Opened the debate
Clare argued that the bill provides necessary powers to withhold funding from childcare services that breach safety or quality standards, applying to centre-based, family day, in-home, and outside-school-hours care. Clare stated that the legislation ties eligibility for the childcare subsidy directly to a provider's compliance history, allowing the department secretary to impose conditions or cancel approvals. Clare highlighted that the bill expands the enforcement action register to inform parents about sanctions, conditions, and refusals of new services. Clare also noted that authorised officers will gain powers to conduct spot checks without warrants to detect fraud and share safety concerns with state regulators. Clare concluded that the measure is part of a broader effort to rebuild parental confidence, alongside upcoming reforms to working-with-children checks and educator registers.