Cheng Lei: Joining me live now is a Shadow Choice in Childcare and Early Learning Minister Matt O’Sullivan. Hi there, Matt. Thanks for joining us. So do you support these wage rises?
Senator Matt O’Sullivan: Well, the Fair Work Commission has determined it, and the workers deserve it. They deserve high rises that they’re getting. And so, the Coalition fully supports this extension to the worker attention payment. But it is only a short-term solution, and that’s where we’re critical of the government. They haven’t done the heavy lifting in terms of the reforms that are necessary to ensure that this is long term. They’ve actually only increased it or extended it for another 19 months. So what happens at the end of that time? It’s an uncertainty that workers don’t need it. It’s an uncertainty that childcare providers don’t need. But more importantly, it’s an uncertainty that families, working families don’t make, because the out–of–pocket costs under this government has been skyrocketed. It’s been going up over 8% a year, cumulative 27% since this government came into power. This is on the back of a promise at the last election to make childcare cheaper, and that’s a promise that’s not yet been met.
Cheng Lei: So what would the Coalition do in terms of putting in place structural reforms so that there is certainty for parents and that childcare is affordable, accessible, and of a high quality.
Senator Matt O’Sullivan: Well, quality is absolutely essential. That’s what we know parents are absolutely desperate for. They want to know when they’re dropping their kids off, that they’re going to be cared for by a quality provider, and the government is needing to do more in that space. But in terms of the structural reforms that are necessary, the government needs to do the heavy lifting. And what we would do is actually work with the providers, to figure out how we can actually drive greater efficiencies within the system. We’ve got multiple layers of the bureaucracy between the state and federal government that’s implying greater costs upon providers. We also want to provide greater choice and flexibility for parents. For a lot of families, long daycare, centre-based care is the solution for them. But for a whole bunch of families across Australia, in fact, about half of all Australian families that are not choosing long daycare, that are not choosing centre-based care, they need greater support as well. So we think there needs to be greater choice and flexibility. We think we can do more around the tax system to provide that support for families. And we can work with families and we can work with childcare providers equally to figure out how to drive that efficiency and drive that flexibility through the system.
Cheng Lei: We heard a bit of outrage from Pauline Hansen at the National Press Club Q and A session about the wage increases, calling, you know, calling it astounding that childcare subsidies now cost $16 billion, and she wants an investigation. Is this something that the coalition is backing as well?
Senator Matt O’Sullivan: Well, we think there definitely needs to be a greater examination of the system that’s costing a lot of money. In fact, this is on top of the $16 billion, this recent announcement. So there should be, there needs to be proper examination. In fact, one of the things I’m actually really critical of is the fact that this announcement wasn’t in the budget, and therefore it wasn’t available to us as the opposition to examine during senate estimates only a week ago, and we’d be going into the detail of what this actually means. The government avoids the scrutiny, they avoid the accountability time after time. And so senate estimates is a really important forum for that to occur. That’s why I fronted up, ready to ask the government to, ready to ask government questions about their system. Yet they, we didn’t have any detail about this to examine. So it’s really unfortunate that they’re doing that, and we think there needs to be a greater look at this, because it is costing the taxpayer, enormous amount of money, but they’re out of pocket cost are out of control for families. And so, families expect that to be greater scrutiny and examination of this.
Cheng Lei: And what are your views of Pauline Hanson’s speech and the Q and A, where she touched on a number of major culture war points? For example, that Australia should be monocultural.
Senator Matt O’Sullivan: Well, I haven’t had the opportunity to watch her speech in a full. I’ve only caught the highlight reels as they’ve been coming through. I will catch up with it later because I think it’s important to understand what Pauline’s actually saying – what she’s standing for. Look, when people come to Australia, I welcome people from, I love going to citizenship ceremonies, one of the great joys that I get to have as a sitting Senator. But people need to come here and accept that they are coming in under the Australian values, and what we need is Australian values to be first and foremost, and the prominent feature of our country. So we certainly are a multi-ethnic country, a multi-race country, but we are an Australian country, and that’s what we need all Australians if you’re calling this place your home, to adopt our way of life, and further and strengthen it.
Cheng Lei: Thanks so much for your time. Matt O’Sullivan, Shadow Choice in Childcare and Early Learning Minister.