300,000 received from the Community Support Program to ensure high-quality education and care for children in the community and supports 90 educators who provide the service.

In the Wyong Shire part of the Shortland electorate family day care is provided by Child and Family Services Wyong Shire Inc., a community-based organisation that provides child care to over 600 families and 860 children. It is one of the largest providers of child care in New South Wales and has been operating for 30 years. This service provides family support programs for around 1,500 children across the Central Coast and employs 160 people. The changes to the Community Support Program will equate to a loss of $250,000 to the Wyong program. The loss of these places in both services would be devastating in an environment where there is already a chronic child care shortage, with similarly long waiting lists in child care centres.

The Abbott government promised to fix the problems families were having accessing child care before the election. Instead, it is ripping $157 million out of family day care and $1 billion out of child care. It is yet another example of the Abbott government saying one thing before the election and one thing after. You just cannot trust the Abbott government. (Time expired)

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