Page 5084 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MR SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, a supplementary question?
MRS DUNNE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. We are all aware that the government does not regulate costs. Minister, what advice or modelling has your department sought on the impact on childcare fees of the government’s policy in light of the new portable long service leave scheme in the childcare sector? Are you satisfied that this policy will not impact on childcare fees?
MS BURCH: Thank you, Mrs Dunne, for the question. I will bring that information back. I think it is a similar question that was raised last week. I will bring that information back, as I said I would do last week.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary, Mr Doszpot?
MR DOSZPOT: A supplementary. Minister, what impact are childcare fee increases having on the labour force participation rate, if any?
MS BURCH: With respect to the cost of childcare fees on labour force participation rates, when we introduced the long service leave provision last week, it was around increasing the workforce within childcare centres, therefore creating more spaces for participation. I will take on notice the detail of what you are wanting, and leave it at that.
Roads—Lanyon Drive
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the Minister for Territory and Municipal Services and concerns transport link options between Queanbeyan and Canberra. Minister, why was a transit lane not included in the upgrade to Lanyon Drive?
MR STANHOPE: The upgrade to Lanyon Drive is very significant. It is a $19 million upgrade and it has been a long time coming.
Mr Smyth: Yes, six years.
MR STANHOPE: One of the difficulties and the issues with it was that most particularly the federal Liberal government under John Howard simply refused to actually participate in any negotiation or any partnership with either the ACT or the New South Wales government to see that the road was upgraded.
Ms Le Couteur, we need to start from the point that it is only as a result of a commitment made by the Rudd Labor government that we have an upgrade to the road at all. There was significant intransigence, a sign of the attitude of the Liberal Party to Canberra and the lack of energy of the local Liberals here in this place with their refusal to pursue an upgrade of the road—
Mr Hanson: Mr Speaker, point of order.
MR STANHOPE: combined with a determination by John Howard and the federal Liberal government to refuse to be a part of the upgrade of the road—
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video