TRANSCRIPT:
The first two bills introduced in to the 48th Parliament both focused on education.
One fulfils Labor's election promise to cut student debts by 20 per cent - the other a response to shocking allegations of child abuse in Melbourne.
"I think the whole country has been sickened and shocked by the revelations that have come out of Victoria in the last few weeks. A lot of work is needed to rebuild trust in a system that parents rely on every single day."
That's Education Minister Jason Clare, referring to alleged abuse by 26 year old childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown, who is accused of abusing eight children aged between five months and two years old, with thousands of children possibly exposed to infectious diseases.
The government since accelerating its plan to address safety and quality issues in childcare centres.
The bill would give the Commonwealth powers to cut off childcare subsidy payments to centres.
"The biggest weapon that the Commonwealth has to wield here is the funding that we provide that enables childcare centers to operate. It's something like $16 billion a year, and that covers about 70% of the cost of running the average child care centre."
It also expands the Education Department's ability to monitor centres, and enter without notice or a warrant.
"This gives more power to our officers to be able to do spot checks without a warrant or without the AFP on board."
And would allow details about breaches to be published by the department.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley says the coalition will closely examine the proposal.
But Nationals Frontbencher Bridget McKenzie says more needs to be done.
"Is it enough? No, will it fix the problem? No. There is much more to be done in this space, and I we've acted in a bipartisan way. We'll continue to do so, but we do believe that much more urgent action needs to be taken. The education ministers aren't getting together till October, and the Attorneys General aren't getting together till next month. This needs to be solved. Now, get on the blower. Get them up. You can have a teams meeting, but let's get the solutions on the table and enacted so that our children are."
The meeting next month will consider proposals like mandating CCTV in centres, establishing a National Educator Register, and mandatory child safety training.
Children's commissioner Anne Hollonds says the split responsibilities can make it a challenging issue to address.
"And it's often the case with all areas of policy to do with children that the responsibilities are divided between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories. And what we see is a bit of handballing of responsibility when a negative event occurs, like the really horrendous situation we're dealing with right now."
The Commissioner is calling for a single person to hold the final responsibility for child safety in Australia.
"There's a lot of questions being asked about, why has it taken 10 years for us to now be taking seriously a lot of these measures that we were told by the Royal Commission are required to keep children safe. And, you know, it really it has to be something about the fact that there is no minister for whom child safety and wellbeing is their number one priority. Unlike for women, we've had ministers for women for decades. There are good reasons why we have a Minister for Women. There's also a good reason why we have women's safety as a key priority for national cabinet, which is where the Prime Minister and the heads of the states and territories work together on issues of national significance. And a lot of viewers would be surprised to hear that child safety and wellbeing is not listed as a priority for national cabinet. So I think both of those issues need to be looked at that we're missing some key accountability mechanisms."
