TRANSCRIPT – SKY NEWS NEWSDAY WITH KIERAN GILBERT

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

TRANSCRIPT

SKY NEWS NEWSDAY WITH KIERAN GILBERT

12 December 2024

Subjects: Labor’s desperate bid for votes with failed child care pledge

E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………………

KIERAN GILBERT:

The government also announced yesterday, families will be able to access child care subsidies for up to three days a week under the new plan. Let’s get some reaction from the Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education, Angie Bell.

Angie, thanks for your time. The idea of dealing with those child care deserts, places like regional areas, out of suburban areas, isn’t it a good thing to try and provide that supply?

ANGIE BELL MP:

Kieran, what we’ve seen from the Prime Minister yesterday is a desperate bid for votes. It’s smoke and mirrors, and after three years and two reviews, all he could come up with is a rehashed Labor Rudd-era style policy.

Last time they promised 260 centres, and they ended up funding only 38 after spending $200 million of taxpayers money. And so, I guess the question here is, for families across the country, can they trust the Prime Minister when he has so many broken promises under his belt?

There’s no doubt to your question that the regions need more access to early childhood education and care. And for those families who are working and really need to access their early learning centres, this will simply push up demand, and you’ll find that working families will be competing with the families that the Prime Minister highlighted yesterday would come into the system.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Is that your argument in relation to the activity test, because the government’s scrapping that, that will then boost demand? Is that the argument you’re making against that.

ANGIE BELL MP:

That’s exactly right, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, it will indeed push up demand, if you see those new families coming in, the Prime Minister highlighted about 65,000 families in his speech yesterday who would come into the system, and they would then be competing for a scarcity of places.

At the moment, it’s a sector that has reached capacity, and so you’ll find that the new entrants into the sector who will be able to access the Prime Minister’s promise, guaranteed three days of access to early learning and care, those families will be competing with those families currently working in the system.

This is not good policy. It failed last time as well. I think it’s important that Australian families ask themselves, if they can trust the Labor Government; A – to deliver the $1 billion that they promise, and B – whether scrapping the activity test is really the answer to the sector’s woes.

KIERAN GILBERT:

When, we talk about this in terms of education, though, I spoke to the Education Minister, Jason Clare, he argues that this, the way they’re looking at this by removing the activity test is actually to broaden the access to early education, to ensure all kids are ready for prep or kindy when they get there. In principle, is that not a good thing?

ANGIE BELL MP:

The activity test is a very important measure put in place by the Coalition Government to make sure that those who are accessing the child care subsidy have that access to the child care subsidy if they are working, if they are volunteering, or if they are studying, and that’s to make sure that taxpayer funding goes exactly where it’s needed in the system.

This policy of removing the activity test will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. It won’t impact a lot of families across the nation, and it will push up demand without dealing with supply, and that is problematic.

KIERAN GILBERT:

And on the supply of centres, we spoke about regional and outer suburban areas, you doubt whether the government’s going to deliver it. But in principle, is that a good idea, is that something that you would pursue in government if elected?

ANGIE BELL MP:

It’s important that we acknowledge that those in the regions, and I’ve been to the regions, South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria over the last two and a half years, and spoken with families who can’t access a child care place, and it’s very important that there are new places created for those families, but we want to see flexibility, and we want to see choice for those families as well.

Let’s look at the Community Child Care Fund that the Coalition also put in place to deal with those areas and regions around the country. There was $80 million that was opened recently by the Labor Government, and a lot of that funding went to outer metropolitan areas in Labor electorates.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education, Angie Bell, appreciate it. Talk to you soon.

ANGIE BELL MP:

Thanks, Kieran.

[ENDS]