Further delay for interested childcare operators

12-December-2008

Individuals and organisations that have already registered an expression of interest in an ABC childcare centre and received no response will be stunned that a whole new process will now be started by new court appointed ABC Receivers, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Childcare Sophie Mirabella MP said today.

“The new Receiver, PPB it is reported, will carry out its own centre by centre review before calling for expressions of interest at the end of January. However, given that the current Receiver has undertaken an extensive review in the last 6 weeks and many childcare operators have already expressed interest in several centres, why this delay?” Mrs Mirabella said.

“If, as Ms Gillard has stated, some of these centres may be viable under a different management system, why are interested operators not being contacted and given the necessary information to determine if they can make some centres work?,” Mrs Mirabella

“This further delay will only aggravate a situation which has already been mismanaged by the Government. Given the Government is subsidising the 241 unviable centres by approximately $141,000 each, it cannot afford to ignore childcare operators who may be interested in keeping centres open and causing as little disruption to the parents, children and staff,” Mrs Mirabella said.

Further reports today state several more childcare operators are closing centres which will only cause more anxiety for affected parents and children. The Government must immediately review its decision to build 260 new childcare centres around the country to ensure that it is not making an already bad situation, worse, Mrs Mirabella said.