Dr WEBSTER (Mallee) (19:50): The Albanese Labor government repeatedly pat themselves on the back for their wage rise and subsidies for child care, but families in regional Australia are left out in the cold by a lack of availability and access. A subsidy is well and good if it solves the childcare access issue, but it does not. When some towns have no childcare places at all or a waitlist of 400 children and no centre at all, the situation is indeed dire.

Parents in Mallee regularly contact me, desperately seeking help in our childcare deserts. Lisa lives in a central Victorian town with a population of 8,000 people but only two childcare centres with waitlists that will mean her children may not ever be able to attend child care. There are also only two family daycare providers in the area, and they too are completely booked out. Every week, Lisa sees posts on local Facebook groups where parents are crying out for help, desperate for a solution to the childcare crisis. Families are forced to move away from Maryborough because they cannot find child care. Skilled workers are leaving, and those who stay are being pushed out of employment because there is no-one to care for their children. This childcare crisis is becoming an economic crisis, eroding the very fabric of our communities.

Across the Wimmera and Southern Mallee, the By Five Early Years Initiative collected data in 2022 that revealed that there were 300 children on local waiting lists and 84 additional staff needed to meet the demand. But the data only tells part of the story. In many rural towns with populations of less than 5,000 people, there is no childcare service at all, so waitlists alone do not tell the tale of the huge hole that is hurting families. There is no waitlist for a service that doesn't even exist. Towns in Mallee are playing a game of musical chairs, minus the chairs. Service provision is ad hoc and reliant on luck, passion and the commitment of early learning staff, rather than on strategic development. Even where childcare services exist, they are hamstrung by workforce shortages, inadequate funding models and a lack of infrastructure.

In Hopetoun, the situation is equally dire. The Uniting Early Learning childcare centre recently closed because they could not find staff. This is devastating for the community, and the children are the ones bearing the brunt as parents struggle with the cost of living and drive for hours a week if they can secure a childcare place in another town. Gannawarra Shire Council has also sounded the alarm. In Kerang, at last count, there were 85 children under the age of three waiting for a place at the Gannawarra Shire Children's Centre. At the family daycare in Cohuna, 34 are waiting for a place, and 45 are waiting for a spot at Family Day Care in Kerang. The Victorian state government has committed to building an early learning centre in Cohuna, but, without a confirmed date, families and the local council are left with no ability to plan for the future.

Families parched in childcare deserts are not isolated incidents. My own policy adviser's children were on a waitlist in Swan Hill for more than two years—so long that her daughter started primary school before securing a childcare place. What have the Albanese Labor government done to address this systemic failure? Nothing. They have left families and rural councils to fend for themselves. The current funding model for childcare services is broken. Services in Mallee's rural towns rely heavily on Commonwealth subsidies that are cyclical and unsustainable. For the sake of the future of our communities, the Albanese Labor government must immediately address the regional childcare crisis, invest in the infrastructure needed to support new childcare centres, and address the severe workforce shortages that are crippling those services. Our children and their parents deserve better.

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