Page 126 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2010
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childcare is amongst their most significant areas of household expenditure. Childcare is a major area of expenditure for Canberrans, and we are paying more than the rest of the country.
The ACT is the only jurisdiction, with the exception of the Northern Territory, to have no government-managed childcare services. The figures show that 79.4 per cent of childcare centres in the ACT are managed by community groups and 20.6 per cent are managed by private operators. We can look at the effect on household income, particularly of low income earners. For example, a family with two children and with a gross family income of $27,000 outlays almost 20 per cent of its income on childcare. Across Australia, this figure is closer to 10 per cent.
We need to reflect on that for a moment: Canberrans, when it comes to childcare, are paying much more than their state and territory counterparts. For many low income earners in particular, this is making up a large amount of their household income. With respect to their household income, for one of the most important areas of expenditure, along with basic items such as rent, food and electricity, childcare is right up there. And many Canberrans are faced with increasing costs.
I am sure that Mrs Dunne and others in this debate will go into some of the reasons and some of the issues of failure in relation to the ACT government’s role in the delivery of childcare and in ensuring that Canberrans have access to affordable childcare in the territory.
In health, we can go through the list. The ACT has the lowest bulk-billing rates in the country. The ACT has the lowest percentage of patients in the urgent and semi-urgent categories seen to by emergency departments within triage category time frames. The ACT has the lowest number of available beds per capita. The ACT has the lowest number of public dentists of any jurisdiction, at two per 100,000 people. Elective surgery patients in the ACT have a longer wait in the ACT for surgery than they would have in any other jurisdiction—worse than New South Wales; worse than Queensland. This is the legacy of this government.
In terms of elective surgery it is one of the clearest examples of where the figures simply do not lie. The figures tell a story of where we have gone, over 8½ years of ACT Labor. When they came in, there was a wait of around 40 days. Now there is a wait of around 70 days. It has almost doubled in their time. And this is at a time when their budget has almost doubled. So their budget has almost doubled and yet elective surgery waiting times have almost doubled in the same time. We are paying more and getting less, and Canberrans would be asking themselves why. Why is it that we seem to be so poorly served by this government? Canberrans have the second longest waiting time in the nation, with 42 per cent of patients not seen within recommended triage times, but the ACT is still spending more than any other jurisdiction on patients in emergency departments.
We often hear it, don’t we? We often hear from this government, “Well, we’ve spent this much and we’ve spent that much.” People would say: “Well, that’s our money you’re spending. How wisely are you spending it? How well are you delivering on those services?” The Productivity Commission says, in these key areas: “Not very well.” You do not compare well even with states such as New South Wales.
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