Page 300 - Week 01 - Thursday, 12 February 2015
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We are determined to fix that. Australia needs a modern child care system that supports today’s 24/7 economy, not the 9-to-5 working week of last century.
Australian families should be able to plan child care around their work life, not their work life around child care.
However, to achieve this we need real, sustainable reform. Labor’s legacy of endless band-aid solutions and blindly topping up child care payments on the nation’s credit card cannot continue.
As the minister stated, there needs to be real and sustainable change.
The role of the federal Labor Party on this issue has been less than impressive and demonstrates clearly they have no capability for managing difficult issues and delivering a childcare education system in keeping with the needs and demands of the community they represent. All they have done in opposition is vote down legislation and thereby continue to underline the serious financial difficulties that they have imposed on Australian families. They created the mess and now want to walk away and wash their hands of it, just as I suspect this government may do when ACT residents are lumped with the cost of inevitable record deficits, rate hikes and other financial imposts that will accompany some of the recent decisions, including the light rail issue.
In respect of what the federal government might do in this area, there are some appropriate messages from ACT-based organisations for the ACT government. During last year’s debate on this subject I quoted from some of the submissions from organisations involved in this space in the ACT. The YMCA, I believe, made some valid points when they suggested that the ACT government needed to work across departments to develop some coordinated planning regulations and parameters around where early childhood education centre services might be established and the size and types of services that may best suit that community. They pointed out that the current pattern for preschool attendance across the ACT did not encourage increased workforce participation. With the current pattern of most preschools, a child attends two days one week and three days the next. That is difficult for parents returning to the workforce or trying to accommodate a career around having a family.
That is an issue that the ACT needs to look closely at, particularly if its action plan is to have the best chance of delivering on its objective of every child in the ACT benefiting from a high quality, accessible education, childcare and training system. There is no argument as to the value and importance of early childhood education. There is no argument that every child in the ACT should have an opportunity to benefit from a high quality, accessible education, childcare and training system. Affordability for government and for families is also paramount. If the ACT government’s action plan is to deliver on the objective to increase the proportion of children participating in quality education and care, then it needs to take heed of what ACT organisations suggest that they should be doing to help deliver that.
Since October 2013 this government has been all too quick to blame the federal government for everything and anything. It is time they stepped up and recognised that education is a territory responsibility and also demonstrated real support for Canberra families.
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