THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TELEVISION INTERVIEW

SUNRISE

MONDAY, 2 OCTOBER 2023

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SUBJECTS: CHEAPER CHILDCARE.

NATALIE BARR, HOST: Australia's childcare fees are amongst some of the highest in the world, according to a bombshell report that reveals they're up by 20 per cent. The Consumer Watchdog has called on the federal Government to step in with a fix, finding that current policies like the childcare subsidy and the hourly rate cap are failing to drive down costs. The government has already backed calls to name and shame childcare price gougers.

Let's bring Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce. Good morning to both of you.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Good morning.

BARR: Tanya, current childcare policies obviously not working. Your government has hung its hat on this as one of the big policies. Are the subsidies being eaten up, the subsidies that parents are being getting eaten up by the childcare centres jacking up their prices.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, a couple of things, Nat. The first is, this report that we're talking about actually covers the period before our policies came into effect, so it's the very reason that we have put so much money into reducing childcare fees. So this report is about the period up till 2022.

Since then we've seen hourly rates come down by about 14 per cent, but we need to keep working on this. This is the biggest expense for most families after the mortgage or the rent, and families are at this time of year making decisions about what they do for next year. If they're making a decision not to work that extra day or two, that's really impacting the family budget, and it's also not good for the Australian economy that people are locked out of work because they can't afford childcare.

So one of the suggestions in this report, as you say, is naming and shaming. If childcare operators are ripping parents off, I think it's fair to make that clear. There are obviously lots of centres doing the right thing, and parents for the most part really love their childcare centres, particularly the people who are working in those centres; they love those people who look after their kids. But if there are some people doing the wrong thing and ripping off parents, then we've got to get to the bottom of that.

BARR: Yeah. Barnaby, the centres are blaming inflation, they say rent, electricity, food, wages, a lot of those things are going up, and that's why they're having to jack up their prices. But is there something else at play here?

BARNABY JOYCE: Well, we've just heard Tanya say that the big influences is mortgage ‑ well, that's gone up under Labor, rent has gone up under Labor. She left one out; power prices. Remember they were going to reduce power prices, and they went through the roof. And also, we had childcare, that was another one they said they were going to fix, and prices are going up. 

Now, they're saying, "Well, don't worry, something wonderful will happen in the future." Well, haven't we heard that one all before, especially with power prices.  Now, we've seen the ACCC report come out and the difference between nominal and actual childcare change, is about 20 per cent; that's the nominal, the actual one is around about 27. We've got an interim report from the Productivity Commission, and we look forward to the finalisation of that report. But the Labor Party are just, you know, asleep at the wheel, they ‑‑

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Barnaby, this is a report about when you were in government.

JOYCE: They're already doing, is giving the subsidy and allowing someone, therefore, just to absorb it, absorb it just by putting up their prices. Then it's a nil sum gain. I mean this is exactly what's happening here. You've sort of dealt with one part of the issue and completely forgotten about another, and all that's happened is the childcare centres have made more money. Good luck to them.

BARR: Barnaby, is sounds like this ‑‑

JOYCE: They're obviously smart.

BARR: ‑‑ was up to 2022, so it sounds like this is on your watch.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah.

JOYCE: Well, the ACCC report is from 18 to 22, 2018 to 2022, that's correct. But I'll tell you what's not from that period of time is your Childcare Bill right now. And I can say it's just like your power bill right now, it's going through the roof, isn't it?|BARR: But how do you defend that, Barnaby ‑‑ 

JOYCE: See, that's a Labor Party report, what is actually in the mail.

BARR: ‑‑ because this report is saying that it's the highest in the world, but that was when your government was in, so it sounds like that was your fault.

JOYCE: And, I suppose you could say we lost the election 'cause the Labor Party were going to fix it. Well, have they? Have they? It's not ‑ it's exactly the same in ‑‑

NATALIE BARR: Well, Tanya ‑‑

JOYCE: ‑‑ and if you keep going down this mad ‑‑

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah.  Nat, a couple of things. The hourly rates have gone down by about 14 per cent, but I know a lot of families are still finding it very difficult to find the money to pay for the childcare. So we need to keep working on it, of course we do. We're getting it right. We've seen that 14 per cent decrease in hourly rates. Not all centres are passing that on fully to parents, the extra the money we're putting in, so we've got to make sure that they do that.

BARR: And as you say, there's that right to name and shame, so you know, as long as you're on to it ‑‑

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, absolutely.

BARR: And parents aren't the losers.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: That's right.

BARR: Okay.   Thank you very much, both of you, we'll see you next week.

END