Page 4076 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
that they meet the standards. Our current ratio is one to five for the two to three-year-olds. In contrast, the ratio in New South Wales is one to eight.
Last week, in the Assembly, the opposition began to misinform the Assembly by relying on a Childcare New South Wales report in relation to childcare costs. However, the government expects that the quality agenda will increase the average out-of-pocket increase for families on a family income of $80,000 per annum by 57c per week in 2010-11 for one child who attends full-time care, that is, 50 hours per week.
New childcare centres are planned in Molonglo and Holt. ACTPLA will continue to accept development applications for new childcare centres and will assess them on the basis of demand, community need and a range of other factors.
The Department of Land and Property Services is currently looking at all community facilities to work out how they might be better utilised to support community organisations such as childcare centres. This work is already being done in collaboration with the DHCS child, policy and regulation unit and ACTPLA.
This government has been listening to the childcare sector as well as regularly visiting childcare centres. I chair the Children’s Services Forum. The forum has representation from community and private-based childcare providers, training centres, childcare workers and government agencies.
The national quality agenda is the most significant reform to the early childhood sector in decades and the government is working, through the forum and with childcare providers, to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible. Field testing on the national quality standard assessment tool was completed in June in one private and one community-based centre. Eight other centres will be involved in September.
Today I can inform the Assembly that I have written to every childcare centre in the ACT, sharing my understanding that the national quality standards are going to be a challenge to implement and that this government will work with them to try to make the transition as smooth as possible. I have also let them know that my door is open for discussion and as we make this transition I would like to visit their centres and to see their operations on the ground.
The ACT Labor government is addressing the accessibility of childcare. We also support equality for all our children. Labor’s national quality reforms are vital for our children’s future. Families in the ACT fear that the opposition are threatening to scrap the childcare quality standards. In doing this, the opposition will be rejecting the research. Mrs Dunne, I am quite happy to hand this to you. It is quite a list of extensive research that talks to quality and indeed debunks most of the arguments you put forward here. This recognises that quality childcare reforms, which we are about to implement, will lead to better developmental outcomes for children.
In terms of childcare policy, the silence is almost deafening. I wish there was deafening silence from those opposite. But let us consider the policies of those opposite. In the election period, their policy paper—not their costing paper, because their costing paper was devoid of anything—did not have any mention of childcare.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video