TRANSCRIPT – ABC RADIO SE SOUTH AUSTRALIA – BREAKFAST

Angie Bell MP
Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education
Shadow Minister for Youth
Federal Member for Moncrieff

TRANSCRIPT
ABC RADIO SE SOUTH AUSTRALIA – BREAKFAST

21 September 2022

Subjects: Early Childhood Education

E&OE……………………………………………..

BECC CHAVE:
Well, access to child care services or lack thereof is a key issue in the regions and it’s something the Kingston South East Community has been campaigning for many years. Ahead of the May Federal Election, both the Labor Party and the Coalition promised $1.8 million to build a new childcare facility in the town.

Member for Barker Tony Pasin and Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education, Angie Bell visited Kingston yesterday chatting with members of the community about the project. Minister Bell joins me on the program this morning.

Good morning. Thank you very much for your time.

ANGIE BELL MP:
Good morning Becc. Great to be back in SA.

BECC CHAVE:
So Minister Bell who did you meet with yesterday?

ANGIE BELL MP:
Well, yesterday with Tony Pasin, the Member for Barker, we met with the Child Care Centre Working Committee, Kirsty, Fiona and Kristen and also the local mayor to talk about this $1.8 million promise for the centre that they’ve been working so hard for, to get for their community and Kingston SE. They’ve done such a great job there pushing the agenda for this because you know, families are leaving Kingston SE because there’s no access to child care services.

Amanda Rishworth did promise during the election to match the Coalition’s promise of $1.8 million for a new centre, but we haven’t heard anything from Labor since then about what they’re going to do for regional communities across Australia or particularly here in Kingston SE. It’s a very distressing situation for those parents that want to go to work in Kingston SE, that can’t access child care services.

BECC CHAVE:
What were the main points that they raised with you yesterday?

ANGIE BELL MP:
The main points are that people are leaving Kingston SE because they can’t access child care services. Now when we’re talking about Labor’s policy, which they’re bringing forward soon, that is the $5.1 billion policy, where Labor are giving bigger child care subsidies to families who already have access to childcare services. The good people of Kingston SE are feeling that they’re missing out, they’ve got no access to childcare services whatsoever. It’s what we call across the sector, a childcare desert, and it’s not alone, there are other areas across the country as well including in the electorate of Mallee, where there is no access whatsoever. You’re seeing communities that are going to great lengths to deliver childcare services such as mobile services, which really are not sustainable and don’t meet the needs of growing communities.

BECC CHAVE:
What communication have you had with the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Dr. Anne Aly? Are you trying to clarify a timeline?

ANGIE BELL MP:
I have had a meeting with Anne in the last sitting of Parliament and I’ll continue to meet with her to highlight that Labor’s policy simply does not address these issues in regional Australia where regional Australians just don’t have access to childcare centres. I think that Labor needs to look at how they could better spend the funding that they are putting forward, which will cost the Australian taxpayer $1.6 billion in its first year, starting from the next year, July 2023. They’ve delayed on this and pushed it forward another year, and Australian families, including those families in Kingston SE, will have to wait to get access to childcare services and to have the cost of living lowered.

BECC CHAVE:
Have you received any clarification on an expected timeline or proceedings with the Kingston South East promised $1.8 million child care service?

ANGIE BELL MP:
What we would expect is that Labor are looking at this moving into the Budget. We haven’t had any, any formal notification that that will be the case, that Kingston SE will receive their $1.8 million that Amanda Rishworth promised at the election during that period. On the radio she promised those good people that they would get a child care centre, and they’re very disappointed that they haven’t heard anything since so we would expect that it would happen very quickly after the Budget if it were delivered to the people of Kingston SE.

BECC CHAVE:
So we have had confirmation from Dr. Anne Aly and that was passed on to the people of Kingston that the Albanese Government will deliver on its election commitments to make early childhood education and more accessible and affordable for families across Australia, including in the Limestone Coast. That is a statement, part of a statement that we received from the Minister for Early Childhood Education.

But Minister, Shadow Minister yourself have you actually raised the Kingston South East child care issue with the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Dr. Anne Aly?

ANGIE BELL MP:
This is on my agenda to bring up with the Minister next time I meet with her. I did bring up the child care desert, as I said in the electorate of Mallee last time I met with her. I will continue to help the people of Kingston SE and families across regional Australia to ram home this point to the Labor Government, that they might be increasing child care subsidy with this legislation they’re bringing forward, but they’re not addressing the child care deserts and the thin markets across the country, where families like those in Kingston SE just have no access to childcare services, and it is dire.

BECC CHAVE:
Minister Bell Thank you very much for your time this morning.

ANGIE BELL MP:
Thank you so much and have a good day.

[ends]