Page 4081 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 2010
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On the issue of affordability, there are various ranges for various centres, but it is extremely expensive to send a child to childcare. Those of us that do it would know that only too well. It gets to a point where, if you have two or more children, you have really got to count the cost, particularly if you are on a lower income, and whether it is worth while or not. It becomes a balance whereby the cost of childcare almost outweighs the wage that you are earning.
The issue of accessibility is also important. Those of us who have tried to find childcare in the ACT know that it is a difficult thing to find a placement for a child and to find the right sort of childcare that you are looking for in the right location. And location certainly is an issue.
I agree that childcare needs to be of the highest quality. We do want to make sure that we have quality childcare here in the ACT. When I was looking for childcare centres for both of my sons, my research showed me that, regardless of the policy settings at a government level, there is a wide difference in the quality of a number of centres. There are some that I saw where I would not place my children. There are some—as I have said, the Weston Creek centre—where I am very happy to have done so. We do have to recognise that it is not just the policy settings that we set in this place; it is also the regulation and making sure that those regulations are enforced on the ground; that inspections, where appropriate, are carried out, to make sure that childcare meets the requirements of the parents and, more importantly, of the children that people are looking after.
I just make a point more broadly on childcare, because it is a broader debate on whether childcare is good for children or not—and that is an ongoing debate within society. The research that I have done indicates that good childcare is good for children and bad childcare is bad for children. It is as simple that. We should recognise that we should do everything we can to make our childcare as positive as possible.
In terms of some of the facts—and Mrs Dunne certainly touched on a number of these—there about 10,000 children under five and about 5,500 in the age group six to 12 who are currently attending government approved childcare. Those statistics come from 2008. That equates to 37 per cent of children under the age of five and 18.8 per cent in the six to 12 age bracket. And 80 per cent of childcare in the ACT is not for profit.
I note that in real terms support for childcare in the Canberra community from the ACT government has reduced by approximately 20 per cent over the last four years. As I discussed before, cost is one of the key issues that drives the participation rates that are so important. We have in the ACT the highest median cost of centre-based long day care, at approximately $315 a week, and the highest median cost of family day care, at $312 a week. This compares to median costs across Australia of $285 and $267 respectively. That is a significant cost to families that is being borne here in the ACT—far more expensive than it appears in other jurisdictions.
I turn to some of the government policy and the failure in some of their areas. Thus far, we have seen a failure to deliver on the two early childhood centres which were
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