❓ The WA government allocates $9.3M from royalties for regions to support regional childcare, addressing challenges faced by volunteer-run centres in accessing Commonwealth funding and supporting children with special needs.
AnsweredQoN 824Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
royalties for regions — CHILDCARE SERVICES FUNDING
I understand that the Minister for Community Services, Hon Robyn McSweeney, and the Minister for Regional Development made an important announcement today that $9.3 million of royalties for regions funding will be made available to support sustainable childcare services in regional Western Australia. Will the minister outline to the house how this will benefit regional families? Mr B.J. GRYLLS
I understand that the Minister for Community Services, Hon Robyn McSweeney, and the Minister for Regional Development made an important announcement today that $9.3 million of royalties for regions funding will be made available to support sustainable childcare services in regional Western Australia. Will the minister outline to the house how this will benefit regional families? Mr B.J. GRYLLS
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Geraldton for his sustained interest in making sure that all regional service delivery is improved. I think the Premier announced a massive injection into the not-for-profit sector in the budget this year, which we as a government are very proud of. Projects such as this, with the allocation of $9.3 million to regional child care, are a continuation of our government’s determination to make sure that families living in Western Australia have the opportunity to share in the benefits of better economic times than perhaps many in the world are enjoying. The member for Geraldton is right: $9.3 million over four years has been allocated to the regional childcare development fund. These funds will be shared by over 100 community childcare centres. I think it is very important to understand that these are the childcare centres whereby a group of mums get together, form a committee, find a building that they can make appropriate for providing child care, and then wade their way through layers and layers of complex federal government bureaucracy to enable them to offer a service to their community. Ms M.M. Quirk : What is the state government doing? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The state government is doing a good job in this space. Hon Robyn McSweeney has really taken the lead in trying to drive the commonwealth to understand. Given that in the Parliament over the past few days there has been a bit of a flavour about the commonwealth not quite understanding how Western Australia works, maybe this is another thing that members opposite could take up with the commonwealth government—that is, that the commonwealth government support young families through the childcare benefit payment. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: I thank the member for Geraldton for his sustained interest in making sure that all regional service delivery is improved. I think the Premier announced a massive injection into the not-for-profit sector in the budget this year, which we as a government are very proud of. Projects such as this, with the allocation of $9.3 million to regional child care, are a continuation of our government’s determination to make sure that families living in Western Australia have the opportunity to share in the benefits of better economic times than perhaps many in the world are enjoying. The member for Geraldton is right: $9.3 million over four years has been allocated to the regional childcare development fund. These funds will be shared by over 100 community childcare centres. I think it is very important to understand that these are the childcare centres whereby a group of mums get together, form a committee, find a building that they can make appropriate for providing child care, and then wade their way through layers and layers of complex federal government bureaucracy to enable them to offer a service to their community. Ms M.M. Quirk : What is the state government doing? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The state government is doing a good job in this space. Hon Robyn McSweeney has really taken the lead in trying to drive the commonwealth to understand. Given that in the Parliament over the past few days there has been a bit of a flavour about the commonwealth not quite understanding how Western Australia works, maybe this is another thing that members opposite could take up with the commonwealth government—that is, that the commonwealth government support young families through the childcare benefit payment. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
I thank the member for Geraldton for his sustained interest in making sure that all regional service delivery is improved. I think the Premier announced a massive injection into the not-for-profit sector in the budget this year, which we as a government are very proud of. Projects such as this, with the allocation of $9.3 million to regional child care, are a continuation of our government’s determination to make sure that families living in Western Australia have the opportunity to share in the benefits of better economic times than perhaps many in the world are enjoying. The member for Geraldton is right: $9.3 million over four years has been allocated to the regional childcare development fund. These funds will be shared by over 100 community childcare centres. I think it is very important to understand that these are the childcare centres whereby a group of mums get together, form a committee, find a building that they can make appropriate for providing child care, and then wade their way through layers and layers of complex federal government bureaucracy to enable them to offer a service to their community. Ms M.M. Quirk : What is the state government doing? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The state government is doing a good job in this space. Hon Robyn McSweeney has really taken the lead in trying to drive the commonwealth to understand. Given that in the Parliament over the past few days there has been a bit of a flavour about the commonwealth not quite understanding how Western Australia works, maybe this is another thing that members opposite could take up with the commonwealth government—that is, that the commonwealth government support young families through the childcare benefit payment. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
The member for Geraldton is right: $9.3 million over four years has been allocated to the regional childcare development fund. These funds will be shared by over 100 community childcare centres. I think it is very important to understand that these are the childcare centres whereby a group of mums get together, form a committee, find a building that they can make appropriate for providing child care, and then wade their way through layers and layers of complex federal government bureaucracy to enable them to offer a service to their community. Ms M.M. Quirk : What is the state government doing? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The state government is doing a good job in this space. Hon Robyn McSweeney has really taken the lead in trying to drive the commonwealth to understand. Given that in the Parliament over the past few days there has been a bit of a flavour about the commonwealth not quite understanding how Western Australia works, maybe this is another thing that members opposite could take up with the commonwealth government—that is, that the commonwealth government support young families through the childcare benefit payment. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Ms M.M. Quirk : What is the state government doing? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The state government is doing a good job in this space. Hon Robyn McSweeney has really taken the lead in trying to drive the commonwealth to understand. Given that in the Parliament over the past few days there has been a bit of a flavour about the commonwealth not quite understanding how Western Australia works, maybe this is another thing that members opposite could take up with the commonwealth government—that is, that the commonwealth government support young families through the childcare benefit payment. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The state government is doing a good job in this space. Hon Robyn McSweeney has really taken the lead in trying to drive the commonwealth to understand. Given that in the Parliament over the past few days there has been a bit of a flavour about the commonwealth not quite understanding how Western Australia works, maybe this is another thing that members opposite could take up with the commonwealth government—that is, that the commonwealth government support young families through the childcare benefit payment. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: I thank the member for Geraldton for his sustained interest in making sure that all regional service delivery is improved. I think the Premier announced a massive injection into the not-for-profit sector in the budget this year, which we as a government are very proud of. Projects such as this, with the allocation of $9.3 million to regional child care, are a continuation of our government’s determination to make sure that families living in Western Australia have the opportunity to share in the benefits of better economic times than perhaps many in the world are enjoying. The member for Geraldton is right: $9.3 million over four years has been allocated to the regional childcare development fund. These funds will be shared by over 100 community childcare centres. I think it is very important to understand that these are the childcare centres whereby a group of mums get together, form a committee, find a building that they can make appropriate for providing child care, and then wade their way through layers and layers of complex federal government bureaucracy to enable them to offer a service to their community. Ms M.M. Quirk : What is the state government doing? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The state government is doing a good job in this space. Hon Robyn McSweeney has really taken the lead in trying to drive the commonwealth to understand. Given that in the Parliament over the past few days there has been a bit of a flavour about the commonwealth not quite understanding how Western Australia works, maybe this is another thing that members opposite could take up with the commonwealth government—that is, that the commonwealth government support young families through the childcare benefit payment. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
I thank the member for Geraldton for his sustained interest in making sure that all regional service delivery is improved. I think the Premier announced a massive injection into the not-for-profit sector in the budget this year, which we as a government are very proud of. Projects such as this, with the allocation of $9.3 million to regional child care, are a continuation of our government’s determination to make sure that families living in Western Australia have the opportunity to share in the benefits of better economic times than perhaps many in the world are enjoying. The member for Geraldton is right: $9.3 million over four years has been allocated to the regional childcare development fund. These funds will be shared by over 100 community childcare centres. I think it is very important to understand that these are the childcare centres whereby a group of mums get together, form a committee, find a building that they can make appropriate for providing child care, and then wade their way through layers and layers of complex federal government bureaucracy to enable them to offer a service to their community. Ms M.M. Quirk : What is the state government doing? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The state government is doing a good job in this space. Hon Robyn McSweeney has really taken the lead in trying to drive the commonwealth to understand. Given that in the Parliament over the past few days there has been a bit of a flavour about the commonwealth not quite understanding how Western Australia works, maybe this is another thing that members opposite could take up with the commonwealth government—that is, that the commonwealth government support young families through the childcare benefit payment. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
The member for Geraldton is right: $9.3 million over four years has been allocated to the regional childcare development fund. These funds will be shared by over 100 community childcare centres. I think it is very important to understand that these are the childcare centres whereby a group of mums get together, form a committee, find a building that they can make appropriate for providing child care, and then wade their way through layers and layers of complex federal government bureaucracy to enable them to offer a service to their community. Ms M.M. Quirk : What is the state government doing? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The state government is doing a good job in this space. Hon Robyn McSweeney has really taken the lead in trying to drive the commonwealth to understand. Given that in the Parliament over the past few days there has been a bit of a flavour about the commonwealth not quite understanding how Western Australia works, maybe this is another thing that members opposite could take up with the commonwealth government—that is, that the commonwealth government support young families through the childcare benefit payment. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Ms M.M. Quirk : What is the state government doing? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The state government is doing a good job in this space. Hon Robyn McSweeney has really taken the lead in trying to drive the commonwealth to understand. Given that in the Parliament over the past few days there has been a bit of a flavour about the commonwealth not quite understanding how Western Australia works, maybe this is another thing that members opposite could take up with the commonwealth government—that is, that the commonwealth government support young families through the childcare benefit payment. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The state government is doing a good job in this space. Hon Robyn McSweeney has really taken the lead in trying to drive the commonwealth to understand. Given that in the Parliament over the past few days there has been a bit of a flavour about the commonwealth not quite understanding how Western Australia works, maybe this is another thing that members opposite could take up with the commonwealth government—that is, that the commonwealth government support young families through the childcare benefit payment. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : That is the only way that the commonwealth government supports young families. The great challenge for the vast majority of smaller country communities is that the commonwealth legislation and regulations exclude them from collecting the childcare benefit payment because of the way in which the regulations have been set up. Therefore, young volunteer mums get together to form a committee; they offer child care, and then they cannot even get the commonwealth childcare payment because the commonwealth has made the regulations too difficult for them to meet the requirements. There is the ridiculous situation where for-profit childcare centres get access to the commonwealth money, but volunteer commonwealth childcare centres do not get access to that commonwealth money. In the long list of issues that the Leader of the Opposition needs to raise with the Prime Minister when he regularly meets with her to find new ways to tax Western Australia, it might be good if he could raise child care. This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
This $9 million comes off the back of $687 000 that was made available in February this year to keep open 21 occasional childcare centres in regional Western Australia. We had to make this money available because the commonwealth pulled the funding. Not only does the commonwealth not make the childcare benefit payment available to the vast majority of regional childcare centres, it has stopped funding the stuff that it used to fund. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Mandurah, I formally call you to order for the second time. Member for Wanneroo, I call you to order for the first time today as well—formally. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : This funding today will support operational support grants essentially to allow volunteer childcare centres to get some expertise to help them manage their finances and the regulations that they need to meet to remain compliant. Childcare centre compliance is obviously important, but we can provide some support to the volunteers to make that happen. Really important is the support for children with special needs. For a young family with a child with a disability in the country, having access to child care can be very important. We will make that available to them so that country kids with a disability have the same access to some of the support systems that are available in the metropolitan area. Strategic grants will encourage innovation and planning. That might be as much as getting bathrooms to meet requirements or in refurbishing an existing building in the community to meet the requirements of a childcare centre. Really importantly—something that Hon Robyn McSweeney is taking a lead on at the national level—funding has been allocated to develop a children’s services regional plan and a regional childcare development officers plan to make sure that we can attract the skills needed to keep these services going into the future and make sure that we can win some of these debates with the commonwealth about making sure that we can access commonwealth funding for child care. The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
The reason it is so important to get child care right in regional Western Australia is that, as our economy moves into this major expansion phase, and as we all try to deal with the challenges of finding the skills necessary to support that expansion, young mums in country communities bring a huge amount of skill and a huge amount of ability to the local economy, but they cannot actually participate in the local economy if they cannot access child care. The Western Australian community will be much better off by the provision of good child care across the length and breadth of the state to allow young mums mainly, but certainly young dads as well, to move back into the workforce after they have had their children and allow them to participate in driving the Western Australian economy. That is why the Liberal–National government has invested in child care in regional areas, and that is why it is very disappointing that after many years of neglect, we can finally sort out this issue and allow them to get those childcare centres operating.
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