Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026

Mr HILL (Bruce—Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs and Assistant Minister for International Education) (17:49): They weren't a very good government, and there's no sign that they'll be a very good opposition, but maybe they'll get better as the week goes on. I just want to respond to a few comments which have been made and, firstly, to thank the opposition, very genuinely, for their comments regarding the minister and the government's bipartisan work on child safety.

Every child deserves to be safe in early childhood education and care, and every parent deserves to know that their children are safe. The media reports which were seen were shocking. They shocked every member of this parliament.

We acknowledged there was more to do—that we all had more to do. And the government has acted. I thank the opposition speakers for acknowledging that.

There's the $189 million national child safety package, developed and agreed shoulder to shoulder with states and territories, to keep children safe in early learning. I acknowledge the commitment of the states and territories for more funding to improve the working-with-children check and regulators, with more compliance checks. New legislation has been passed, so we can cut funding from services not up to scratch.

And we're now using those powers, with 37 services under investigation. I acknowledge some of the sensible contributions, but I am worried about the opposition's collective amnesia and lack of contact with reality. I'll quote the first contribution.

The first speaker said she hadn't met anyone better off. Well, I think she needs to get out more. And they really do have short memories—not just short memories about their terrible record and that wasted decade of decay, dysfunction and division, but very short memories about the propositions, the policies, they took to the last election, or indeed the way that they voted on core legislation that has come through.

Parents are better off with the cheaper child care changes—$7,740, on average, better off. They are paying lower fees than they otherwise would have. Childcare workers are better off because of the wage rises that this government proposed, which the opposition said were wasteful.

There's fee-free TAFE, which the opposition leader said was wasteful; if you don't pay for something, you don't value it, according to the opposition. There are public school students who are going to be better off for years to come because, finally, this government has put in place the funding agreements so that every public school student in the country will be fully funded—will meet the recommended funding standard.

Students with a HECS debt will be better off because of the 20 per cent cut to all student debts. That's building on the $3 billion of student debt cuts that we made last term. Students will be better off because of the lower repayments that they're making.

There's more that I could say on the details, but I'll end my comments there to enable the member for Deakin, who is a former teacher himself, to also make a contribution.