Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields) (18:49): I lead for the Opposition in debate on the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022.
The Labor Opposition will be moving several amendments once other speakers have had the opportunity to make their own comments on the bill.
The Treasurer went into detail on the provisions of the bill during his second reading speech, so I will not repeat them.
Instead, I speak about the purpose of the bill. It is fair to say that both sides of the Chamber recognise the importance of accessible, affordable and quality child care. There are many reasons families need to access affordable, quality child care.
A quality early childhood education benefits children by helping them develop social and emotional skills as well as their own independence. Access to affordable child care can mean parents are also able to return to the workforce or increase their working hours.
Increasing the participation rates of women in the workforce is the main economic objective of the bill; however, there is a much deeper social equity objective in recognising the sacrifices that have fallen predominantly on women to balance their working careers and family responsibilities.
Any supportive childcare initiative from any level of government should be welcomed as a lever to help women and families balance their busy lives and to increase equity in our society. On that basis, the bill's objective has tremendous merit.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics potential workers survey offers sobering insights into the relationship between access to child care and a person's ability to look for work. In February this year, 36,500 people in New South Wales listed child care as the main reason they did not look for work in the week preceding the survey. Only 1,100 of the 36,500 were male. That means that more than 35,000 women in New South Wales wanted to work and were available to work in February but did not look for work because of a lack of childcare options.
It is clear that the lack of access to affordable, quality child care is limiting the ability of women to enter the workforce. The question then becomes what do we do about it?
The Government has introduced this bill to create a $5 billion childcare and economic opportunity fund in the Special Deposits Account.
It says the fund will target known barriers to families accessing quality child care by providing incentives to enable providers to extend their services to more families in a more affordable way.
The Opposition notes that the $5 billion fund is a significant and ongoing budget commitment. It also notes that the bill hands control of such significant funds to a board, which we believe could be improved with better oversight and transparency.
The Opposition's consultation with major childcare employee representatives and unions has provided valuable insight into the childcare industry. Their feedback should be welcomed by the Government, not shunned.
I thank Unions NSW and the United Workers Union for taking the time to provide considered and constructive feedback on the bill.
The United Workers Union expressed a concern that public money may well go to for-profit centres with no obligations regarding the workforce. Another concern was that the bill lacked detail on how the funds would actually make child care more affordable.
Unions NSW gave feedback on the lack of employee representatives on the board. Both unions lamented the lack of accountability or transparency regarding funding decisions.
The Opposition shares similar concerns and foreshadows several amendments during the consideration in detail stage after all speakers have had the opportunity to contribute to debate.
I now outline some general concerns with the bill and speak to the amendments we will introduce.
The bill provides limited detail on the fund's disbursement processes and does not specifically address the skills shortage and workforce issues within the childcare and early childhood education sector.
I make it very clear that childcare workers and early childhood educators are not babysitters; they are essential workers who have an incredible influence on the development of young people under their care.
Childcare workers and early childhood educators comfort our children, provide nourishment and start the youngest in our society on their educational journey.
Childcare workers and early childhood educators provide early childhood education that can help kids develop the social, cognitive and emotional skills they need before they enter primary school. Those workers and educators help determine the quality of a childcare centre; the physical centre is only as good as the people inside it.
Accordingly, Opposition members will introduce an amendment requiring a workforce plan to be produced every two years addressing skills, wages, standards and quality of training for workers within the childcare sector.
The workforce plan would be prepared by the same person tasked with the independent market monitoring reports. Our amendments will also require quality standards to be considered when preparing the market monitoring reports.
Access to quality, affordable child care is inherently linked to skills and workplace issues within the sector, and our proposed amendments will make sure the fund adequately addresses those issues.
In all significant public funding arrangements, transparency and accountability must be the cornerstone of any government spending. The bill seeks to establish a $5 billion fund, and greater transparency over the board and the fund is accordingly required. It is just good corporate governance.
The Opposition will introduce a number of amendments that will require all independent market monitoring reports be tabled in Parliament within 60 days of being given to the Minister.
The Opposition will also move an amendment requiring the Auditor-General, as the appropriate authority, to conduct, every three years, a performance audit of the fund and the financial assistance provided. A performance audit would need to address whether payments from the fund have been made in accordance with the Act and whether it is actually meeting its objectives.
In keeping with the theme of transparency and accountability, the Opposition will also move amendments requiring an annual report for each financial year on the activities of the fund. The annual report would need to include the most recent performance audit and must be tabled in each House of the Parliament within six months after the end of the financial year.
Opposition members will propose a statutory review of the fund to occur approximately three years after it commences. In the interests of accountability, we will also propose that the Treasurer be required to approve any amount of the fund to be carried forward and paid out in future financial years.
When it comes to the responsible spending of taxpayers' money, in all fairness, public confidence is at an all-time low under this Government.
Jobs for mates, pork-barrelling, grants rorts and corruption scandals have eroded public trust in this Government, which is why it is so important that we ensure there are corporate governance arrangements in place to improve the level of trust, transparency and accountability.
There is certainly the potential for the fund to be misspent or misallocated so that the only outcome is increased profits for private business, not more affordable child care for families in New South Wales.
We do not want the proposed fund to be set up as some sort of free venture capital funding pool to be used as free money to set up privately-owned and profitable ventures where all the risk lies with the public purse and none with the private-sector operators. That does not sound like a good public investment framework to me.
We do want more families to have access to affordable child care; we do not want public money to be used as a wage subsidy arrangement just so that private owners can make supernormal profits at the taxpayers' expense. We want the fund to properly address the skills shortage and the workforce issues within the childcare sector.
New South Wales Labor's amendments will ensure transparency and respect for taxpayers' money are utmost when allocating funding. Transparency goes hand in hand with proper oversight, which is why the Opposition proposes an amendment to ensure that the board has suitably qualified members.
Our proposed amendments will require at least one of the appointed board members to be appointed on the recommendation of an employee representative from Unions NSW. The amendments will also require at least one of the appointed board members to be appointed on the recommendation of industry—that is, Business NSW or the Australian Industry Group.
Opposition members are confident all our proposed amendments will strengthen the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund so that it can achieve its goal of increasing access to affordable, quality child care.
We all know access to child care has been a major barrier to workforce participation, and particularly for women. The female workforce participation rate is 10 per cent lower than that for men, and closing that workforce participation gap would grow the New South Wales economy by approximately 8 per cent.
That is why New South Wales Labor will support the bill, but will offer some sensible amendments. I understand that negotiations are currently happening between the Treasurer's office, the education Minister's office and the Opposition, and the amendments that are proposed may well change. I will be able to table that and go through that in detail once those negotiations are finalised in the coming hour or so.
Finally, I thank the staff from the offices of the Treasurer and the Minister for Education and Early Learning for their time in briefing the Opposition about the bill and for the negotiations that are taking place as we speak.
We were also joined by Sam Mostyn, AO, who was the chair of the expert reference panel of the New South Wales Women's Economic Opportunities Review. Ms Mostyn gave us invaluable insight into the work of the expert panel and the barriers limiting the participation of women in the workforce.
We can all agree that increasing access to affordable and quality child care is simply the right thing to do.
I urge the Government to support and consider Labor's amendments as we go through the negotiations for the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022 so that we can achieve goals that make child care much better for families in New South Wales.
Consideration in Detail
Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields) (20:39): I move Opposition amendment No. 5 on sheet c2022‑157E:
No. 5 Appointed members
Page 5, proposed section 10. Insert after line 31—
(2A) One of the appointed members must be appointed on the recommendation of Unions NSW.
(2B) One of the appointed members must be appointed on the recommendation of Business NSW or the Australian Industry Group.
The amendment allows for employee and industry group representatives to be appointed to the board. Labor thinks this is a good proposal that will ensure the board is reflective of all skill requirements. It will help the board to distribute the funds in a better way by ensuring good representation from all parts of the sector.
Amendment negatived.
Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields) (20:42): By leave: I move Opposition amendments Nos 1 to 7 on sheet c2022-157G in globo:
No. 1 Workforce plan
Page 3, proposed section 5 (1), lines 3–8. Omit all words on those lines. Insert instead—
(1) The Minister must commission a person (thecommissioned person) to undertake a review into the childcare sector market, including by reviewing—
(a) areas where the commissioned person considers—
(i) there are child care supply shortages, or
(ii) there are higher barriers to parents or carers participating in work because of the affordability or accessibility, or both, of child care, and
(b) the state of the childcare sector, including the following—
(i) workforce,
(ii) pay and conditions,
(iii) quality standards in the childcare sector.
No. 2 Workforce plan
Page 3, proposed section 5 (2) (a), line 10. Insert ", including the matters set out in subsection (1) (a) and (b)" after "of the review".
No. 3 Tabling in Parliament
Page 3, proposed section 5 (3), lines 12 and 13. Omit all words on those lines. Insert instead—
(3) The review and report must be—
(a) undertaken and prepared every two years or other period prescribed by the regulations, and
(b) tabled in each House of Parliament with the annual report tabled under section 21B.
No. 4 Appointed members
Page 5, proposed section 10 (2), line 30. Omit "At least 1". Insert instead "One".
No. 5 Annual report
Page 7, proposed section 15, lines 17–27. Omit all words on those lines.
No. 6 Performance audit, annual report and review of Fund
Page 9, proposed part 4. Insert after line 14—
21A Performance audit
(1) The Auditor-General must conduct performance audits of the Fund and financial assistance provided from the Fund.
(2) A performance audit must also address whether payments from the Fund have been made in accordance with this Act.
(3) A report on the performance audit must be given to the Minister as soon as practicable after the completion of the audit.
(4) A performance audit must be completed at least once every three years with the first performance audit being completed no later than three years after the approval of the first strategic investment plan by the Minister and the Treasurer.
21B Annual report
(1) The Minister must produce an annual report for each financial year, reporting on the activities of the Fund during the year.
(2) The annual report is to include the audit report of the Fund by the Auditor General under the Government Sector Finance Act 2018.
(3) The audit report of the Auditor General must include a statement as to whether the payments from the fund have been made in accordance with this Act.
(4) The annual report must be tabled in each House of Parliament within six months after the end of the financial year.
21C Review of Fund
(1) The Minister is to review this part to determine whether the policy objectives of the part remain valid and whether the terms of the part remain appropriate for securing those objectives.
(2) The review is to be undertaken as soon as possible after the period of three years after the approval of the first strategic investment plan by the Minister and the Treasurer.
(3) A report on the outcome of the review must be tabled in each House of Parliament within six months after the end of the period of three years.
No. 7 Underspends
Page 12, proposed schedule 1, section 4. Insert after line 32—
(3) An amount may be carried forward under this section and paid out in a future financial year only with the approval of the Treasurer.
Amendments agreed to.
