Rudd Government fails to deliver promised rebate

09-December-2008

Nearly half of all eligible families had not received the Government’s promised quarterly payment of the 50% child care rebate that was due in October, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Childcare Sophie Mirabella MP said today.

“The revelation that only 365,000 of the 600,000 eligible families had received the promised quarterly rebate demonstrates that the Government has dropped the ball when it comes to childcare,” Mrs Mirabella said.

“It is another thing in a long line of Childcare issues that Ms Gillard has not been on top of and the Childcare Parliamentary Secretary has been completely silent about.”

“Within Ms Gillard’s super-portfolio it’s clear that Child Care has been given a very low priority. The Government’s failure to deliver on this promise is just another example of how it’s failing Australian parents when it comes to childcare.”

Mrs Mirabella said Ms Gillard had taken a decidedly “hands off” approach with the collapse of ABC Learning.

“The Rudd Government said it was working on a contingency plan in September – but we’ve still seen nothing at all from them. They’re leaving all the heavy-lifting to the Receiver, when there’s a lot the Government can and should be doing to improve the future of the child care industry.”

“If Ms Gillard does not know where to start – I’ll give her some advice. She must urgently reveal national childcare vacancy figures and she should also carefully review the Government’s election promise to build 260 new Child Care Centres around the country.”

“These are two very basic, very simple things that the Rudd Government can do now to help provide a bit more certainty for the childcare sector. Very basic, common sense things that I know will be welcomed by the industry.”

“These decisions are not contingent on the ABC Receivers, but it appears the Government is not prepared to take any steps at all to help the sector at this time.”

Mrs Mirabella said she’d received feedback that the industry was “crying out for accurate data on demand hotspots or areas of oversupply”, but obtaining it from Ms Gillard’s office was impossible.

“The Minister must reveal the national childcare vacancy figures immediately to assist the childcare industry deal with the ABC Learning collapse. They must also review their promise to build Centres in light of what has happened in the past few months,” Mrs Mirabella concluded.