Page 4073 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 2010
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MRS DUNNE: You can have your go in a minute. Despite the government’s stated policy of providing new childcare places in areas of need, this does not provide any new—or very few—childcare places. The solution for Gumnut and Alkira means that, although the minister said that she would spend $4 million to provide 200 new places, in fact she spent $4 million to provide 10 new places. The people of the ACT will still be very badly off when it comes to childcare.
The provision of childcare is very important. It is important for families because they need certainty. They need to place their children in a place that they feel comfortable with, where they feel assured that their children will be well looked after and where they have confidence in the staff and management of the childcare centre. The debacle over at Gumnut is a case in point. They lost key staff, and they lost children through that process. That is an issue which will have long-term impacts on the stability of people’s childcare arrangements and on the development of their children. The minister has also failed to deliver on the party’s promise for two new childcare centres with new places. As with all of these matters, the minister is entirely unaware of the importance of affordable and accessible childcare in the ACT.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mr Hargreaves): On the matter of public importance, Minister Burch. I am sorry about that, Ms Hunter, your arms were not waving around enough. Before you commence, Ms Burch, for the benefit of Ms Hunter, since I have been here, for a dozen years, the convention has been that, if a government member raises an MPI, another member will get the second call; whereas if a non-executive member raises an MPI, the responding minister gets the second call. Hence the call. Thank you. Ms Burch.
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Children and Young People, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Women) (3.31): Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. The ACT Labor government is indeed committed to improving the quality, accessibility and affordability of childcare; so I thank Mrs Dunne for bringing this matter to the Assembly today. We want to ensure that all children get the best possible start to life.
We know that having a childcare system that is accessible and affordable has major benefits for families. We know that it increases workforce participation, increases productivity and contributes to economic growth. We also know that accessible and affordable childcare provides better opportunities for mothers to re-enter the workforce. From my first month as the Minister for Children and Young People, I have been working with the childcare sector to deliver outcomes for families, women and children across the ACT.
But let us be clear: affordability is indeed a very important issue. The affordability of childcare in the territory received a massive boost when the federal Labor government in 2008 increased the childcare rebate to 50 per cent and increased the rebate cap from $4,354 to $7,500. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, this increased the affordability of childcare by 20 per cent. In other words, a family earning $80,000 now receive $2,239 a year more in childcare rebate than they did under the former Liberal government. Families currently receive a rebate quarterly rather than each
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