Doorstop, Tasmania
E&OE
MINISTER MORRISON:
It is great to be here with Brett and Christian and also to be on the trail of the Pollie Pedal that has gone through here today and to see the great work that is being done here in early childhood learning. It is particularly important to be here in Tasmania today where the Prime Minister has announced the additional funding which will extend to $16 million for six care centres and programmes dealing with children who have autism. This demonstrates once again the commitment of the Abbott Government to ensuring quality early childhood learning and particularly for children with disabilities and to support those who are educating them. Early childhood learning is incredibly important for the development of children and obviously it is incredibly important in helping families being able to stay in work and get back to work after they have children.
Today Brett, Christian and I have been visiting the centre here and seeing the tremendous work that is being done by the staff and particularly to see the enthusiastic faces of the young children. The government will be delivering a families package this year. The primary focus of that package will be on support for early childhood learning and childcare. Our focus is about helping parents to be able to stay in work and get into work after they have had children. We have seen now almost two thirds of two parent families are now double income families. The need to be in work is exactly that, it is a need. For many families it is not about a choice it is a need in order to be able to keep pace with the cost of living and to give their families and give their children the head start in life that they would like to see.
At centres just like this all around the country parents can have the confidence that while they are learning or earning that their children are also learning and developing in the quality childcare and early childhood learning that is provided in centres just like this one here but all around the country. A package will be released before the Budget this year and it will be focussed as I said on the employment participation objective but it will equally deal with issues of disadvantage around the country. The programme at present is very complicated. It is hard for parents and families to engage with and it is trying to be all things to all people and not hitting the mark on all the key objectives that it needs to hit on. We are working very hard consulting as we have here today as we are all around the country to make sure we get this right and we can ensure that parents can get the support they need to change that absolutely important round the kitchen table conversation about how you make this work and that is what we want to make work for families around the country. We know that things have changed, our society is changing, our economy is changing, the way we support childcare and early childhood learning has to change with it, as does the sector. We have seen a greater example of innovation here today and I see many of them country and that is why we are pleased to support these services going forward and in a far more targeted and effective way, particularly for middle to low income families. Brett did you want to say anything?
BRETT WHITELEY:
Thank you Minister, it is great to have Minister Morrison in the electorate. It is a great electorate with great quality providers like we are -here today at the Ulverstone Discovery Early Learning Centre and it has been terrific for the owners of this venture to be able to have some time directly with the Minister to put their advice to him, their questions, their observations about childcare provision in this particular part of Australia. I think the point they wanted to make is that every part of Australia, as the Minister has already alluded to, is very different; things in Sydney are different to here and the Minister is very much aware of that.
To have the Minister here following in the footsteps of the Prime Minister from last night and this morning to announce the continued funding for the Burnie Early Learning Centre, particularly focussed on those children with autism is a magnificent day for the people of the north-west coast. They are excited parents, parents of 40 children that need that service. So it is a thrilling day for this electorate over the last 24 hours and it is great to have Minister Morrison and my good friend the Parliament Secretary Christian Porter here. It is a long way from Perth Christian but it is great to have you and you are always welcome. He has just got off a bike if you can’t tell but he is part of the Pollie Pedal and I thank you Christian for taking the time out to come here today. We will be heading off now to Spreyton Cider, might be able to get you a cool Tasmanian cider and we will look forward to that. Thanks very much.
JOURNALIST:
Minister can we ask quickly? There have been some changes obviously to the governments support for families such as the Paid Parental Leave; can you tell us this budget package will be fully supportive for Australian families?
MINISTER MORRISON:
We currently spend around $7 billion a year on supporting families to pay the bills on early childhood learning and childcare. The government picks up two thirds of the bill for early childhood learning and childcare around the country. We made the decision that we needed to focus very firmly in one particular area and that is why we decided not to pursue the Paid Parental Leave proposal from the Prime Minister and to focus very much on this issue of childcare and early childhood learning. That means we are focussing our attention both from a financial point of view as well as from a policy point of view to get this in a far better shape than it is now. We are working constructively with the Opposition and with Crossbenchers but also we are working with families and providers of services all around the country to get this right. Whatever you do in this area you have got to be able to pay for it. To make the improvements we need to increase the investment and to do that we need the support of the Parliament to pass savings measures that can make the plans that we have here for a better systems support for childcare and early childhood learning a reality. That is why we are calling on both the Opposition and the Crossbench to be able to support in the saves that are necessary to deliver a much better Early Childhood Learning and Childcare package for families across the country.
JOURNALIST:
Look on another matter today, can I ask, Unions have put forward a wage claim for low income earners, a figure of $27 a week, is that a figure that the government would support?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well we’ll leave that to the normal process that is run to set these measures and that’s where those arguments will be had and I’m sure the Employment Minister will make the appropriate representations at the right point in the cycle; it’s not for me to do that. What we’re trying to do is get people into work and 150,000 new jobs have been created in the last 12 months and we think that’s a good outcome but we need an even better outcome and we need that here in Tasmania as well, as I know Brett knows. That’s why in this Budget, we’re focusing on helping young people get back into work and to get into a job and stick in a job. We’re helping families get back in a job or stay in a job and we’re encouraging people as they age, where they’re healthy and where they have the opportunity to do so, to keep working because it’s good for them, it’s a good outcome for them, it supports their income in their later years, it helps them to continue to contribute to their own superannuation, to be able to access their own resources wherever they can so they can have an even better quality of life in their later years and our Budget is very much focused on addressing these issues. We have a plan for this and I haven’t heard boo of a plan from Bill Shorten. Not a boo. His planet of ideas this year is an absolute wasteland. We’ve sent out the probe and there’s no sign of life of an idea for Bill Shorten this year.
JOURNALIST:
From where you stand, do you see that there is an argument for a wage rise for low income earners?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well as I said, I’ll leave that to the appropriate process which is an independent process to settle those matters. That’s the system. We support the system and we will deal with the system as it makes its decisions.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think $27 is absurd?
MINISTER MORRISON:
I’ve already answered the question.
JOURNALIST:
Additional work participation will occur, according to the Productivity Commission report, but it will be small. They’ve said that the tax and welfare policies provide a powerful disincentive for many second income earners. Is there anything you’re going to be doing to address that besides what’s been put on the table?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well you’ve got to look at the whole system and even the Productivity Commission report I think, even with the changes that they recommended, which were at a much lower cost of the sort of things that we are contemplating, there was a change in the effective marginal tax rates of those who are going through and benefitting from the system. Now it’s true, other elements of the tax system and the welfare system impact on this, but I do think the Productivity Commission estimates are quite understated in this area and I think the opportunity for boosting participation is much greater than they’ve suggested. 165,000 families have said that they would like to work more or be in work and we have an opportunity through this package to encourage them to do that. By focusing on middle to lower income earners in particular where we know that the most predominant issue they have about whether they go back to work or not is about the cost of childcare and so affordability is the issue that needs to be addressed and that is what we are laser-like focused on.
JOURNALIST:
Are you saying it would be more than 1.2%?
MINISTER MORRISON:
The 16,500 estimate which was in the Productivity Commission report, I think is understated about what is achievable here and I think it certainly understates what the sort of measures the government is contemplating can achieve and I think there are a large number of families out there who just don’t want to work; they need to work. They need to work. They don’t have the luxury of a choice about whether they can go back to work or not if they want to achieve what they want to achieve for their aspirations for their family. Whether it’s here at Burnie, or it’s at Bondi or Broome or Bunbury. Wherever they are, they want the best for their families and they know today that means going to work.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible]
MINISTER MORRISON:
The Healthy Welfare Card is a pilot programme at present. It’s important that with something like this, it is different to the Basics Card, the proposal, and it’s important you get the technology right, you get the community consultation right, you get the systems right. So what we are working on at the moment is a series of trials, in both indigenous and non-indigenous communities. So it’s not targeted to indigenous communities, it’s targeted to getting a tool that will free disadvantaged communities and families and Australians from the toxin of gambling and drugs and alcohol that is ruining their life and is ruining their families lives and ruining their children’s lives. Now one of the things we will have to address in this Childcare and Early Learning package and the Families package is ensuring that we continue to support those families who are experiencing disadvantage because the sort of support that they get in a centre just like this in other places and here and right around the country can help those children have a better future than the one they might otherwise have and so whether it’s with the Healthy Welfare Card which we will trial and get right before it has broader application or our support for centres such as this and all around the country, we hope to address those issues of disadvantage in those communities.
JOURNALIST:
Is it likely to be trialled in Braddon, can we say?
MINISTER MORRISON:
We have no plans for a trial in Braddon, there are no plans for a trial in Braddon. We have two trials at present we’re in the advanced stages of implementation and planning and we’re going to get it right. You don’t rush to failure on a project, you do your homework, you test the systems, you get the consultation right because for this to work it has to be embraced by communities as well and that’s where we believe it will have the most uptake and most success is where the community itself embraces it as a tool to help their communities. This is a partnership with those communities and that’s what the trial sites are focused on achieving.
Thanks very much.