NSW Labor slugs childcare

12-November-2008

Julia Gillard should be slamming her ALP colleagues in NSW over their decision to slug childcare centres with a new licence fee, Sophie Mirabella MP, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Childcare said today.

“At a time of crisis in the child care industry, Ms Gillard’s Labor colleagues in NSW are slugging childcare centres with a new $1100 fee that will ultimately hit already struggling working families,” Mrs Mirabella said.

“The timing is appalling and it’s clearly just a desperate funding grab by NSW Labor. They have run the NSW economy into the ground and now are resorting to getting money from easy targets. The problem is that any increase in costs childcare centres pay must be passed on to families.”

“And what happens to the 200 or so ABC learning Centres in NSW? They’ve just copped a collective $220,000 annual bill at a time when the Rudd Government is putting up $22 million to help the child care centres keep operating. It’s crazy.”

“Federal Labor is pouring money into the child care system, their State colleagues are ripping it out of the system, and no one says a peep – is that what ‘ending the blame game’ is all about?

“Julia Gillard should be on the phone tearing strips off NSW Premier Nathan Rees. She should be calling publicly for Labor to re-consider imposing this new fee at a time when the industry is trying to work through a crisis. But, for once, she’s silent.”

Mrs Mirabella said she was concerned that child care was being forgotten as Deputy Prime Minister Gillard struggles with the demands of her super-portfolio.

“The Minister’s response to the ABC Learning Centre collapse is a case in point. This situation has not come from out of the blue. There were indications 9 months ago that the company was in serious trouble and they ceased trading on the stock exchange way back in August.”

“But it wasn’t until the 24th September that the Government set up a Taskforce, which the Minister assured us last month was busily working on contingency plans. Now we’re in mid-November and we haven’t seen a contingency plan – in fact, the Government has told worried parents to wait until mid-December. It’s clear the Minister is not on top of this.”

Mrs Mirabella said it was obvious Ms Gillard was not getting support from her Parliamentary Secretary for Childcare, Maxine McKew, who had been AWOL since the ABC Learning collapse.

“As a NSW MP, Maxine is in an even better position to be critical of the new fee her Labor colleagues are imposing on the child care industry. Perhaps she could come out of hiding and tell Premier Rees how much his new slug is going to hurt working families in NSW?”