Page 5780 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 7 December 2011
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(ii) the childcare workforce will need to rise by 15 percent;
(iii) wages will need to rise by 10 percent;
(iv) there will be a time lag before workers become appropriately qualified; and
(v) consequently childcare centres face the prospect of staff shortages and long-term exemptions from complying with standards; and
(2) calls on the ACT Government to table in the Assembly by the first sitting day in 2012:
(a) a response to the Productivity Commission’s report as it applies to the ACT, including details of the research and modelling undertaken to develop that response; and
(b) a paper outlining its strategy to assist:
(i) the childcare sector in the ACT to implement the national quality agenda; and
(ii) Canberra families to meet the additional cost of living burden that emerges as a result of the implementation of the national quality agenda.
On 7 April 2011 when presenting the Education and Care Services National Law (ACT) Bill 2011 the Minister for Community Services said:
… the first five years of a child’s life do last a lifetime.
Apart from the statement being somewhat wrongly constructed and taking away from the intended cliche, I tend to agree with the notion that the first five years of a child’s life are very important and that they have an impact well into the future. In those years a child’s brain soaks up more information than it will do for the rest of a person’s life. It is a fundamental human function, the fact of which is supported by scientific evidence. So of course it is important that we should do everything we possibly and responsibly can to foster that childhood development and create an environment in which it is done with appropriate skills, resources and standards and in an environment that is conducive to young children learning but also being relaxed and at one with the world. No-one, I think, would disagree with this notion.
But, if we are to create that environment, we must first extend our thinking beyond that space. We must think beyond that space because everything that we do here comes at a cost. It comes at a cost to government, to providers, to customers of the services of those providers and to the community as a whole. It is not just a monetary cost that we are talking about here; when we make changes in this area, we are making modifications which are not just things that people pay for out of their weekly salaries but we give up some things. As we have seen with an increase in workforce participation for women, women give up a lot. They often give up the benefits of
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