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A.C.T. Childcare Summit Resolution - 30 May 1997

This meeting agrees to support the a resolution that encompasses the following:

We, as a group made up of childcare workers, directors and parents in Canberra and surrounding regional areas, abhor the attack that the Federal Government has made on the childcare sector in the last 15 months.

We believe the increases in childcare fees will impact upon parents negatively and we reject this unfair targeting of families

We regard the cuts to childcare as placing limitations on the choices that parents have in regard to the care for their children.

We believe that the cuts to childcare threaten the standard and diversity of quality care that has been achieved to date.

We believe that the cuts to childcare will result in an increase in informal care of children which may affect the safety and educational opportunities of children.

We believe that these cuts will result in less places being available within childcare services for children with disabilities and consequently force parents to use inappropriate care.

We believe that these cuts will result in closures of childcare centres that service areas with an ongoing demand for places.

We aim to continue to lobby the Federal Government and continue to highlight the vital role that childcare plays in Australian society today.

We require a recognition from the Government of the vital role that childcare workers play and we call on the Government to examine the detrimental effects of these cuts on workers.

We call on the Minister for Family Services to reverse the cuts to, and restrictions on, childcare.

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Net cuts in 1997 Budget = $321 million

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CHILDCARE survey summary (staff)

What are the worst aspects of the childcare cuts?

As a Centre, have you recorded an increase in your vacancy rate? How many? (compared to this time last year?)

Have you had to cut back staff numbers?

What services that you once provided have been cut?

Do you think that the general community is aware of your situation?

CHILDCARE survey summary: (parents)

Have the cuts to childcare funding in the last two Federal budgets adversely affected you or your family? How?

How are you coping with the increased fees?

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Childcare - beyond the cuts.

Senator Kate Lundy
May 16, 1997

Isn't it ironic that after barely eighteen months of rule, John Howard, notorious for pro-family rhetoric, ie: "one of the things that governments ought to be doing in the 1990's is giving to families a greater range of choices as to how they organise their lives, particularly those families who have young dependants"? (John Howard, 28 June, 1994), childcare services have lost nearly half their total funding.

According to Deborah Brennan in her book "The politics of Australian Child Care" childcare in Australia has become a "high profile, vigorously debated political and public policy issue" that is "widely regarded as central to the economic and social goals of the nation."

In the wake of the Budget, it has become clear that the Coalition Government have set the direction they want the childcare sector to go. The path that the sector has travelled to date appears to have come to an abrupt halt. This has left families greatly concerned about the erosion of what has been remarkable progress made in the accessibility and choice of childcare services. Brennan (1994) reinforces this point saying that "over the last fifteen years, Australian women have created an extensive range of women's policy machinery and government subsidised women's services said to be unrivalled elsewhere".

Closer scrutiny of the Liberal Government's childcare agenda exposes much more than cost cutting to enhance the bottom line of their budget. Cuts to funding are one indicator, but a more pertinent analysis is that of then legislative amendments which have accompanied the cuts. These amendments point to sectoral changes that will lead to formal care centres inevitably becoming a more expensive and exclusive option than home based or less formal care. This will reduce the wide range of care choices and take us back the waiting lists of the past.

Under Labor, the development of the range of children's services was a response to the community's diverse needs. Family day care, community based long day care, private long day care, occasional care, out of school hours care, vacation care, specialised and multicultural care centres were a positive answer to the changing needs of parents and society generally.

To change policy direction now, as this government is doing, moves against the express needs of working parents and goes further towards the Liberal Government's philosophical interpretation of the role they believe parents with young dependents should have in our society.

I believe the Liberal Government will restrict the variety of options that parents have, resulting in a reduction in the confidence parents will have in being able to find arrangements that suit their specific needs. If this puts additional pressure, be it financial or emotional, on parents then choice is being restricted.

The boost in funding to Family Day Care and playgroups in this year's budget are obviously commendable. However, it is noteworthy that it potentially will create an incentive to leave formalised long day care. Also, it is significant that operational subsidies will be cut from all out-of-home care.

In last year's budget, the decision to means test the childcare rebate, whilst a reasonable equity proposition, removes the recognition of childcare costs as an issue for working people. It takes the issue out the economic and industrial debate and puts it firmly back into welfare - a subtle but significant shift, particularly in the 'status' of childcare in the broader economic and employment context.

In addition to this, there have been a series of measures that have the potential to affect the viability of childcare centres. For example, centres are generally only financially viable if they can achieve a balance between required staff levels and low vacancies. Therefore the change in this year's budget that alters the payment of childcare assistance from monthly in advance to fortnightly in arrears will deny centre directors that critical financial stability when planning staffing levels. (So if you receive a letter from your childcare centre asking you to be prompt in payment, you will understand why)

The directors, parents and carers have been put in a ridiculously stressful situation - particularly those losing their operational subsidy - when after having to scrimp and save just to stay solvent, these changes may well be last straw. It would also be a great shame if the standard of excellence in childcare that has been nationally regulated under Labor became a thing of the past because of financial pressures, just as many have completed an exhaustive but rewarding accreditation process.

Qualified and professional carers are the foundation of quality care and the campaign to ensure qualified carers are appropriately renumerated must be supported. Parents demand professional carers, but unless a decent wage is earned by carers this demand won't be satisfied. It is therefore reasonable that for low and middle-income families, affordability of care lies with Government assistance.

The shift away from childcare being for 'needy' children combined with the realities of women's increased participation in the labour force has meant that childcare centres now cater for children from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. The needs of parents led to Labor implementing a range of support measures that allowed a wide variety of care solutions to prosper.

Long day care centres service a particular need and future accessibility of this care solution must be protected. For many parents the advances in cultural sensitivity and awareness in childcare centres represent the building blocks of a plausible and practical way of dealing with the destructiveness caused by violence and racism that our children are inevitably exposed to. Further integration of these care solutions into early childhood education strategies is required, but will only be feasible if Government policy provides a supportive and progressive environment.

As a working mother, I know that I speak on behalf of many parents that I have met during Labor's childcare campaign that arose out of last year's cuts. I would like to invite all members of the community - including parents, carers and all those interested in the future of childcare to attend a public Childcare Summit to be held on Friday, May 30, from 11:30 - 1pm in Committee Room 1R1 at Parliament House. Please call 230 0411 for further details.

I believe the future direction of childcare lies in the political recognition of the crucial role that childcare and carers play in the formative years of our children's lives. The future is in acknowledging changing work patterns and servicing parents' differing needs - not manipulation of the sector to suit the philosophical beliefs of a conservative Government.

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