Page 4834 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 25 October 2011
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rigorously in one area when 50 per cent of the children who are supposed to benefit from that regulation will never see the benefits of that regulation.
We will not be supporting it because it puts viability pressure on childcare centres, especially small childcare centres which are run by community-based organisations. This ACT Labor government does not care about that.
We will not be supporting it because it may result in reduced childcare places available in the community. This ACT government does not care about that.
We are not supporting this legislation because it provides no solution to the real problem of recruiting and retaining staff in the ACT in the childcare sector. This ACT Labor government does not care about those things.
We will not be supporting it because it runs the risk of encouraging backyard operators, putting more children at risk. The ACT Labor government is only interested in how far it can regulate the regulators.
We will not be supporting it because of the regulations that go with the legislation. I will draw members’ attention to the regulations. These are the regulations. This is about the fifth iteration of the regulations. They are onerous and they go against the Canberra Liberals’ policy of cutting red tape.
We will not be supporting the bill and the regulations that go with it because all of the offences and penalties duplicate one another. They have the potential for causing confusion and fear that multiple charges could be laid for one offence. This ACT Labor government does not care. I raised specifically the issue that there are in many places in this legislation and through the regulations multiple offences for the same misdemeanour; when I asked for some guarantee that people would not be on multiple charges for a single misdemeanour, the only thing I got back was an assurance that the DPP would not do that. But there is nothing in this legislation that would prevent people from being confronted with multiple charges for a single offence.
I am not the only one saying these things about what is wrong with the legislation. Based on experience in Victoria, whose government hosts the national law, the Australian Childcare Alliance tells us that while the industry generally supports the quality framework, the sector is not ready for it. The alliance says that the government has offered little support to implement its new regime. When you hear, for instance, the extent to which this minister is at sea about the implications for this—the cost implications, the day-to-day implications and whether childcare centres will have enough space or enough staff to implement these things—you realise just how at sea the childcare sector in the ACT will be under the administration of this minister.
Further, the Australian Childcare Alliance says that the new framework will adversely impact on families in terms of cost of living and force families to seek other options for childcare or leave the workforce. The Australian Childcare Alliance says that the new bill will put pressure on an already chronic shortage of educators in the industry and that the new child to educator ratios will result in a reduction in the number of childcare places that the sector can offer.
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