Jane Hume

"I suppose my disappointment is that one of the things that parents are crying out for at the moment is accessibility to childcare."

Angus Taylor

“Families are already struggling to access childcare. This risks making the situation worse"

Sam Birrell

"We could be talking about all sorts of other things. We could be talking about cheaper child care —which they do talk about, but there are so many places in regional Australia where you can't get a place. It's no good it being cheaper if you can't access it."

Rowan Ramsey

"We have childcare deserts; in fact, Grey is listed as having one of the worst childcare deserts in Australia."

Perin Davey

"We really need to have a forensic look and look at where the child care deserts are and how do we fix it."

Sam Birrell

"I want to raise the issue of what we on this side call childcare deserts...I would like to see policies focus not just on the subsidy."

Tony Pasin

" We need policies that are focused on addressing the childcare deserts"

Darren Chester

"We're still facing an enormous problem with childcare deserts in many of the electorates"

Rowan Ramsey

"I'm here to tell you that around 30 or 35 per cent of my electorate lives in a childcare desert. It's one of the worst in Australia"

Angie Bell

"The Albanese Government is spending $8 billion on subsidies and higher wages and not delivering one single place for children in communities like Robinvale, Cohuna, Beulah and Hopetoun."

Anne Webster

"Mothers came to see Angie and myself to share their personal grief and struggles at not being able to find childcare places locally or even within driving distance."

Dan Tehan

"I say this to the government: you need to seriously look at what you can do to make sure that child care is provided right across this nation—that it's provided in my electorate of Wannon. You need to be mapping where we have childcare deserts."

Tony Pasin

"I want to see the minister responsible for this important portfolio area focusing some of her attention on addressing the childcare deserts"

Angie Bell

"We have thin markets in childcare deserts all across the country, and I've visited a lot of them."

Anne Webster

"We have what are called childcare deserts, and there is not a lot in this bill that addresses that at all."

Sarah Henderson

"Labor continues to talk the big game on child care, but the reality is that there are families who continue to miss out—there are many childcare deserts across this country."

Rowan Ramsey

"All I'm asking is that they make it top of their aim to address the childcare deserts before we lavish more on the rest of Australia."

Wendy Askew

"This particularly applies in rural and regional areas, which are so often childcare deserts"

Anne Webster

"While the Albanese Labor government crow about increasing wages and subsidies for childcare, Mallee families are stranded in a childcare desert"

Anne Webster

"While the Albanese Labor government crow about increasing wages and subsidies for childcare, Mallee families are stranded in a childcare desert, with long waiting lists or - in some towns - no childcare service at all."

Anne Webster

"Parents in Mallee regularly contact me, desperately seeking help in our childcare deserts."

Aaron Violi

"You can talk about price, and that is important, but it doesn't help those who cannot find a place. In my community, we are definitely a childcare desert."

Angie Bell

"Go and speak to the parents in Casey in Victoria, where there's one early learning place for every 15 children. Or visit Grey, in the great state of SA—the biggest child care desert in the country. If you really cared about all families, you'd make sure a policy for access to early learning benefited all families."

Anne Webster

"Mallee childcare desert... The Albanese Labor government has to step up and help Mallee families access the child care they deserve."

Anne Webster

"These women and their teams are working to resolve Mallee's childcare deserts. Loddon Shire has 300 children on waitlists. Some of them are developmentally vulnerable. This is exacerbated by towns with no formal child care at all"

Anne Webster

"It was great to meet with a stream of community members needing help with Centrelink or Veterans' Affairs bureaucracy and women who were very concerned about the lack of child care in their childcare desert"

Anne Webster

"Yet again we wear the consequences of Labor’s scorched earth approach to regional Australia. Whether it is health, child care or communications, Labor’s focus is on supporting metropolitan Australians, not regional Australians. We live in a child care desert , a health catastrophe and an increasingly barren commercial television wilderness.”

Anne Webster

"It is a shame on this government that they feel like they just don't matter, whether it's farmers, farming communities, people running small businesses or mothers who can't get child care —because there is a desert out there; it's called a childcare desert , and not a penny is being spent to deal with this issue. It is a crying shame, and those who are in the cities ought to be aware of just how much—as my good colleagues have been talking about—we actually contribute to the economy."

Darren Chester

"...there are up to nine million children across Australia who are currently living in what we call childcare deserts.

We need to do more in this place. We need to do more to provide parental choice, flexibility and accessibility for Australian families..."

Darren Chester

"Simply pumping up the childcare subsidy does nothing for regional communities in places like Gippsland, where many families actually have no access to a childcare centre. I've had dozens of Gippsland families raise their concerns with me in relation to this issue. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, more families are dependent on their two incomes, but there are up to nine million children across Australia who are currently living in what we call childcare deserts."

David Littleproud

"Access to child care is an enormous source of stress and frustration for young families living in our regions. Currently about nine million Australians live in a childcare desert while one million have no access at all. We urgently need innovative measures that provide flexibility, choice and access for families living outside the major cities, something that the Albanese government has again failed to do."

Colin Boyce

"One issue that I hear about constantly is the lack of child care in regional Australia. In my electorate, many families cannot find child care or a place for their child. This is preventing parents from returning to work sooner. Our communities need availability and accessibility as well as affordability. Centres are capping enrolments, closing rooms and asking children to stay home. I've spoken to families stuck on waiting lists, unable to work because there are no places to look after their children."

Anne Webster

"Labor bled doctors out of the regions and prioritised childcare subsidies for the wealthy while failing to add childcare places in childcare deserts."

Nola Marino

"When I hear the members opposite talking about child care, in my part of the world—as in so many other parts of Australia, particularly in rural and regional areas—we have childcare deserts"

Angie Bell

"Does the member think that it’s fair that in the great electorates of Mallee and Grey there are childcare deserts as far as the eye can see"

David Littleproud

"To make it worse young families in regional Australia can’t go back to work to survive Labor’s cost-of-living crisis because there’s no childcare available.

I went to the government’s Jobs and Skills Summit and pleaded that they spend some of the $4.7 billion in childcare subsidies on new childcare places in regional Australia."

Aaron Violi

"And there are childcare deserts."

Darren Chester

"The government has made quite a song and dance about its commitment to child care in this place but has failed to recognise still that actually accessing child care in rural and regional communities is the challenge, rather than this question of the amount of subsidy you're paid if your child has access to a childcare place. The places simply aren't there for our smaller regional and rural communities. Linked to that, the issue then becomes how we attract and retain a skilled workforce in a regional community if that workforce does not have access to child care . It's another complication. A more holistic understanding of some of the issues we face in our rural and regional communities plays into this conversation about how our young people go on to achieve their full potential."

Darren Chester

"...particularly in rural and regional communities, where we have childcare deserts families would like to pick up more shifts and to return to the paid workforce but simply don't have the option of formalised child care available to them."

Colin Boyce

"Labor has no plan to address increasing fees, no plan to increase access, no plans to address current workforce pressures faced by educators and no plans to address thin markets and childcare deserts."

Anne Webster

"The dire situation of childcare deserts in Mallee has a flow-on effect for the workforce."

Anne Webster

"The Albanese Labor Government’s $5.4 billion Cheaper Child Care subsidy has been exposed as poor policy with skyrocketing fees and no relief for Mallee’s child care deserts."

Anne Webster

"The lack of child care is compounding worker shortages"

Anne Webster

"Those who live in childcare deserts pay through their taxes for the subsidy for those in urban centres who earn up to $500,000. You can't get ahead on cost of living if you can't work and raise your household income."

Anne Webster

“This situation is perverse when so many regional communities are crying out for teachers, nurses and others, most of whom are younger mothers that simply can’t get back into the workforce due to not being able to access child care.”

Anne Webster

"I urge the ministers responsible to address childcare deserts in rural Australia."

Anne Webster

"I urge the ministers responsible to address childcare deserts in rural Australia so that more nurses become available to meet the 24/7 mandate. I urge them to consider that the one-size-fits-all approach to policy continues to undermine and hurt regional Australian communities. One-third of Australians live there. I recently hosted the Regional Aged Care Summit in Mildura, where I heard from frontline workers, providers and peak bodies such as Anglicare Australia, the Australian College of Nursing, Bupa and many more. They were unanimous in their feedback: we desperately need more health- and aged-care workforce in regional Australia. Mandating a 24/7 requirement without solutions to supply the extra workforce is seeing more regional aged-care facilities simply give up and close...Did it occur to the Labor government to tailor the 24/7 mandate to account for the specific circumstances in regional Australia, rather than enforcing their unworkable one-size-fits-all approach? Apparently not, hence the increasing number of facilities that are closing across Australia. My question is: what is this government going to do about childcare deserts and chronic workforce shortages in aged-care facilities in regional and rural Australia?"

David Littleproud

"It'll be about making sure and acknowledging we need to do more around regional childcare so the families in the bush can actually go and pay for their cost of living by going back to work because there is actually a childcare place for them to put their children into it."

Darren Chester

"The accessibility argument is one the minister is well aware of—she is well aware of childcare deserts, like everyone in this place."

Angie Bell

"We've all seen the Mitchell institute data; we know that over nine million Australians live in a childcare desert."

Anne Webster

"I've had dozens of Gippsland families raise their concerns with me in relation to this issue. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, more families are dependent on their two incomes, but there are up to nine million children across Australia who are currently living in what we call childcare deserts."

Anne Webster

"I now turn to the related issue of insufficient access to childcare» services in regional Australia. As with all services, child care is either non-existent or in short supply in regional communities. This means that parents who could be working in the healthcare system, as we desperately need them to do—such as nurses—are prevented from doing so for the lack of access to child care. It's a perverse situation when you consider how badly these workers are needed. What is the Minister for Early Childhood Education going to do to address the pressing issue of childcare deserts in Australia? Childcare deserts are areas where families face limited or no access to quality childcare services."

Nola Marino

"...particularly in rural and regional Australia, where we already have those childcare deserts."

Anne Webster

"...particularly in rural and regional Australia, where we already have those childcare deserts. What is the Minister for Early Childhood Education going to do to address the pressing issue of childcare deserts in Australia?"

David Littleproud

"Government's putting that aside, and again, they failed regional and rural Australia on childcare. We don't have an affordability issue. We have an accessibility issue. I went to their Job Summit and made it very clear the $4.7 billion that they're putting into childcare affordability needed to have some element for childcare accessibility in regional areas. There's a cost living crisis for regional Australians, and that's because they can't go back to work because they can't find a place for their children to have childcare."

Anne Webster

"This budget also failed to address other critical infrastructure, pushing projects out with reviews into the long grass, critical infrastructure to build and repair roads, hospitals and other critical infrastructure in the regions to support that 1.5 million new people. In addition, migrant families will have to find their own childcare arrangements, particularly if they migrate to the regions. Why would a migrant choose to settle in a childcare desert ? Labor has thrown money at the childcare sector but prioritises urban subsidies over actual services, which create demand but do nothing to fix supply. It's about not just affordability but accessibility."

David Littleproud

"Families are hurting because they can't find a childcare» place. In its last budget, this government pulled together a package worth billions, but didn't spend a single dollar to create an extra childcare place in regional, rural or remote Australia."

Bridget McKenzie

"Was there one additional childcare place for people in country towns and rural capitals? No. They were talking a big game about childcare affordability, but what if you can't even access a place? The affordability of the place means nothing."

Susan McDonald

"The childcare subsidy—what a terrific announcement if it was available to all Australians, which, of course, it's not. In regional Australia there are very limited childcare centres and even more limited childcare workers, which means that this budget package will only apply it to people who live in inner-city areas."

David Littleproud

"Labor’s policies have failed to introduce one single new childcare place across the country.

Mr Littleproud said while affordability was impacting families, regional, rural and remote Australia also needed availability.

“Regional mums and dads have not been treated fairly. There is no improvement in regional childcare. Labor has failed to create one new childcare place, leaving regional, rural and remote mums and dads no better off. Labor’s failure to help regional parents has left them behind.”

Angie Bell

"The Coalition welcomes today’s announcement of $18 million to address child care deserts across the country, however the Government needs to do more to increase access to early learning education in the regions.

More than nine million Australians live in a child care desert, which is described as one place for every three children. Australians living outside of major cities are more likely to be living in a child care desert... “With 1 July rapidly approaching, families living in a child care desert will be left in the lurch, with no access to early education and no way to return to work.”

James Stevens

"Whilst the government has undertaken reform in child care, there is nothing to address the childcare deserts that occur, particularly in regional areas and regional electorates. We would like the government to look very closely at that."

David Littleproud

“We know that 3.7 million regional Australians live in a ‘childcare desert’ - a region where there are three children per childcare place. Childcare deserts are disproportionately located in rural and regional areas, with towns of less than 1,500 the most at risk of a lack of childcare,” Ms Ritchie said."

Angie Bell

"Two mothers from Augusta, Kylie and Melissa, shared the work they've been doing to establish an ECE service in Augusta, which is currently a childcare desert "

Wendy Askew

"While coalition members support recommendations to address childcare deserts, we do not believe the Australian government should be involved in creating the centres themselves."

Sarah Henderson

"According to the Mitchell Institute, more than 9 million Australians live in a childcare desert…"

Angie Bell

"no plans to address thin markets and what we know as ‘child care deserts’."

Colin Boyce

"The 2023 budget does not provide any improvement in regional child care and has failed to invest in initiatives to deal with the challenges faced by regional families. In my electorate of Flynn in Central Queensland, many families cannot find childcare places for their children. This is preventing parents from returning to work sooner. Our communities need availability and accessibility as well as affordability. Labor's policies have failed to introduce one single new childcare place in Flynn. There are 36 childcare providers in my electorate of Flynn, offering a maximum of 2,419 places. Centres are capping their enrolments, closing rooms and asking children to stay home. I've spoken to families stuck on the waiting list, unable to work because there are no places or services for their children. Labor's plan states that Indigenous children will be able to access 36 hours of subsidised child care per fortnight from July 2023. Woorabinda and Eidsvold, which have large First Nations Indigenous populations, do not have any childcare facilities available at all. How can every Indigenous child receive 36 hours per fortnight when there are no places? Labor is willing to spend billions on early leaning, and not a single dollar will go towards creating new places for children who need it the most."

Colin Boyce

"Labor's plan states that Indigenous children will be able to access 36 hours of subsidised child care per fortnight from July 2023. Woorabinda and Eidsvold, with large First Nations Indigenous populations, do not have any childcare options available. How can every Indigenous child be given 36 hours per fortnight where no child care exists?

Labor is not lifting a finger or spending a cent on improving childcare accessibility for the bush...In my electorate of Flynn, there are no childcare vacancies in Boyne Island, Gayndah, Mount Morgan, Mundubbera or Wondai. There are also childcare centres is Agnes Water, Emerald and even Gladstone that do not have any vacancies at all. Many families in regional Australia have no access to care, which begs the question: without educators and without access, how can Labor's policy deliver for families and children in rural and regional areas?"

Angie Bell

"I ask the government where the plan is to deliver additional access for families living in childcare deserts?"

James Stevens

"I know there are a lot of regional areas, in particular, that have major issues with any provision of child care whatsoever."

Nola Marino

"As I said, not one cent has been allocated to additional childcare places. We've heard about childcare deserts and that 50 per cent of areas that need those extra childcare places are in rural, regional and remote parts of Australia."

Pat Conaghan

"In relation to the member's last contribution, I accept the childcare changes. Fantastic. It's great that mums and dads earning up to $530,000 can access child care and rebates, but the fact is, in the regions, we can't get any childcare places."

Aaron Violi

"There is little use in having lower out-of-pocket costs when parents can't even get their children into care due to worker shortages and childcare deserts."

Sam Birrell

"...we are saying that we need to add to it by helping to create more childcare places, particularly in areas that don't have them, childcare deserts."

Angie Bell

"As I said, nine million Australians live in a childcare desert . That is nine million Australians who, if they have a child, will not be better off under this policy because they can't access care through this bill."

Matt O'Sullivan

"All of this is of on top of nothing being done to address thin markets and childcare deserts where there are little to no services available to families."

Jonathon Duniam

"There's no plan to address thin markets and childcare deserts where there are little to no services…"

Jonathon Duniam

"We talked about childcare deserts where services are thin to non-existent on the ground and the demand outstrips supply by three to one—are we going to see these gaps filled? Are we going to see these holes plugged?"

Bridget McKenzie

"We have before us a piece of childcare legislation that doesn't add one single additional place to ease the overall burden in our country and, more significantly for those of us that live in communities where we are in a childcare desert."

Colin Boyce

"Labor's budget has turned its back on families desperate to find childcare places in regional and rural areas. $4.7 billion in child care measures has been announced, but it doesn't help regional and rural families because it doesn't deliver any additional childcare places. In my electorate of Flynn, many families cannot find a childcare place for their child. This is preventing parents from returning to work sooner. Our communities need availability and accessibility, not just affordability."

Angie Bell

"They have no plan for access, no plan for workers and no plan to address thin markets and childcare deserts."

Sam Birrell

"One of the big-spending measures in Labor's budget is child care. I have no argument with cheaper child care, but you can only get cheaper child care, or child care at all, if you can find a place, and too many areas in my electorate and across rural and regional Australia are childcare deserts."

Sam Birrell

"One of the big-spending measures in Labor's budget is child care . I have no argument with cheaper child care, but you can only get cheaper child care, or child care at all, if you can find a place, and too many areas in my electorate and across rural and regional Australia are childcare deserts."

Anne Webster

"In Mallee, I know that child care is a huge issue. We have a childcare desert , with seven towns where there is no child care and long waitlists in others. While Labor has announced $4.7 billion in childcare measures, it will not create one new additional childcare place, leaving regional and rural families no better off. They have gone for subsidies over service. Affordability of child care is not the issue in Mallee; it is accessibility. I have seven towns in dire need of childcare facilities. Parents there are not crying out for a subsidy. They tell me they actually need bricks and mortar and a workforce so that they can go back to work. Birchip needs child care, Boort needs child care and Cohuna needs child care . Murtoa, Pyramid Hill, Rainbow and Wedderburn all need child care. In other towns, there are waitlists as long as my arm. One centre in Mildura has a waitlist of 200. That is 200 families who cannot add their skills to the workforce even though they want to. Labor needs to offer a solution."

David Littleproud

"...there's no plan to improve access to child care, there's no plan to address these childcare deserts…"

Anne Webster

"Where is the plan to address thin markets and childcare deserts, where there are little to no services?"

Sam Birrell

"...no plan to address thin markets and childcare deserts…"

Melissa McIntosh

"We should be asking: what is the government doing to secure those extra places and ensure they're created for these families who need spaces the most? Where are the additional places going to open for all these children that will be coming into the system? The government must improve access to care, and address these gaps."

Jenny Ware

"...no plan to address access to care and no plan to address the thin markets and childcare deserts, many of which are in regional areas."

Tony Pasin

"The Murray-Mallee region in South Australia had 4.7 children per place—a childcare desert."

Melissa Price

"The inability of the Labor government to support educators only exacerbates the accessibility crisis that many Australians are facing today and tomorrow. Around one-third of Australian families, or nine million Australians, live in childcare deserts."

Henry Pike

"There are certainly childcare deserts in my community, which would be very much regarded as outer suburban. If the government really cared about improving access to care, they would address the areas struggling most."

Rowan Ramsey

"Sadly, around 50 per cent of my electorate live in a childcare desert, and there is no recognition of this fact in the budget announcements that were made in this place only last night. I find that pretty infuriating."

Anne Webster

"A recent comprehensive study, by Victoria University's Mitchell institute, found that nine million Australians live in an area defined as a 'childcare desert', with at least three children competing over each available childcare place. Regional Australia was among the worst impacted, and it's a damning reality that 75 per cent of people living in rural, regional and remote Australia live in a childcare desert. However, in this budget, there's no plan to improve access to child care, there's no plan to address these childcare deserts and there's no plan to address the workforce shortages that are crippling this sector. The questions that regional Australia is entitled to ask are: Where are the additional places going to open up for all the new children entering the system?"

Sam Birrell

"... areas designated as inner regional, nearly 45 per cent of the population live in a childcare desert. In outer regional Australia, 61 per cent of the population live in a childcare desert. There is no joy for a huge proportion of regional and rural Australians in a bill that makes child care they don't have access to more affordable."

Angie Bell

"And we know that Labor don't care about the regions. They don't care about building infrastructure. They don't care about new early learning centres in the regions. Not one extra centre will be built due to this bill."

Angie Bell

"They have no plan for access, no plan for workers and no plan to address thin markets and childcare deserts."

Angie Bell

"According to the Mitchell Institute, a third of Australian families live in a childcare desert —that's nine million Australians. Fifty per cent of those deserts are in regional, rural and remote area"

Matt O'Sullivan

"As some of you know, I'm from Western Australia, and you don't need to go far out of Perth to find childcare deserts."

Perin Davey

"We know that our regional communities deserve to have the infrastructure, whether it is roads, water security, healthcare or
childcare facilities."

Pat Conaghan

“I am determined to find practical solutions, not just for more affordable childcare centres but more importantly, the availability of childcare in our regional centres for our working mums and dads.

“We are the party that wants to help women and give them the support and services they need.

“I know that finding available childcare centres is a real challenge for regional families and I want to hear from those who need help the most.”

David Littleproud

“I am also determined to find practical solutions, not just for more affordable childcare centres but more importantly, the availability of childcare in our regional centres for our working mums and dads."

Angie Bell

"50 per cent of Australians who don’t have access, in terms of childcare deserts across Australia. There’s nothing in the legislation around that."

Sarah Henderson

"The government has done nothing to address childcare deserts and thin markets around the country"

Barnaby Joyce

“We have towns that struggle with getting day-care."