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Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022

Published on: October 2022

Record: HANSARD-1323879322-127670

Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022

Second Reading Debate

Debate resumed from 21 September 2022.

Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields) (18:49:36):

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.

Mr JUSTIN CLANCY (Albury) (19:01:12):

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to debate on the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022 and speak in support of the bill. I thank the Treasurer and the Minister for Education and Early Learning for bringing the bill before the House. On occasion, one gets the opportunity to speak in this House on matters that are so important to our community. As the previous speaker just touched on, this bill is the right thing to bring before this House. It is my privilege to speak to the case for action through the bill, and I will also speak to part 4, "The Fund". In terms of the case for action, the overview of the bill clearly states:

The object of this Bill is to improve access to affordable childcare and facilitate the participation of parents and carers in work by the provision of financial assistance …

That is just such a crucial thing right across our State. I know that child care is traditionally the domain of the Commonwealth, but for the New South Wales Government to step in and provide support in that crucial area will mean so much for our families right across the State. I personally feel it is so important to speak to the bill because of conversations I have had right across my electorate, and I will come back to that. I have spoken to people in small regional communities such as Tumbarumba, Holbrook and Jerilderie, where that childcare component is so critical for employment within those communities, and not just in the larger regional cities like Albury. I would anticipate that the bill is important to families right across our State. As I said, it is an absolute privilege to play a small part in the Government bringing the bill before the House.

Women in Australia are some of the most educated in the world and yet, despite that, women continue to have lower levels of economic participation and security compared to men. Although women's participation in the workforce in New South Wales has grown steadily over the past 50 years to 74 per cent, as it stands today, that figure is still 8 per cent lower compared to men's participation. Women are also more likely to be employed in part-time or casual work compared to men and typically earn less over their lifetimes. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the impact of those pre-existing inequalities. Women were more likely to lose their jobs and hours of work compared to men, while many women also became responsible for more unpaid work during the pandemic, such as supporting children learning from home. Responding to those inequalities and increasing women's opportunities to participate in the workforce benefits not only women but also families and the broader New South Wales economy.

I have touched on some of those communities. I have strong memories of sitting down with some amazing women in the community of Tumbarumba, including Ali Grant, Vanessa McGrath, Bev O'Ryan and Flick Middleton. Even those women have young families they want to participate in the workforce; they want to be engaged in employment but cannot because of challenges that they face with child care. On the same day I also spoke to businesses within that community, such as Hyne Timber, that are crying out for employees. They cannot find people to work when they have demands on their business. We need to bridge that gap between women wanting to participate in the workforce and businesses seeking employees.

We saw the impact on the workforce during COVID. If women in New South Wales participated in the workforce at the same rate as men, our economy would have 210,000 extra workers. Initiatives such as this one that help enable access to child care would grow the New South Wales economy by 8 per cent by 2061. We know from the Women's Economic Opportunities Review that child care is one of the key reasons why women in New South Wales work less. Almost half of Australian women who are willing to work report that caring for children is the main reason they are unable to return to work or work more hours. The Commonwealth Government's Child Care Subsidy program has gone a long way to provide more women with the opportunity to work while raising a family. But despite the current subsidy we know that child care remains expensive, and it is hard for many families in New South Wales to get the days they need in the locations they need, leaving parents with difficult decisions about whether to return to work or care for children at home.

In my experience as a business owner with a veterinary practice, I know a large percentage of the veterinary workforce is made up of women. I have fantastic veterinary nurses who are faced with being unable to return to work because of the high costs associated with child care and the limit on childcare placements. Affordable and accessible quality early childhood education and care is the biggest lever available to make sure women do not have to choose between having a family and a career. That is why in the most recent budget the New South Wales Government is investing $5 billion over the next 10 years to deliver affordable and accessible early childhood education and care through the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund. We are legislating to ensure that we have an ongoing funding commitment for the fund. It will boost access to and affordability of early childhood education and care by supporting providers and sector organisations to reduce the barriers to child care. The fund will help to create more childcare places and reduce fees passed on to parents who face the highest disincentives to work due to childcare costs. The fund will also help create new places in childcare deserts by establishing new services and supporting existing services to expand through investment that can target the challenges different providers face.

Delivering quality affordable and accessible early education would not be possible without the outstanding early childhood education workforce. This fund will support the workforce so that the workforce can, in turn, support families and children. We want this fund to underpin a long-term expansion of the childcare system in New South Wales, which is why we are seeking to establish legislation through the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022 to protect this investment into the future. The passing of this bill will give confidence to the early learning sector and New South Wales families to be able to plan into the future and grow the early childhood sector. The bill will ensure that the fund and its future investments are subject to strong governance and a transparent process informed by independent evidence. It will ensure that the support we provide to childcare providers creates additional places in the areas that need them most, and that the Government's investment translates to more affordable quality child care for children and families in New South Wales.

Together with the changes to the Child Care Subsidy announced by the Commonwealth Government, the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund is expected to create 47,000 additional ongoing and affordable childcare places. Alongside our other early education reforms announced in the budget, this fund is estimated to support up to 95,000 women to enter the workforce or take on more work, leaving households up to $4,400 better off each year by 2032 as a result of increased gross State product. This translates to an increase of up to $17.1 billion in New South Wales gross State product per year by 2032.

In conclusion, I reflect on a personal level on the importance of this bill. Previously in my contribution I spoke of Tumbarumba. Just yesterday I spoke to Councillor Lea Parker at Holbrook about the importance of childcare in her community. I also note the importance of childcare to people like Steph Girdwood at Jerilderie. This important bill will establish a fund that takes us well into the future and will see the New South Wales Government make a significant improvement in this space. This bill delivers on our commitment to invest in a brighter future for all New South Wales families and responds to the call for change we have heard from so many women across our State. I commend the bill to the House.

Ms PRUE CAR (Londonderry) (19:11:07):

I make a brief contribution to debate on the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022 on the back of many comments made by my colleague the member for Macquarie Fields. My contribution will be in line with the Opposition amendments to the bill that he foreshadowed in his contribution. Of course, the Opposition supports the overarching concept of providing more childcare opportunities for parents and families across the State of New South Wales, and we are presently working with the Government on those amendments.

As members have heard in several contributions to this debate, this bill establishes the New South Wales Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund as a special deposit account. The Government intends to use the fund to provide incentives to providers to extend childcare services at lower prices. From an Opposition perspective, what we would like to see from this bill is a transparent fund that delivers genuine outcomes for increasing economic opportunity for women and families through increased access to affordable child care. I think all members want to see the scarcity of childcare positions across New South Wales addressed. But, of course, it is vital that the bill also ensures that there are enough early childhood educators to provide those additional places.

We are in the midst of a teacher and early childhood educator shortage in this State. In fact, I would argue that one of the biggest issues facing the State of New South Wales is the labour shortage we have in vital services such as health and education, both in school-based and early childhood education. Members know that what happens in early childhood education is so crucial to making sure that children get on the right track. It is not just child care; it is actually early childhood education that is essential to improving education outcomes. There is so much evidence for this. We are drowning in evidence of how important early childhood education is to our children. But the truth is that services are battling to find enough staff to meet the current demand let alone demand in the future. In an ideal world, more funding for more services would therefore only increase the demand for more qualified early childhood educators in any new centres. The truth is that if we do not have the educators, additional places simply cannot be delivered. Promised improvements to access will not be realised. In our view it is therefore vital that the bill provides provision for workforce pay and conditions, and standards and quality of training, to be assessed through the review process into the childcare sector that the bill will establish. As I said, the member for Macquarie Fields has foreshadowed that he will be moving some amendments to the bill that go some way to addressing those concerns.

Early childhood educators and additional places must go hand in hand to ensure quality early childhood education becomes more readily affordable and available. Of course the bill also provides for the creation of a board to oversee the fund. It is critical that the board provides strong levels of oversight and transparency to ensure that public money, taxpayers' money, is being used efficiently. The appointed board members should have strong experience within the early childhood education and care sector to ensure the success of the fund within this very complex sector, which is governed by various levels of government and needs much to be done within it. The New South Wales Labor Opposition believes childcare services should be more affordable and more accessible for all families. We certainly hope that through amendments, the bill will go some way to achieving that for the families of New South Wales.

Ms WENDY LINDSAY (East Hills) (19:15:43):

I speak in support of the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022. It is clear that families, households, businesses and the broader community benefit enormously when there is greater female representation and equality of care and work between parents. But currently those benefits are not being fully realised and likely will not be fully realised in the near future without significant reform to address the major barriers women face in choosing to participate in the workforce. One of the most acute barriers for women is the cost of and lack of access to early childhood education and care. As part of the New South Wales budget, the Government committed to investing up to $5 billion to expand access to quality, affordable child care across New South Wales.

Women's Economic Opportunities Review

The bill takes a huge step in cementing that transformative reform to increase economic opportunity for more women across the State by establishing the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund. The bill addresses the number one recommendation of the New South Wales Government's to make child care more accessible and affordable and to provide more women with the opportunity to participate in the workforce. The review showed how women's engagement in the labour market declined significantly around the time of starting a family and never fully recovered after having children. That is largely due to two major drivers. The first is the high workforce disincentive rates that women face when the full costs of child care are considered. After factoring in childcare costs, income tax and the loss of family tax benefits, some women returning to work take home less than 25c in each dollar they earn.

The second major driver is that early childhood education and care is often not available to families who need it in the way and the location that meet their needs. I know that from experience. When my daughters were babies we had to put their names on the waiting list at the local childcare centre before they were born to get them a spot. Thankfully it has changed a little bit in my area, but it still provides challenges for young families in my electorate. However, in March this year the Mitchell Institute for Education and Health Policy at Victoria University released a report showing that there are many areas in Australia where demand for child care now outpaces local capacity to provide services, as it did in my area a couple of decades ago.

The report found that just over one-third of all children under four years of age live in neighbourhoods classified as "childcare deserts", where there is less than one childcare place for every three children. That issue is particularly challenging in western Sydney, south-western Sydney and the regions. The Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund established by the bill will help to address many of the issues that are faced in the areas surrounding my electorate of East Hills. The fund's landmark investment will help to ensure that no‑one has to choose between having a family or having a career. We estimate that the fund, alongside all the early childhood education reforms that were announced in the budget and committed to by the Commonwealth, will support the delivery of about 47,000 additional ongoing and affordable childcare places.

The benefits of the bill will flow to not only children and women but also to families, communities and organisations by reducing the barriers to greater female workforce participation. We estimate that over the next decade the fund will help to see up to 95,000 women enter the workforce or take on more hours and drive down the gender workforce participation gap by up to 14 per cent. Not only will that help more women to enter the workforce and close the women's workforce participation gap; it will also increase economic activity in New South Wales by up to $17.1 billion per year by 2032-33. The Commonwealth Government is also set to benefit from the reforms. Within a decade we project that Commonwealth revenues will be up to $2.5 billion higher due to increased women's participation in the labour market.

It is imperative that our reforms work in tandem with the Commonwealth Government's policies, as both the New South Wales Government and the Commonwealth play crucial roles in the early childhood education and care sector. The Commonwealth Government provides support to households through the Child Care Subsidy and the income tax and family payment systems. Recently introduced Commonwealth legislation could see the Child Care Subsidy increase from July next year. That is likely to lead to increased demand for enrolments, so it is therefore even more important for New South Wales to act on supply-side reforms such as the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund to help meet the increased demand.

The bill will ensure the Government's landmark investment to boost the supply of child care is sufficiently safeguarded and enduring in order to give certainty of funding to the sector. Under the fund the New South Wales Government will support the sector through investment and partnerships to provide incentives to increase the supply of affordable childcare places, alongside other efforts to address workforce constraints. As a government we know labour is an important factor and we know how important early childhood educators are.

Recently I spoke to Macy Carter, a young resident in my electorate of East Hills. She was among 400 students across the State to be awarded a $25,000 scholarship to assist with their early education journey and degree. That is part of an $11 million program, aside from this fund, that Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell says will support recipients to expand their understanding of childhood environments and gain additional skills and capabilities that will be passed on to the children that they are teaching. It is a very important investment to ensure that we have early childhood educators in order to increase our capacity in the workforce.

The Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund will invest in projects that overcome the known barriers to child care and will target funding to areas with higher accessibility and affordability barriers to child care. The Government will work closely with the sector to develop effective and impactful proposals for investment. The fund has been designed to be flexible in order to respond to the needs of families and to allow us to invest in innovative solutions that are put forward by the sector. Proposals for funding could address the fees that are charged, infrastructure needs, workforce needs, new provision-of-care models, operational needs and investment partnerships. It may do that by considering proposals from a range of early childhood education and care services and preschool providers as well as other relevant partner organisations.

The New South Wales Government and the board will conduct extensive consultation with families and the sector to design the rollout of the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund. Importantly, the fund will work alongside other policy and funding announcements—such as the scholarship program I mentioned—made by the New South Wales Government and the Commonwealth to provide lasting change to the early childhood education and care sector and families with young children. I commend the bill to the House.

Mr ALEX GREENWICH (Sydney) (19:23:24):

The Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022 will quarantine a new fund dedicated to increasing access to and affordability of child care in New South Wales. A board will be set up to provide the Government with advice on how to best spend the fund, which aims to help mothers, fathers and other parents who take on the childcare load to get back into the workforce after having children. Having children can take a big toll on a person's career. The burden has generally fallen on women, who traditionally take on a larger role in caring for young children. That situation has contributed to the massive gap in women's participation in full‑time work compared to men. In Australia the women's workforce participation rate is less than two-thirds that of men.

When they return to the workforce, they usually go part time and are missing out on opportunities for promotion and leadership roles. The interruption leaves women with fewer savings, less financial security and at greater risk of poverty and homelessness later in life. The economy and society also miss out on opportunities to engage some of our best and brightest minds, slowing our capacity to innovate and change. Increasing access to affordable child care will help to increase women's participation in the workforce and I will support the bill. But it is not the only factor that impacts on women's participation in the workforce.

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The jobs that traditionally have been performed by women like child care, aged care, nursing and teaching attract lower wages. When women perform other roles, they still earn less than their male counterparts due to biases in the system. The result is that where small children have a mother and a father, the mother typically earns less and the family is financially better off if she stays home and looks after the children. Cultural barriers in many sectors also turn women off whether they have children or not. Many workplaces have very white, heterosexual, male-dominated cultures that can feel unwelcoming and unsafe for women and others who do not fit that norm. The recent demonstrated that even here we have a toxic culture that is turning women off participating in it.

Equal Power Now

Last week's release of the survey by Plan International revealed that treatment of women in politics has made Australian girls and young women more disillusioned by politics than their overseas counterparts. The recent occurrence of a member of the other place—stating that someone should have "clocked" a female member of this House because she did not toe the party line—is a case in point. Just today the Hon. Greg Donnelly referred to the Minister for Women, Minister for Regional Health, and Minister for Mental Health as "howling", which shows in this workplace we still have a lot more to do to support women and make it a safe and welcoming workplace for them. The Parliament's blokey culture is preventing us from attracting the diverse range of leaders we need to address the challenges of the future. The make-up of the House and the Ministry certainly fail to reflect the diversity in the community and I hope the make-up of the new Parliament will be more diverse and our policies can therefore help to reflect that.

All work places benefit from diversity, which brings new ideas and new solutions while making the working environment more attractive and safe for all. Much of the discussion of this bill has focused on families where there is a mum and a dad, but there are families across the State that are very diverse. Many children have two mums, two dads, one mum, one dad, or one or two parents who are gender diverse. Focusing on stereotypes during this debate is not helpful for anyone. Indeed, it can entrench the expectation on women in families with a mum and a dad to sacrifice their career and take up the greater role of child rearing. Even with child care and after‑school care, it can be difficult for parents to leave work in time to pick up their kids. Long work hours are challenging to all family life and the pandemic has shown that people want flexible working arrangements to achieve a better balance. All parents need support returning to work after having children and I acknowledge that diverse families certainly will benefit from the bill. It is great that the Government has taken the step to provide better access to child care and I look forward to more work in this space.

Mr PETER SIDGREAVES (Camden) (19:28:14):

I support the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022. The bill will establish the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund with the principal objective of the fund to increase participation in the State's workforce, particularly for women, by making quality child care more affordable and more accessible. The fund will target known barriers to families accessing quality early childhood education and care by providing major incentives to enable providers to extend their services to more families, more affordably. It will help existing services—including not-for-profit and for-profit providers—to grow in size and quality, and it will improve the viability of existing services, particularly in regional and rural locations. The fund also will support sector organisations, which help break down barriers to children accessing education and care, drive down fees for families and help build, retain and better reward their workforce. Therefore, the success of the fund will be predicated on ensuring that the sector and families have certainty and confidence of the fund and the Government's long-term commitment to invest up to $5 billion in the early childhood education and care sector.

The bill will establish the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund in the Special Deposits Account. This means that the fund can be used only on goods and services within the scope and purpose of the fund as set out in the legislation. The benefits of the fund being held in a Special Deposits Account are threefold. First, by ring fencing the fund there will be certainty of funding for the sector on the Government's commitment to invest up to $5 billion over the next 10 years into the sector. By providing long term certainty to the sector will enable services to invest in their infrastructure, workforce and families and also encourage innovation. The needs of New South Wales families have changed from 20 years ago and we want to utilise this fund for services to try new things to better support their families and their children. Secondly, establishing the fund in a Special Deposits Account will ensure that there are transparent processes for disbursing funds, with clearly delineated approval by ministerial, board and departmental officers enshrined in legislation. Lastly, the Special Deposits Account and enabling legislation will provide enhanced accountability for the performance of the fund, including regular public reporting and evaluation to support greater transparency.

Given the significant investment the Government has committed to, with the aim to boost the supply of child care over the long term, it is appropriate that a strong governance framework is established to support the transparency, accountability and performance of the fund. The main pillar of the fund's governance framework is the establishment of a statutory body in the form of a Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Board. The board will provide advice to the Government on the strategic direction of the fund, informed by expert independent reports commissioned by the Minister.

The board will comprise five members as follows: the New South Wales Department of Education Secretary or delegate; the NSW Treasury Secretary or delegate; and three additional members to be appointed by the Minister for Education and Early Learning and the Treasurer with appropriate expertise, with at least one employed in the Department of Education to ensure continuity with the broader Early Years Commitment. The board will exercise its functions in accordance with the principles of accountability, market understanding and fiscal responsibility, as with any grants program.

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As the final decision-maker for granting funds and financial assistance, inclusion of the governance mechanisms for the board in legislation will ensure that there is a high level of accountability and transparency of the fund's investment. At the same time, the bill establishes that responsibility for the strategic direction of the fund will be with the Minister, ensuring the fund remains complementary to, and works effectively with, other early childhood education and care reforms under the Minister's portfolio. The board will also ensure adherence to best practice grants administration governance in accordance with the and advice from the New South Wales Public Service Commission.

Child care is the key to ensuring that no-one has to choose between having a family or having a career. We are committed to giving women the genuine option to pursue a career while raising a family, without having to make unnecessary trade-offs. This bill is a huge step in delivering on cementing our landmark $5 billion investment into child care. If we look at the Women's Opportunity Statement handed down with the budget, we see a number of priorities. This delivers on one of them. It is of great benefit to women who wish to pursue a career where both parents share looking after the children and their welfare. Having these funds committed to a special repository account safeguards the funds for investment in the childcare sector as established in statute, provides certainty to the sector, and enhances the transparency and accountability of these investments. I thank the Treasurer and the Minister for Education and Early Learning for bringing the bill to the House. I commend the bill to the House.

Ms TAMARA SMITH (Ballina) (19:35:02):

On behalf of The Greens, I contribute to debate on the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022. Whilst we always support investment in public education, it is incredibly disappointing and an opportunity lost that this funding and initiative is aimed at private providers. New South Wales is the second worst performing State in Australia in terms of public provision, with only 5 per cent of preschools operating within the public education system. Let us see what those statistics look like. Across 1,700 public primary school sites, there are only 100 public preschools. I am incredibly disappointed and extremely cynical to see that this initiative is not geared towards public preschools or early childhood centres in the public domain.

The New South Wales Government must fulfill its responsibility to provide free preschooling as part of the broader provision of primary and secondary education. The public provision of preschooling and early intervention must begin by addressing the needs of our most vulnerable communities. I concur with the member for Sydney that there are many assumptions around this legislation that are utterly heteronormative. It does not address the fact that there are many families in our communities that do not comprise a man and a women with children. The bill is incredibly utilitarian. It does not talk about the benefits of early childhood education as education. We are seeing that more and more. Having only 100 public preschools out of 1,700 public primary schools in the State says it all. It is not an education model; it is a different model.

I begin by acknowledging all the incredible early childhood educators in the Ballina electorate and all the preschool teachers across the electorates represented by the members for Balmain and for Newtown. We know that COVID was an incredible ordeal for them. I am not discriminating against public preschools because, let's face it, there are virtually none in my electorate. I am not criticising our teachers or early childhood workers; I am criticising a model that is aimed at increasing privatisation in education. The Greens' policies at a national and a State level are very clear. Our fundamental principle in early childhood education and care is that it should be a not-for-profit service. My colleague Abigail Boyd, MLC, will move amendments in the other place specifically so that, if there is not going to be an expansion of the mere 100 public preschools in the State out of 1,700 schools, we can at least focus on not-for-profits. That is not because we are being mean and it is not a criticism of not‑for‑profit early childhood centres per se, but it reminds us that this is about education.

How many reports, how much research and how much data do we need to see to realise that early intervention is key? As a former educator, I can tell members that there is an exact equation that starts at three years old and continues through preschool and into kindergarten. The gap based on socio-economic background and disadvantage, as well as disability, widens beyond repair by the time children are in year 2. I know we are all in furious agreement about the need for early childhood education, but it is disappointing that we are not focused on public education and the provision of public preschools. We also have some huge issues around the appropriation of funds. It is unusual to have standing appropriation funds from the budget. This introduces unnecessary bureaucracy in the management of the funds, with very little accountability.

Transparency with this kind of fund is absolutely vital for a healthy democracy. The board administering the fund has an economics expertise focus, with no actual expertise in early childhood education. This is another lost opportunity. We get that the bill is geared to encourage greater participation of women in the workforce. That is a noble aim. But it is our view that connecting it with early childhood education is problematic because, as we heard from the member for Sydney, our families are not cookie-cutter models. It also belittles the requirement in our society to focus on high-quality education in the early stages. The Greens will be looking to introduce amendments that support public sector centres, no public money to prop up for-profit private centres, explicit provision to support workers in centres, and help to provide vocational education and training.

I am looking at salaries—which is a major issue—trimming down the bureaucracy and completely amending the purpose of the bill, which is aimed at women who are not currently in work to incentivise them into work. We propose changing the name of the bill so that it is more universal. Explicit recognition of early childhood education and care is critical from a child's perspective. There is nothing in the bill about the rights of a child in terms of all the lenses we need to bring to this discussion. We want to match the provisions of the Victorian response, which is universal free child care for four‑year‑olds—simple—and confine discretion for the use of funds by aligning more closely with the Early Years Commitment statement, including a focus on children and their education and separating that from women's participation in the workforce.

To be frank, there is a real dumbing down of these issues. The Greens' policy at both the New South Wales and the national level is explicitly against public money going to private childcare centres. At its annual conference this year the New South Wales Teachers Federation made it very clear that it believes 100 public preschools out of 1,700 public primary schools is absurd and flies in the face of the so-called aims of the bill.

Ms FELICITY WILSON (North Shore) (19:42:51):

I speak in support of the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022. The bill will establish the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund. The fund will cement one of our most transformative reforms—that is, increase women's economic opportunity across the State and invest in children for their future. It is not only the right thing to do by families and children across New South Wales, but also one of the biggest productivity reforms that we can implement to increase prosperity across the New South Wales economy. In this place we all know that the women of New South Wales are some of the highest educated anywhere in the world. In my electorate we have the most highly educated community in New South Wales. Yet our workforce participation for women across New South Wales is 9 per cent lower than the participation rate of men.

We know that by giving women choice we can lift the workforce participation rate of women so that it is equal to that of men. By doing so, we will see the flow-on benefits to the entire community by growing our economy so that by 2060-61 it is 8 per cent larger. That is the equivalent of increasing the average income of every household in our State by $22,000 per year. It is an economic opportunity that we cannot ignore. The real, fundamental reason we are investing in this policy is we know that we need to deliver the best opportunities for children and families into the future. Through this policy, our youngest kids will have new opportunities to thrive. That is made possible through the groundbreaking introduction of our universal year of free play-based learning prior to kindergarten for all New South Wales children. That is also an approach to tackling the child care affordability and accessibility crisis. Analysis shows that areas of oases and areas of drought exist across New South Wales with regard to access to child care and its cost.

The reforms will boost our affordable child care supply by up to 47,000 places, which is backed in by the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund of up to $5 billion. We will facilitate that through additional plans to attract, support and retain early childhood teachers and carers. This is fundamentally and historically an area of Federal responsibility, but we have stepped up to deliver this package because we want to ensure that families across the State, no matter their financial circumstances or geography, their pay cheques or postcodes, have access to high-quality affordable child care and early learning that delivers the best outcomes for children, for families and for providers.

My own children are some of those across New South Wales who benefit from the exceptional care and learning that early learning educators provide. The fund is going to be part of the building block for lifelong success for our kids and give them the best start in life. Too many kids are missing out due to barriers, including the cost and availability challenges. I made a commitment when I came into Parliament to ensure that children would not miss out, particularly if it was due to where they were born or the amount of money their parents earned, and that is why I am so proud of this shake-up. It is the biggest shake-up in the State's history. By transforming accessibility and affordability, we are going to make sure that every parent can make choices about their own economic opportunities and that children have the greatest opportunities.

When it comes to reflecting the needs and choices of women, the reform is estimated to allow up to 95,000 women to either enter the workforce or to take on more hours. Women are disproportionately taking on caring responsibilities, particularly when it comes to young children. Closing that workforce gender participation gap by up to 14 per cent and increasing household incomes is good for New South Wales and the country, but it is particularly empowering for women to have choices, to maximise their own opportunity and to advance their own opportunities.

The superannuation gap, for instance, is significant between women and men. Lifelong earnings can be impacted by women taking time out of the workforce, particularly early on in their career, and missing out on promotional opportunities and training, education and advancement opportunities. That leads to women being left behind, which will continue well into the future, and disproportionately being able to access future opportunities. That can be seen when it comes to the disproportionate number of older women who are experiencing homelessness or who do not have any housing security. In many ways, that is because of the historic nature of women's household and caring responsibilities not being valued in the same way as paid work outside of the home, and women not being able to access those same opportunities, particularly historically not being able to access superannuation to ensure that they had financial security into retirement, even if they were not retiring from the paid workforce.

The changes will be transformative, not just in the short term but also in the long term. As the member for Ballina acknowledged, the dividend will keep returning to the people of New South Wales and to children and families because we know that early childhood education is just that. I look at my own children and their educators. I look not just at their social skills development and their ability to interact and engage and their language development, but I also look at the knowledge attainment, the kinds of things that they understand and their capabilities. I know that educators are transforming their little lives and setting them up for a great future.

As the member for Ballina acknowledged, if we are not getting in early enough and rectifying that imbalance to ensure that children are not left behind, regardless of financial capability to access this type of early education, then children are going into school sometimes months or years behind their peers, who might be in different geographic or socio-economic areas. That is compounded year on year throughout schooling, including after schooling. We know how important those first five years are. Evidence even suggests that the disproportionate impacts and disadvantage of not accessing early learning can lead to higher rates of incarceration, higher rates of welfare dependency, and some of the challenges that spread throughout society and impact individuals' lives, not just as children but as they become adults too. This is the kind of policy that can really go about changing that.

Extension of time

It is an investment in New South Wales that is on a scale never seen in Australia. It will provide a strong educational foundation and deliver intergenerational results for our kids. We are making sure that families across the State are going to have that brighter future while also easing the pressure on household budgets. It should not be a choice for parents between getting their kids a great early education or paying for household expenses. That is not the dichotomy that we want people to see. I will talk a little bit about the fund and the package in the fund. []

The package in the fund commits up to $5 billion in funding over 10 years towards making quality child care more affordable and accessible. That is a key part of the Government's $15.9 billion early years commitment, as we are referring to the broad package. That is the ten-year plan to transform early childhood education and development for New South Wales families. We are ensuring that every child is given the best start in life no matter where they live. The fund complements the suite of proposals announced in the recent budget, which included $5.8 billion towards the introduction of a universal pre-kindergarten year, as I mentioned, which is for all students in the year before school by 2030, and also $1.3 billion for fee relief for children in pre-school settings commencing January 2023.

I acknowledge that we get a lot of information about accessibility and affordability, and while I recognise that in my own community of North Shore we have a higher level of accessibility than a lot of other geographic parts of the State, we also have the highest average costs of any region across Australia. Depending on their income and circumstances, people might receive different levels of Federal Government assistance but that does not always mean that they are able to get the full five days a week or maybe 11 hours every single day. I note that child care subsidies cap out at 100 hours a fortnight, even if you have 110 hours a fortnight, which is a really great mechanism within the model. Receiving that assistance does not always mean that you are going to be able to access those opportunities.

My children attend a not-for-profit centre and we love that centre, but in an area like mine there are also very high overheads and costs for things like real estate. We have a lot of local educators and carers and staff, but people are also travelling from across Sydney to work in our local centres. Delivering these types of services is associated with a lot of costs. Private centres come in and sometimes they are much more expensive, and some of those costs reflect the costs of opening more places in these communities. Often that is market driven. We did not want to see a model that would enable more and more centres to put up prices even more and still gain Government support and funding. The model we are introducing is looking at the supply side rather than the demand side. It will ensure that we are focusing particularly on affordable places so that providers can increase their places and make sure they are affordable for individuals who need it. They will benefit to deliver those places.

The bill establishes the fund in the Special Deposits Account and it provides for the standing appropriation into the fund in line with the Government commitment to invest $775 million over the next four years. From 2026‑27 to 2031-32, the New South Wales Government will invest an annual amount informed by the estimates in the independent expert reports commissioned by the Minister for Education and Early Learning to ensure New South Wales families have adequate access to child care at affordable prices to maximise workforce participation, capped at $650 million a year indexed to CPI. Having those funds committed into a Special Deposits Account will safeguard them for investment into the childcare sector as established in statute. It cannot be raided. It will provide certainty to our sector and it will enhance transparency and accountability of those investments.

The bill also establishes an independent market monitoring report mechanism. The Minister may commission experts to review, monitor and report on the early childhood sector. These regular, independent market monitoring reports will be used to ensure that the fund is flexible and responsive to the evolving needs of the sector in New South Wales. The reports will provide advice on areas with high demand and low access to childcare places and where households face the biggest barriers, financial or other, to working because of childcare costs. Priority investments to address those issues could include grants or commissioning services to expand infrastructure; to establish new centres in childcare deserts, to which I have referred; to develop new approaches to help attract and retain the next generation of early childhood teachers and educators; or to trial new service models to meet the needs of modern families.

By committing this fund into legislation, the Government is signalling its ongoing and lasting commitment to the early childhood education and care sector. It is intended that this investment will support innovative investment partnerships that support families to access childcare. The bill also establishes a childcare and economic opportunity fund board, which will be an independent statutory body, to administer and approve payments from the fund. Together with the Special Deposits Account, there will be clear and independent approval pathways for this investment that will promote transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility.

We will also establish a governance structure between the board, the Department of Education and Treasury to provide clear operating processes and to align objectives. That will ensure that the fund complements broader early childhood education and care reforms being undertaken by the Department of Education. The first stage of investment will be informed by industry consultation to ensure that the most immediate sector issues are prioritised. That will include a thorough consultation with the sector when developing program guidelines for the fund.

The Australian Government recently introduced legislation to significantly increase the Commonwealth Child Care Subsidy. Through the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund, New South Wales has an opportunity to maximise the Commonwealth Government's commitment to increase the subsidy with complementary investment to support the sector to respond and grow, and to work together to realise the benefits of early childhood education and care system reform.

I had the great benefit of participating in a lot of the work on this reform by joining with the expert panel in their deliberations. I acknowledge the work of those who really put the legwork into the expert panel in the Women's Economic Opportunities review. That includes the Chair, Sam Mostyn, but also the members of the expert panel, including Maha Abdo, Jillian Kilby, Daisy Turnbull, Leslie Loble and Blair Comley. I recognise the two departments that worked quite heavily on this—Treasury and the Department of Education—and their staff. I particularly recognise the Treasury staff who led this, including Jenny Merkley, Alison Aggarwal and Nallini Rajaretnam. I thank the Treasurer's team, Ava Hancock and Charlie Hoffman, who worked in great detail and depth to put these proposals together and to ensure that they meet the needs of people across New South Wales.

I thank the Treasurer for championing this. We both have small children, and we now understand just how hard that is for parents. We realise in particular how much harder it is for mothers than it is for fathers across the State and what more we need to do for women across New South Wales to give them greater opportunities and greater choice. I thank the Minister for Education as well, for always being a champion in this space. I am very proud to support the bill, and I commend it to the House.

Ms JODIE HARRISON (Charlestown) (19:57:55):

I contribute to debate on the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022. This is a topic of particular interest to me, as the shadow Minister for Women and the former shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education. I was also an organiser for what is now the United Workers Union, which covers large numbers of workers in the early childhood sector. I worked in that space with those workers. At the outset, I acknowledge that for many years early childhood educators, early childhood learning and care providers, and parents have been pushing for reforms in this sector. Early childhood learning and care is often prohibitively expensive for families and there are limited places, meaning some children miss out totally, and early childhood educators are way too undervalued for the important work that they do.

I note that early childhood educators recently took industrial action across New South Wales to raise public awareness of their poor recognition. That action is basically unheard of in that sector, particularly within this generation of educators, who care so much for our children. Early childhood education is a game-changer for young children. We know that it is one of the best ways to help children develop the social, emotional and cognitive skills that they need for future learning. Every child in this State deserves the best start in life and their families should not be priced out of that opportunity. Early childhood education is also essential to ensure that parents are able to fully participate in the workforce if they want to. With the skills shortages we are experiencing across large parts of the economy at the moment, that is incredibly important. It is also important for gender equity.

The bill arises following the Government's Women's Economic Opportunities review. An expert panel was established to identify reform options to support women to enter, re-enter, stay and succeed in the workforce and to improve women's economic security throughout their lifetimes. I thank the members of that expert panel for their input. In its recommendation to the Government, the panel stated:

Our most significant recommendation to create generational change across the NSW economy is a long-term commitment to a guarantee of free or low-cost high quality, accessible childcare, and preschool across the state.

That was the most significant recommendation, in the words of the expert panel. The bill does not actually do that. There is certainly more work to be done. It is a shame that the opportunity has not been taken by the Government to take up that recommendation fully. The bill establishes the New South Wales childcare and economic opportunity fund as a vehicle to address the lack of accessible and affordable early childhood education and care in this State. I recognise that that is the bill's goal, but I question how effective it will be in addressing the issue without significant amendments.

The bill aims to establish the fund in the Special Deposits Account, which means it will be legally separate from the State's Consolidated Fund. The bill also establishes a standing appropriation for 10 years and sets some funds that can be paid out during those 10 years. It creates a significant and ongoing budget commitment, which is meant to address a serious issue in our community. Fundamentally, the bill is aimed at giving incentives to providers to extend childcare services at lower prices. In turn, that is meant to increase participation in the workforce, particularly for women.

I cannot speak on the bill without recognising the significant recent reforms introduced to the Federal Parliament just last month by the newly elected Labor Government to increase the affordability of early childhood learning and to remove the financial disincentive in childcare fees for a primary caring parent to work full time. Since she raised it in her contribution, the member for North Shore will be pleased to know that the Federal Government has committed to that.

I recognise the work of the Hon. Amanda Rishworth, who was shadow Minister, in developing and taking the policy to the election, and the Minister for Education, the Hon. Jason Clare, for seeing it through. This Federal policy will see an investment of $4.5 billion over four years from next year, benefiting 1.26 million families and generating the equivalent of 37,000 extra full-time workers across the country, which is a significant commitment. In that context, the goal of the bill is admirable, but it has flaws. In particular, I note concerns about the governance of the fund and a failure to adequately address the acute skills shortage and workforce issues within the childcare sector. There is a lot of money in this bill, but there are next to no real details about how the money will be allocated, what it will be spent on or even what it will accomplish.

The United Workers Union has raised serious concerns about whether the bill will even achieve its primary goal of making early childhood education and care more affordable. The money could end up just propping up for-profit companies, pouring public funds into private businesses, businesses which may well pocket the extra funding without boosting staff pay and conditions to fix the workforce crisis or appreciably lowering prices.

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