Government fails to address licensing issues

20-January-2009

The Federal Government’s response to concerns about the transfer of licenses for the 249 ABC learning Centres still in doubt has been described as “shallow and totally lacking in leadership” by the Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Childcare Sophie Mirabella.

“Minister Gillard’s response has been to handball the problem by saying that licensing is a State responsibility. This is the blame game at its very worst!”

“Last year I urged Ms Gillard to work with the States and she arrogantly mocked my suggestion. Now suddenly it’s all too hard and it’s the State’s fault. If she’d done her job and worked with the States in the first place, we wouldn’t have this licensing mess.”

“Over $50 million in taxpayer funding has been spent to keep these Centres operational and now they could falter at the last hurdle. It’s inexcusable,” Mrs Mirabella said.

“The Federal Government must show some leadership and make an agreement with the States for interim licensing arrangements to ensure continuity of services. It’s very simple. I don’t understand why the Minister is standing idly by!”

Mrs Mirabella said that various State Government authorities had different regulations for the granting of licenses – most involved waiting periods of a minimum of 8 to 12 weeks.

“With the new Receivers of the ABC2 Group calling for final formal bids on February 25th, and sales having to be concluded less than 6 weeks later on the 31st March, we face a situation where new operators could have to wait weeks or even months for their licence, which is totally unnecessary.”

“I understand that the State authorities are mindful of the need for swift processing of applications. But the questions remain - Will centres be forced to close for a period? Will families be left in the lurch? And why isn’t the Federal Minister doing something to ensure a smooth transition?”

Mrs Mirabella said it was time for the Government to come clean and let the industry and the public know exactly how closely they are working with the Receivers and how the whole process for expressions of interest will be managed over the coming months.

“The Government has been eerily silent. They’ve refused to outline the criteria for the assessment of Expressions of Interest and now they won’t step in to rectify a fairly obvious problem. It’s really getting beyond a joke – they are either profoundly incompetent or don’t really want to keep these Centres open.”

“March is not that far away – the Government needs to step up to the plate and finally show some leadership. They should have some idea of how the Expression of Interest process will be conducted and they should be able to secure some licensing guarantees from their Labor State counterparts,” Mrs Mirabella concluded.