Page 1090 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 May 2006
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We own several buildings which childcare centres operate out of, primarily community-based childcare centres operated by not-for-profit organisations which we charge a peppercorn rent. There are 116 before and after school care and vacation care programs operating from both government and non-government school buildings across the ACT. Additionally, a number of centres, one locally in Civic, are due for completion this year and in 2007, which will increase the number of available places.
In fact, since the childcare issue has been in the media recently, I have been contacted by a couple of centres across the ACT which have very significant vacancy rates and are wishing to work out where all these children are that are not getting access to childcare centres. In one centre the occupancy rate was at, I think, 30 per cent. So it is not simply a matter of building centres or going out there and saying that we need many more centres and many more places, because what happened, say, 15 years ago when a number of centres opened was that demand dropped off and centres went broke or had to close. So there is a fine balancing act involved. I am not genuinely convinced that there is a shortage of childcare places in the ACT. It may be about where those places are and it may be about age groups. Some work being done by the Office for Children, Youth and Family Support indicates that the demand is highest for the nought to three age group, which comes as no surprise.
As Dr Foskey said, the licensing requirement of a higher staff to baby to toddler ratio means that there are fewer of those places in centres to begin with and it is more expensive for centres to operate those places. So there is demand for the nought to two age group. Of course, a number of centres do not offer places for the nought to two age group; they actually start offering to provide childcare once children have turned 18 months or two years old.
As I have said, we surveyed the ACT childcare providers recently and have looked at the information that they have been able to provide to us. Not all centres are going to provide us with information about their waiting lists. For some of the centres that are running a private business, it does not necessarily assist them to provide that information publicly. So we have to go on what the centres are saying to us.
Anecdotally, the centres are saying that the increase in preschool hours to 12 per week has hurt them, that they are not getting those places for three-year-olds and four-year-olds anymore, that parents are using the option which I guess was a bit of the motivation behind the increase in preschool hours of having more flexibility in sending their children to preschool and having other days just designated for childcare. At a meeting I had last year, some childcare providers were saying that that is actually reducing the demand on these centres. So it is a very complex issue.
I have circulated an amendment to the motion which acknowledges the areas in which the ACT government is working and calls on the federal government to do a range of things.
Mrs Burke: Can we just have the debate?
MS GALLAGHER: It is their area of responsibility.
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