Today I wish to speak on an issue affecting thousands of families across Western Sydney, particularly in my electorate of Leppington: childcare deserts. There are areas where the number of available childcare places is vastly outstripped by the number of children who need them. My electorate has a lot of new housing. With a lot of new housing comes a lot of new families and a lot of young children. It is a situation that continues to leave working families without real options, locked out of access to early education, and forced into sometimes impossible choices. I have heard directly from parents in the electorate of Leppington who are facing this struggle each and every working day. One constituent told me she applied to five different childcare centres and only one could offer a place, and then that was for only two days a week. The others had waiting lists of up to two years.

I know from speaking to parents when I am out and about in the electorate that unfortunately this is not an outlier issue but rather the norm across many parts of my community. The problem is particularly acute for parents of children under two years of age and parents who have children with additional needs. While childcare centres might exist nearby, they are often not equipped to care for younger children and children with additional needs. For working parents, especially those who are trying to re‑enter the workforce, this is more than just a logistical hurdle. It is a crisis that limits their ability to earn an income and plan their future. Let us be clear about why we arrived at this point: This is the result of years of inaction, underinvestment and short-sighted policy under both the former State and Federal Liberal governments. For too long they allowed the system to drift and left it to the private market, which prioritised profit over fairness.

Centres were built in higher income areas where fees could be maximised, whereas growing suburbs like Leppington were left with chronic shortages. We are now seeing the consequences of that hand‑off approach, not just in access but in accountability. Recent reports of disturbing allegations within one of the nation's largest private childcare providers underscore the urgency of the need for a stronger, more transparent and better‑regulated early education system. Families deserve to know their children are safe, nurtured and receiving high-quality care. In Western Sydney, female workforce participation is just 65 per cent compared with the 76 per cent average across the rest of the city. The gap is not about capability or ambition; it is about access. Families in Leppington are being held back because there are simply no places for their children, but steps are now being taken to fix it.

The Minns Labor Government is building 40 new public preschools in Western Sydney as part of its policy to deliver 100 new public preschools. Thankfully, five of them are located in Leppington. Those preschools will be co-located with public primary schools, meaning families can access early learning in the same place their children will eventually go to school. Leppington Public School will be next to a local high school, meaning that parents will be able to drop off kids from preschool to primary and high school ages, and then drive no more than half a kilometre up the road to Leppington station. That will make things easier for working families in my electorate. Most importantly, the preschools will be fee free, public, play based and designed to give three- to five-year-olds a smoother, supported transition into kindergarten. For families in Leppington, it is the support they have been waiting for.

At the Federal level, the re-elected Albanese Labor Government is also stepping up. Its $1 billion Building Early Education Fund, which will start in a couple of months, will deliver 160 new not-for-profit childcare centres across Australia. It will provide a guaranteed minimum of three days of care per week. The centres will be built where they are needed most, not just where they are most profitable. In addition, early childhood educators—who have long been undervalued—have received a long-overdue 15 per cent pay rise, helping attract and retain the workforce needed to support that massive expansion. Those are not handouts or bandaids; they are long-term investments in our children, our families and the future of our region. For too long, the people of Western Sydney were left behind, but that is changing.

The steps being taken now by both the State and Federal Labor governments are a direct response to the failures of past governments, and a clear recognition that child care is an essential public infrastructure and service. For the parents in Leppington who have been doing it tough—waiting, juggling and sacrificing—help is finally coming. I will keep fighting to ensure that it keeps coming until every family has the support they need and every child gets the start they deserve.