Senator GIBBS (3:26 PM) —What we have just had from the other side is the greatest load of rubbish I have ever heard in my life. First off, we had Senator Herron trying desperately to answer questions about a situation he had absolutely no grasp of. Then we had Senator Patterson saying that the ALP was responsible for inadequate child-care facilities.

Senator Patterson interjecting—

Senator GIBBS —Let me tell you, Senator Patterson, when I was a young mother, I lived for many, many years under a coalition government. There were very, very few child-care centres and, because of that, women like myself who came from working class areas and who had very little transport could not go out to work. But, if we did go out to work, it had to be part time and we had to work around child-care centres' hours, or stay at home. There was no choice. There were very, very few facilities. In fact, women like myself and millions of others in this country had to rely on their mothers, their mother-in-laws, the lady next door, or whatever. So do not tell me about child-care centres and adequate facilities.

The ALP government brought in an extremely successful child-care program. Under your government, since you were elected in March 1996, you have turned this area into an absolute and utter disaster. Over the past two budgets, your government has decimated the child-care sector by removing $820 million. So how can you possibly say that you are providing a decent service?

These are some of the changes that you have brought about: you have abolished income allowed for additional dependent children when assessing eligibility for child-care assistance; you have removed operational subsidies worth $100 million over four years from community based child-care centres; you have reduced child-care assistance or put in place cut-offs for second and subsequent children; you have extended the range of fringe benefits for child-care assistance income testing; and you have removed operational subsidies to outside school hours care, putting in doubt the long-term viability of this flexible program—and let us talk about this particular aspect. Because of this, I do not think your government knows or understands how—

Senator Neal —It does not want to know.

Senator GIBBS —Exactly, Senator Neal. You do not understand how the after hours school care operates. It operates on part-time, casual and volunteer labour. Because of your IR legislation you have forced people, particularly part-time and casual people, into a situation where they have to work when their boss tells them to work. They cannot operate their own part-time working hours. They have to work when they are told to work; otherwise they risk losing their job. How does this benefit those parents and those children when their parents have to work—

Senator Eggleston interjecting—

Senator GIBBS —Senator Eggleston, it is a fact of life that in today's society both parents have to work to provide their children with an adequate and decent life. Most people in this country, if they are lucky enough to have work, need both parents working. With this particular outside school hours cut, we are going to go back to the situation of the latchkey kids, or these children will be at school unsupervised for hours and hours. Who wants to go back to the good old days of the latchkey kids?

You also froze child-care assistance and child-care cash rebate ceilings for two years, which has meant no indexation for the past two years. These changes have created total confusion and uncertainty in the sector, particularly for parents and for service providers. Senator Reynolds touched on the Queensland Child Care Coalition survey in our home state of Queensland which revealed that 3,255 children have been removed from 244 services in Queensland in the last year as a result of the fee increases—(Time expired)