Child Care

14-May-2009

Mrs MIRABELLA (Indi) (7.30 pm)—There is much discussion amongst the budget deliberations of families and the effect on families, but let us not forget that there are many government decisions pre budget affecting families, some in a negative way. In my area of responsibility as shadow minister, I feel compelled to make comment yet again on the bungled way in which the government has handled the whole ABC Learning Centres mess. We remember Ms Gillard’s promise that childcare centres cannot close in this country without 30 days notice. In her own electorate of Lalor, in Altona North a centre closed with six days notice. I have been contacted by a very distressed but eloquent mother detailing some of the problems and explaining that no parents, children, carers or affected community members were contacted, that this centre was fully occupied and recently renovated, that there is a demand for child care in that area, that all they had was a real estate agent who came to value the property and that no-one came to assess the quality of care in spite of the fact that there is an obvious market. In fact, to add to the insult, the correspondence they received from PPB listed one of the centres that could be used as an alternative form of care for parents who had their children in the Altona North centre. They listed one of the centres where this very woman has had a child on a waiting list for 3½ years.

This is the sort of mess we find when the government has said time and time again it is working ‘hand in glove with the administrators in this matter’. If it is working hand in glove with the administrators, it is either being deceptive or deliberately allowing PPB to run this less than satisfactory and quite embarrassing—

Mr Shorten—Mr Speaker, on a point of order: as I understand the standing orders, members are not allowed to infer or make impersonal imputations about other members of the parliament. The use of the terms ‘deceptive’ and some of the other words—

The SPEAKER—Order! I will listen carefully to the comments of the member for Indi.

Mrs MIRABELLA—Thank you, Mr Speaker. It defies any understanding about why the government would allow this to happen. This is part of the government’s attempt to close down centres just because they are privately run. The government has said it wants to rebalance the system irrespective of parents’ requests, irrespective of the needs of children and quality care for children. How can it do this to families? How can it leave and ignore the pleas of families in need? This woman who emailed her member, the Minister for Health and Ageing, and the Deputy Prime Minister—

Dr Emerson—The centre is not in the Deputy Prime Minister’s electorate.

Mrs MIRABELLA—The childcare centre is—

Mr Shorten—It is in Altona.

Mrs MIRABELLA—Gellibrand, but she has written to Ms Gillard—

Government members interjecting—

Mrs MIRABELLA—I am not familiar with the minister’s electorate, but—

Mr Shorten—This is becoming a debacle.

Mrs MIRABELLA—No, this is not becoming a debacle. What is a debacle—and you should know this —is that families are suffering because the manner in which the ABC Learning Centres has been handled has been a disgrace and parents have been left in the lurch. This woman now has her child in child care for two days in a local centre and one day in the city, which breaks up that child’s care and attention.

Hundreds of potential buyers have pulled out of final offer stages for ABC Learning Centres because they were not provided with details and correct information, and this is despite the minister’s assurances last month. It seems centres like Altona North, which were told they had a confirmed buyer, continued to face uncertainty. Now they are closing and the government needs to explain why there has been such a long line of bungles in the whole tender process for this centre in Altona North—and I correct myself—which is in the health minister’s electorate. This constituent of the minister for health has had no satisfactory response. The government has not responded adequately as to why it has allowed this debacle.