RADIO INTERVIEW – ABC South East with Jen Hunt
Monday, 26 May 2021
SUBJECT: Childcare, Upper Hunter by-election
JEN HUNT
Well a wake up call. That's what federal MP Joel Fitzgibbon is calling the result of the New South Wales by-election in the Upper Hunter over the weekend following his party's upsetting defeat, and he's threatening to quit the party. Labor leader Anthony Albanese has called for perspective amid the chaos. Let's see what perspective Kristy McBain has on the issue. Good morning Kristy.
KRISTY MCBAIN
Morning Jen, how are you?
JEN HUNT
Very well, thank you. The results in the Upper Hunter, were pretty damning for Labor, a 9% swing away when they weren't the incumbents. What's your take on what was happening?
KRISTY MCBAIN
Yeah look, I tend to agree with Albo, I mean, a bit of perspective on the state by-election, there was also a swing away from the National Party in the seat as well. By-elections throw up a huge race, there were 13 candidates and there were swings away from the National Party and the Labor Party, there were a number of independents running and the One Nation vote went up. So, I think we just need to take a bit of perspective and realise that there were a lot of issues at play at that point in time.
JEN HUNT
What is the position of the Labor Party when it comes to the proposal by the Federal Government of the $600 million dollar gas plant for Snowy Hydro to build in that Upper Hunter area?
KRISTY MCBAIN
The position that the Labor Party took was that we would want to see the business case, you know, with $600 million of taxpayer funds impeding in the market, the Liberal coalition have repeatedly declined to enter into market forces saying that the market will take care of itself and we saw that when car manufacturers said that they wanted to leave and the coalition government said that they wouldn't intervene, because the market was at play and yet here we have the coalition government, who have repeatedly changed their energy policies. I think there's now been 23 over the last eight years and we've now got private enterprise who are worried about investing in the energy sector, because they don't know what they're going to get from this Government. So they've now decided to intervene with a $600 million taxpayer funded gas power plant. The only call on that from the Labor Party is to release the business case so that we can see if it was a good investment.
JEN HUNT
Let's move to issues that have more local interest. Now, on the back of the budget, we are seeing debate on the rising childcare costs in Eden-Monaro, even a problem just finding a place to start with in Merimbula. We know of one family facing a one year wait for a place. What is being done to help families in this situation?
KRISTY MCBAIN
I've had my own firsthand experience of utilising the childcare sector, with all three of my kids and it can be a long wait. I think the interesting thing is that when we look at childcare fees across Eden-Monaro, they've gone up by 3.9%, along the coast, by 3.3%, in the Queanbeyan region and 7.7% in the Tumbarumba region. It's good policy to assist families in this space, because not only does a child do most of its brain development in the first five years, but it's also good for their socialisation and education. It's great for getting families back participating in the workforce, if that's their choice. The policy that the Labor Party outlined in October last year during the budget in reply, the coalition laughed at and said it wasn't needed and wasn't necessary. They have come up with their own policy now in this budget, but it will only assist a quarter of the families that the Labor Party's policy will assist. So it's been a quarter of an attempt to deal with the childcare issue facing many families. But we know that to get the sector right, I think the Labor Party's policies are much better placed to do that.
JEN HUNT
Kristy I was hoping to talk with regard to border reopenings and indeed reconciliation week but unfortunately, we are out of time for this morning, but we'll catch up with those issues with you again before too long. Thank you.
