Transcript by The Hon Scott Morrison MP

702 ABC Sydney Dominic Knight

Location: Sydney

Program: 702 ABC

E&OE

DOMINIC KNIGHT:

Good afternoon Minister.

MINISTER MORRISON:

Good afternoon Dominic.

KNIGHT:

Now look this trial as we understand it applies to people in a particular circumstance. Which parents are going to be able to be a part of this trial?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Well the three core groups were seeking to focus on are those who have got irregular work hours. Shift workers, emergency service workers, Customs officers, police, firemen, nurses, all of those types of occupations which are critical key workers in our community, not just for our economy. Secondly rural and regional areas that don’t have the broad array of childcare and early learning services that are available in more metro areas and thirdly families who have children with special needs and particularly for example with autism which presents particular challenges to get access for children with those types of disabilities because of the nature of that disability.

KNIGHT:

So you just listed a few categories of a job there. Is the test the kind of job? Or is it just simply a matter of the hours that you work?

MINISTER MORRISON:

The test is whether you are able to currently access mainstream services. That is what it is really about now there for instances and examples and they would be the priority cases that would go to the top of the queue. If you can’t access existing services because of those impediments then we want to make sure that you can be in work and stay in work and not face higher costs simply because of the nature of work you do.

KNIGHT:

Ok. So how many spots are there going to be in this trial program?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Well around 10,000 children we estimate will be supported by this for around 4,000 nannies and that will be right across the country. It will be the level of subsidy will be conditional upon your income and will reference a benchmark price and that level of subsidy actually for supporting nannies will actually be less than the level of subsidy we would have to provide for those in long day care because obviously the cost of the services is less. We don’t have the same overhead and things of that nature that are there for more formal care providers.

KNIGHT:

I think that you mentioned there that there might be some look at the income of those involved. Have you got any sense of where their threshold will be?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Well it will cut out at $250,000 but I mean I wouldn’t anticipate that there would be few if any that would need to be receiving subsidies at that level but I mean for example I mean around 60 per cent of families who have three children it is often families who have multiple children that would need these services. I mean 60 per cent of those earn less than $120,000 a year as a family income. Now if you put a police officer together with a nurse that’s not uncommon to be at that level of salary. That’s a gap which was identified in the Productivity Commission that needs to be filled in the level of services that are provided and support for that.

KNIGHT:

Scott Morrison is with us. Minister for Social Services on Drive, twenty four minutes past three is the time and talking about the new program coming through to provide nannies on a trial basis. So Minister under this scenario what counts as a nanny? What do you need to have in order to access the scheme as an employee?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Well you outlined it accurately in your introduction. You need to be over the age of 18. You need to be provided by a registered service provider but the subsidies would be paid to the service provider not to the nanny directly or the family. That is an important integrity measure; it is one of the things that has been learnt by both governments of both political persuasions when it comes to abuses in the system. We saw a lot of that in family day care and we’re still shutting down a number of those rorts. So it’s one of the reasons why we’ve also gone to opt for a pilot programme rather than going into a full application because there will still be other issues that will need to be addressed and they will be identified through the pilot phase.

KNIGHT:

There are some in the industry who have questioned whether or not that’s enough, that that should be enough, that to pass all those particular tests, the service provider, the first aid qualification and that working with children certificate. What would you say to people who think that perhaps there should be a higher bar in terms of the qualifications?

MINISTER MORRISON:

We’ll leave that choice to families. I don’t think we should be intervening in the choice families here where we can avoid it and we also need to keep the services flexible. That criticism often comes from those who are providing early learning for early childhood education, now that’s not what this service is necessarily providing but where families want to access a nanny who has that qualification then I have no doubt that there will be services who provide that but to make it mandatory will render the services inflexible and potentially force up the price which means higher prices for families and higher prices for the taxpayer and so I…

KNIGHT:

Would you envisage, Minister, perhaps grandparents or other family members potentially getting access to these payments if they do meet those qualifications?

MINISTER MORRISON:

No I wouldn’t because we’d be working through service providers, not through families, and the sort of integrity measures that we would seek to have in place I think we’d seek to avoid those sorts of outcomes. I have no doubt that in cases people might try things on, as is always the case, whether it’s the tax system or the welfare system or systems such as these, or the immigration system. So governments are used to having to deal with those problems and we’ll seek to have measures in place which prevent those sorts of abuses.

KNIGHT:

Scott Morrison is there any modelling on how this kind of support might affect the economy? You mentioned the Productivity Commission before, have you got a sense that this might then free up more people to participate in the labour force elsewhere?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Well that’s certainly the objective of why we’re doing this. We want through the broader Childcare Package that we’ll be announcing between now and the Budget to provide more families with the opportunities to stay in work, so they don’t drop out because of the cost of childcare or access to the services they need or get themselves into work or be in a position to look for it or engage in training or study. It is just part of our modern society and modern economy now that if it’s a two parent family, two thirds of the time both parents are working and if it’s a single parent family it’s very important that that parent is in work because we know that children who grow up in jobless families are 40% more likely to be on a lifelong welfare plan themselves. So being in a job is good for the child as is them getting access to early childhood learning.

KNIGHT:

Minister, it sounds as though from what you say, this might be something we hear more from your government on Budget night, is that likely to be the case?

MINISTER MORRISON:

We’ll be making more announcements about the Families Package that relate to childcare between now and the Budget, we’ve made that clear now for some time. But the Budget is about participation, I mean we have some big challenges to face as a country and we’re going to get through them and get to an even stronger position by everybody getting involved and that’s by being in work, by being ready for work, by dealing with some of the impediments that stop people from getting into work and being able to draw on one’s own resources rather than having to draw down on welfare so it’s going to require the whole country I think, putting the shoulder to the wheel to get where we need to get to. That’s how we’ve got where we are today and that’s where we’ll get to where we want to get to in the future.

KNIGHT:

And finally Minister, on a subject that’s in many people’s thoughts today, I’m just keen to ask you about your thoughts on developments in Indonesia. Do you really think that all hope is gone for Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Well none of us want to think that and I certainly hope that all hope is not gone but it’s certainly not looking good and I think the way things have played out, particularly the last 24 hours have been very disappointing and I think really all Australians thoughts and prayers are with the families and these two young men. It is just a horrible situation. No one condones their actions that put them there in the first place, but I think if there was ever were two cases which showed a transformation of two young men while they’ve been incarcerated, I think it’s these two and I think it screams out for clemency and it’s in Indonesia’s interests I think to provide it.

KNIGHT:

Scott Morrison, thank you very much for joining us.

MINISTER MORRISON:

Thanks a lot, Dominic.