Page 4946 - Week 13 - Thursday, 12 November 2009
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to meet the ever increasing and already expensive cost of childcare in Canberra. I ask this: will the government provide subsidies to families who suffer yet more cost increases? And these increases are on top of those which will inevitably occur because of the soon-to-be-implemented carer-to-child ratios and carer qualification requirements.
There is a view that the very purpose of establishing the scheme is to provide capacity for the sector to attract and retain staff, but this will be abjectly ineffectual. It will make no difference at all to those ideals. There is a view that the scheme, whilst laudable in principle, should be part of an overall package designed to attract and retain staff.
There currently is a major review of the community sector underway, including industrial relations matters, pay scales and employment conditions. Organisations that I have spoken to are wondering why this scheme is being introduced in isolation from that review when it could form part of a more effective package that will have some chance of attracting and retaining staff in the sector.
Two of the peak service advocacy bodies, ACTCOSS and National Disability Services ACT, have both welcomed progress towards a portable long service leave scheme in the ACT’s community sector. However, both organisations, greatly respected for their balanced and measured approach on these kinds of issues, have raised serious concerns about the scheme.
ACTCOSS, in a letter to the Deputy Chief Minister in August this year, flagged a number of concerns centred on a lack of consultation leading to “increased anxiety and fear in the sector”. ACTCOSS also noted that the actuarial study itself, commissioned by the government, raised a number of questions regarding the scope and cost of the scheme. ACTCOSS believes those questions require urgent answering.
The National Disability Services, in a media statement released on 15 October, cited concerns about “placing additional financial and administrative pressure on an already stressed sector”. NDS went on to say that the process of implementing and managing the scheme “had not been given sufficient consideration”. NDS also questioned the primary and underlying premise of the scheme, which was to create better worker retention in the sector. They said:
This was not demonstrated as true. NDS calls for the claims to be substantiated and linked to a holistic HR strategy for the sector.
On 15 October, when the former minister secured an adjournment of the debate on this bill, he undertook to arrange a further briefing for members. After that I wrote to Mr Hargreaves, the former minister, as well as Ms Gallagher, the minister at that time responsible for the community sector, to suggest that the briefing be extended to a roundtable which would include a range of stakeholders. In typical style of this government, that roundtable was left until the last minute and was held earlier this week, on 9 November. Stakeholders were given short notice and the Liberals and the Greens were excluded from attending.
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