Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the Assistant Minister for Education, who is here in the chamber with us today. The Assistant Minister for Education, I would like to advise the member for Parramatta, is actually no stranger to Western Sydney. In fact, the Assistant Minister for Education has been to Western Sydney on many, many occasions both before and after the election. I have taken her to childcare centres. I have actually had two lots of roundtable forums with the minister, before the election and after the election. She has met with childcare service providers right across the region. So the minister has been very helpful in this space. The minister truly understands the childcare concerns of the people in Western Sydney. Once again, Minister, I would really like to thank you for your encouragement and your support. The minister has worked very hard in that space. The minister has got together with the Productivity Commission on child care.

Do you know what the people of Western Sydney demand? They demand affordable and flexible child care. Under those opposite, we saw of an increase of 53 per cent in the costs for child care. Two-thirds of the workforce of Lindsay have to commute for work every single day, in peak hour traffic there and peak hour traffic back. These are things that concern the people of my electorate of Lindsay. Fifty-three per cent increases in childcare costs do not help working families in Western Sydney—not at all. Those opposite are so sanctimonious about this. They are actually hurting the people of Western Sydney. Those opposite brought in 21,000 new regulations, many of them applying to child care. That hurt the people of Western Sydney.

I have a letter here today from Steve Robinson, who runs a childcare centre in my electorate of Lindsay. Let me quote:

Since the Abbott government came to office, Little Cottage Pre-School are achieving 100% bookings every day for the first time in living memory.

Steve Robinson advises that they even have advance bookings and a wait list. This is ensuring Steve can have a full complement of staff every day. It is a family owned and operated childcare centre which employs local people. I have visited this centre. Under those opposite, Steve actually worked for free at night to meet the demands of regulation that those opposite imposed on this childcare centre. The proximity of this childcare centre to the CBD of Penrith enables parents who work there to have easy access to their children. They can drop their kids off, get to work and come back again. In Steve's opinion, the assessment process instigated by the minister has been thorough and professional, delivering a childcare model aimed at assisting the industry to flourish and prosper. Steve's preschool is a lot more settled now and looking to a bright and long future providing care to children for parents who live and work in the Penrith region.

One issue he did raise was the threats of unions to take strike action to have wages raised in the sector. Currently the payment guidelines help to ensure core costs are within a range that most people can afford. Any rise in wages would obviously have a massive impact on childcare costs and potentially a negative effect on the ability of some families to afford legitimate professional child care. That is directly from a service provider in my electorate of Lindsay who is caring for children every single day.

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