Mr CADMAN (3:16 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. Can the minister inform the House about the coalition government's commitment to providing quality child care? What is being done to ensure children using child care are safe, particularly in outside school hours care?

Mr ANTHONY (Minister for Children and Youth Affairs) —I would like to thank the member for Mitchell. He is a longstanding member of this parliament and he has a very keen interest in work and family issues, particularly the welfare of children. As he well knows, the coalition's record when it comes to child care is exemplary. We have committed $8 billion over the next four years, and we know that over the last six years we have spent 70 per cent more than Labor did in their last six years of government. We have a direct interest in, and great concern about, the area of quality and regulation. I think all parents, for their peace of mind, want to be reassured when they leave their child in a Commonwealth funded child-care facility that adequate quality assurance and regulations are in place. When it comes to licensing and regulation, they are clearly the area of the states and territories. Along with our record allocation in the area of outside school hours care, we are interested to see quality assurance—just as we have done in long day care recently, when tougher provisions came in, and family day care as well—to ensure that maximum quality is maintained in Commonwealth funded outside school hours care.

I must admit that I was concerned by some statements in the Daily Telegraph today. I know that the member for Mitchell, after meeting many providers in his electorate not so long ago, was concerned about the role the states and territories have in licensing and regulation. They do have that jurisdiction and they do have those responsibilities. These are regulations regarding the qualifications of staff, staff-child ratios and of course the physical environment. I compliment the ACT government because they were the first territory to introduce regulations for outside school hours care. We want to see other states bringing forward regulations. Queensland will do it and Western Australia will do it, but I was quite surprised to read about New South Wales in the paper today. I quote from a leading paper, the Daily Telegraph, where it says:

That is fair enough. It continues:

That is clearly not the case. We do not have the responsibility to regulate child care, particularly outside school hours care. It is high time some state governments stopped cost shifting to the Commonwealth. In the area of early childhood care, particularly preschools, there has been no funding increase in the state of New South Wales for over a decade. Indeed, they now have a lower amount of funding for preschools than any other state. To a large extent, the only checks and balances they are interested in when it comes to after school hours care is the cheque that is coming from the Commonwealth through child-care benefit. They are more interested in the bottom line than they are in the quality of care. There is no doubt that we have played our part. There has been a 221 per cent increase in outside school hours care. I want to introduce quality assurance programs for outside school hours care next year, but the states must introduce regulations as a matter of urgency and not try to pretend it is a Commonwealth responsibility or cost shift to the Commonwealth.

Mr Howard —Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.