Doorstop, Tuggerah NSW

E&OE

MINISTER MORRISON:

It is great to be here with Karen McNamara in Goodstart Tuggerah amongst a very lively bunch of boys and girls this morning where we’ve enjoyed visiting with them looking through this outstanding centre. Today is another day when we’re out again consulting on the child-care package that will form the heart of the family’s package that the Government will be bringing down before the next Budget and it’s important that as we continue to work through the details that we speak to the centres here and families and those who are providing such excellent care right across Australia but particularly here in Tuggerah, this is an outstanding centre that services the local community extremely well and it’s important as we work through the childcare package that we’re very clear about what our objective is. What we’re trying to do is help families be able to stay in work and get back to work and have the great confidence that their children are receiving quality and affordable childcare. When families can stay in work where they choose to do that it gives their family chooses. It helps them decide what they do with their families, how they raise their families and have the opportunities to do the things they want to do as they’re bringing their children up but it’s important that when they have their children in early learning and childcare that they have can have great confidence about the quality of support and learning that is given in centres just like this.

I’ve been at quite a number of Goodstart centres around the country and this is another one which lives up to a very high standard in fact it exceeds the quality of standard here in Tuggerah and that is a great comfort to families who have from here as Karen will tell me and I know are doing the long commute. You’ve got families here doing commutes even from Newcastle and so the ability to access care in centres such as this is incredibly important for families, so our package is about giving families the choices that they need. Too many families these days don’t have a choice about whether they have to go back to work or stay at home, they need to go back to work and we need to change that equation for families so they can be more helpful, can be an easy decision for them both on quality and affordability. Karen did you want to say one or two things?

KAREN MCNAMARA:

I welcome the Minister here. The Minister has been a friend of Dobell. Has been here many times but it’s important that the Minister sees for himself the quality childcare that is available here in Dobell. Especially when we do have a very high commuting population as well so access to child-care is very important for the people here in Dobell.

MINISTER MORRISON:

Thanks, happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST:

What are some of the main issues that you’re hearing from local families?

MINISTER MORRISON:

It’s important we get the benchmark price right. The Productivity Commission has suggested a benchmark price which of itself is a good idea but the way I think they’ve used the median price is something that we’ve been fairly critical of, we need to make sure that access to the subsidies and system is getting at a level where it means something to families and by definition the median price rules out 50 per cent of people who receive these services. While the idea of a benchmark is a very positive one because it can help keep downward pressure on childcare increases in prices and that’s something we have to achieve, but it has to be affordable for families as well and centres like this operating I think on a very good and competitive price and we need to make sure that the scheme that we deliver addresses that. Two thirds of the child-care bill in this country is paid for by the Federal Government. It’s around $7 billion a year. We need to spend that money better and any increased investment which we’re keen to put into the sector really needs to address this key question of how it helps families get in work and stay in work particularly here in Tuggerah and on the Central Coast more broadly.

JOURNALIST:

Are there any ways that you’re looking at bringing the cost down as opposed to setting a benchmark?

MINISTER MORRISON:

The prices for childcare are effectively set by the centres themselves and what we want to do is make sure how we deliver support. As I said two thirds of the childcare bill is paid for by the federal government and how we do that shouldn’t be forcing prices up even more it can’t be inflationary in its impact. So what we are working on is ensuring we have a system that is fair, that improves affordability for families while maintaining the quality and ensuring that any increases that may occur in the future are responses to services and that parents can see a real benefit for those changes.

JOURNALIST:

Are you looking at any incentives to actually be able to open more childcare centres?

MINISTER MORRISON:

The issue about childcare around the country is the supply – under supply and over supply is very patchy. It is not a one size fits all. In some parts of the country there is an oversupply of centres in places, in other parts there is a chronic under supply. What we need to do is have a system that deals with very specific circumstances and doesn’t try to be all things to all people and I think that has been one of the problems with the system up until now. It is complicated, it tries to be all things to all people with every measure and that is not a way that I think is sustainable. All that means is that you spend more money not actually delivering on the purpose and objective that you have. $7 billion is a lot of money to spend every year and the eight out of ten income taxpayers who go to work every day to pay for subsidies such as that and the welfare bill more broadly, they want to ensure that they are getting value for money and what I believe they are looking for is firstly to ensure that we are helping families who want to be in work to stay in work and get back to work, it has got to be about that but also to maintain a quality standard across the sector.

JOURNALIST:

How does the Central Coast compare in regards to cost and availability to other areas – other regional areas?

MINISTER MORRISON:

I will let Karen also talk about the supply and under supply issues but on a cost basis I think it is extremely competitive. The affordability of the services being provided here and particularly at the centre we are at today is an excellent service with an excellent price and what we want to see is more of that around the country. The services that families expect need to be attainable and affordable and that is what our package will deliver. More generally on the Central Coast…

MCNAMARA:

In regards to supply discussions I have had with providers are telling me that there definitely is enough supply to meet demand at the moment. As you know we have a growing population particularly in the northern part of the area but what we are finding is we do have enough providers at the moment to meet that population growth.

JOURNALIST:

What do you think would be the solution to help parents that are commuting to Sydney or Newcastle?

MCNAMARA:

Well I think obviously flexible places available definitely helps, especially because we have a lot of shift workers as well. But by having the Minister here today is about talking with the parents, especially the rest of the day we will be involved with having face-to-face with parents, it is about listening to what the local demand is and for us to go away and discuss that and we look at policies and how we can make it more affordable and meet the parent’s needs.

MINISTER MORRISON:

The parents are telling me that they want the quality to be there but they also want it to be affordable. We don’t want to erode any of the quality gains that have been made in childcare and early learning. If you look around this centre, you see the learning taking place. This isn’t just a place where children are minded, this is a place where children learn and I think that is a double dividend. Children being developed in the best possible way before they are going to school but equally parents being able to work and provide for their families in the way that they choose to and want to. This is a very aspirational part of the State, it’s where people are working incredibly hard with long commutes and we need to try and take the edges off the difficulty of that in terms of how we’re delivering support to childcare and early learning.

JOURNALIST:

Karen just mentioned the flexibility perhaps of hours, is that something that is up to individual centres, or something that the government can sort of try and encourage or control because that would obviously help commuters?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Well it really is up to individual centres and Goodstart is one of those that has trialled extended hours and they will work through those models and what works for them and what works for their parents and the more we can free up the centres to be able to be more in contact and respond more directly to what the needs of local families are, I think the better. I think that’s a good way to go. The Government doesn’t want to prescribe any of this and get in the way of the relationship between those who are providing early childhood learning and childcare and the families who are using it, so I think that’s a nexus that’s best left there. I’m seeing a lot of innovation in the sector, I’d like to see a lot more innovation in this sector and in the area of nannies for example which has come up in the Productivity Commission report, this is an area that the Government is very interested in but we would proceed very cautiously in this area. There are a lot of regulatory issues that need to be addressed here about the care of children at the most basic of levels, there are business issues, registration issues; it’s not a simple thing to introduce. We’ve got to be mindful of–we’ve got great staff here, who have worked here for a long time and we don’t want to see a drain of staff away from the mainstream of providing childcare in Australia and early childhood learning off to other areas, so we’ve got to get the balance right on that, we’re not rushing into it. But we know there are shift workers particularly here on the Central Coast and others who might have special needs or are in remote areas who need a service that isn’t delivered by the mainstream, and what we’ll be delivering is a package that not only deals with the mainstream but there will be an overlay which will deal specifically with disadvantaged families and that disadvantage could be for any number of reasons: a child with special needs or a family or a child in particular who is an area of significant economic disadvantage. But we have to target that resource, not a one size fits all approach.

JOURNALIST:

Good news on the weekend?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Look the results across the State in New South Wales for Mike Baird are fantastic. For the Labor Party, this was an even worse result for them than in 1988 when Nick Greiner became the Premier. I think we’ve got to put that in context. I mean Luke Foley even had a swing against in him in his own seat of Auburn, so for the Labor Party to be in any way taking some comfort out of the weekends results, then I think they’re way off the mark. The other thing that has emerged from the results on the weekend is that the Labor Party seems to think their problem is Martin Ferguson. Martin Ferguson is more in touch with people who voted for the Labor Party in the past than Bill Shorten ever will be and if they think their problem is Martin Ferguson then they need to look in the mirror and Bill Shorten needs to look in the mirror. Martin Ferguson just told the truth. If people think he should be thrown out of the Labor Party because he told the truth, I think that tells you something about the Labor Party. So my question to Bill Shorten is, does he think Martin Ferguson should be expelled from the Labor Party? That’s really a question for Bill, he can’t duck that one, is he going to tell all those who Martin Ferguson I think has ably represented, both as a Member of Parliament and as a Minister, and tell all those people who have supported Martin that Martin’s off-track? Or is he going to sort of go down the path of that alliance with the Green’s which has got the Labor Party where it is right now?

JOURNALIST:

Do you think that the weekend’s results show confidence in Abbott at a Federal level?

MINISTER MORRISON:

I do think there is encouraging signs for us at a Federal level. We’re not overstating that, I mean this was a State election. Mike Baird took a mandate and sought one from the people of New South Wales, and received it with a thumping majority and I’m sure if the result had been different, people would have been quick to lay it at the feet of Tony Abbott. Here we’ve had a good win and at the Federal level, we’re just very pleased for our State colleagues, and it says to the Labor Party, you can’t continue to be a bunch of policy reactionaries, just opposing everything and being populist opposers to every idea that’s put up. Bill Shorten said this is the year of the idea but the planet of ideas that Bill Shorten is running is a wasteland at the moment and he really needs to start stumping up to the policy debate and just not running around with his caravan of unfunded empathy and pretending to identify with every issue but not have a solution to one of them.
Thanks very much.