Page 1889 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 May 2010
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scholarly paper presented by Mr Hanson that is bringing new thoughts and engagement in this debate.
And we would have a different policy agenda. I would like to point out some of those as announcements today.
Ms Gallagher: The cut and paste from all the ACT Health documents?
MR SESELJA: The health minister is constantly embarrassed by her opposite number, who continues to outshine her at every opportunity. These policies do exemplify the differences we will bring when we win government. They are policies based around the needs of the people in the community—not the needs of the people standing as candidates. They are responses to shortcomings identified by results in the real world and the rigour of our analysis.
For example, one of the aspects of our economy that we identified was the very high participation rate in the workforce, including both men and women. This is no doubt a positive for our economy; but it does bring with it the need to respond to the demands that this unusually high participation rate brings. It means, for example, that there are pressures on the childcare sector that are higher than those experienced around the country. This is exacerbated by the impending regulatory changes that will put increased pressures on this important sector.
The first element of the policy development is to get a true picture of what state the sector is in—a genuine deep look at the problems and opportunities. Frankly, we find it remarkable and disappointing that no in-depth study exists and that the government is developing policy blindly in this area. It should be no surprise then that this sector feels neglected when of course it ought to be supported. It is a fundamental aspect of our city’s development that this sector be vibrant and supported and to be able to deliver this core service when our population clearly has a need for it.
According to the Report on government services 2010, 10,008 children aged five and under and 5,430 children aged between six and 12 attended Australian government approved childcare services in the ACT in 2008-09. This represents 37.1 per cent of children under five and 18.8 per cent of children aged six to 12. However, this only represents around half of all childcare in the ACT. The ABS data suggests that just as many children again are looked after by grandparents, other relatives and friends on an informal basis.
Families in the ACT are more heavily reliant on the not-for-profit community sector to provide childcare services. According to the report, the ACT has the highest median cost of centre-based long day care at $325 per week and the highest median cost for family day care at $312 per week. This compares to a median cost across Australia of $285 and $267 respectively. Despite the importance of the childcare sector to the Canberra community, government support is waning. In real terms, total recurrent expenditure has dropped from $5 million in 2004-05 to $4 million in 2008-09. Incorporating net capital expenditure, this translates to a total of $5½ million in 2004-05 being reduced to $4.5 million in 2008-09.
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