ONE YEAR ON FROM ABC LEARNING – CHILDCARE IN DOUBT

06-November-2009

One year on from the collapse of ABC Learning, Australia’s childcare industry faces an even more uncertain future courtesy of the Rudd Government’s proposed “quality” changes that will impact massively on the cost of childcare, Shadow Minister for Childcare Sophie Mirabella said today.

 “This has been a tremendously tough year for the childcare industry – and it’s only been made worse by the Rudd Government’s proposed reforms,” Mrs Mirabella said.

 “Last week, in an extraordinary outburst, Childcare Minister Kate Ellis accused private operators of waging a ‘scare campaign’ because they’ve expressed concerns about the reforms.  Private operators make up 70% of the childcare sector, the bulk of them are small business owners who care passionately about their service, and the Minister shouldn’t be dismissing them or refusing to take their feedback on board.”

 “The fact is, a year on from the ABC learning collapse, the Childcare industry is facing a new crisis – and it’s of the Government’s own making!”

 Mrs Mirabella said the Rudd Government’s approach was fundamentally flawed because they failed to identify exactly what is wrong with the current system, what needs to be fixed, how it will be fixed, and how much it will cost.

 “The fact is, we do have a high quality childcare system in this country.  The latest report of the National Childcare Accreditation Council (NCAC) found that 93% of all Centres had completed their 5 steps to accreditation, and of these 98% had achieved a “High Quality” rating in all 7 quality areas.”

 “If we’re talking about even higher quality, well that comes at a premium price. Parents should decide if they are really unhappy with their current childcare, whether or not they are willing to pay an extra $100 week, or potentially even more, to make it that little bit better.”

  “Pushing the current proposals through COAG has the potential to add massively to childcare costs for parents – and we haven’t been given the full picture on the Government’s plan.”

 Mrs Mirabella said there was no doubt that quality childcare is important to parents, but that parents hadn’t been consulted on what quality measures really mattered to them.

 “Most parents put safety and security first – but these don’t even come into Labor’s plan.  This is despite the fact that the NCAC found the highest level of “unsatisfactory” ratings in these areas. Let’s work on these practical measures, rather than forcing expensive change on the industry.”   

 “The Rudd Government needs to stop and re-think. They have failed to recognise how their proposed changes will impact on different sectors of the industry – particularly the private small businesses that provide the majority of childcare in this country. It would be wrong to rush and push through the current proposal without addressing those concerns and being upfront with parents.”

 Mrs Mirabella said that many parents believed that there was not going to be any cost-impact because at the last election Labor promised quality reforms and that they would also “slash childcare costs for parents”. 

  “It’s very wrong to characterise discussion about out-of-pocket costs for parents as a “scare campaign”. The reality is that parents will have to pay.  Any increase in fees at this time when we have rising interest rates and economic uncertainty will be a burden on working families, and this has to be balanced against the need for a high-quality childcare system.”

 Media Enquiries: Selma Schuller or Cate Clunies-Ross (02) 6277 2301