Pressure is mounting on the Canberra Liberals to abandon their unfounded fear campaign over the national childcare reforms, as yet another peak industry body rubbished their claims, ACT Minister for Children and Young People Joy Burch said today.
Ms Burch welcomed Early Childhood Australia CEO Pam Cahir’s statements yesterday about the Liberals’ claims, which the child services advocate described as “not based on solid evidence” and “simply scare mongering”.
“What we have seen from the Liberal Party – both here in the ACT and nationally – is an unfounded scare campaign which goes against independent economic modelling done by Access Economics and other industry experts,” Ms Burch said.
“The Canberra Liberals ignore the fact that most childcare centres in the ACT already meet the child-to-worker ratios in the new National Quality Agenda for Early Childhood Education and Care.
“The ACT already meets the National Quality Standard for staff ratios for children aged over two in long day care, so the transitional costs for operators will be minimal, and the additional cost passed on to parents, if any, will be no more than the cost of a coffee a day.”
Ms Burch said that while the Federal and ACT Governments could point to reliable, evidence-based research to support their contention that improved staff ratio and qualification standards will deliver better outcomes for children at minimal cost, the Liberals had produced nothing to support their claims.
An Access Economics report examined the state-by-state financial impact of the National Quality Standards showed that in 2012 parents in the ACT will pay an extra $0.55 a day for long day care for their child. Nationally, it estimated the additional daily cost at $0.98.
Due to an increase in the childcare rebate from 30 to 50%, a family earning $80,000 with one child in full time care now receives an additional $2,239 a year in Childcare Rebate than they would have under the former Coalition government.
Also, a study published by the Australian Journal of Early Childhood last month also found that in a survey of 124 pregnant women, an overwhelming majority rated experienced staff and formal childcare regulations above costs and location when it came to choosing childcare when they went back to work.
Anecdotally, too, the ACT Government is hearing that parents and childcare centres alike are welcoming the reforms. At a recent event Ms Burch attended at Jenny Wren Early Childcare Centre in Mawson, the centre’s director Amanda Morphett told WIN News, “On the whole, families are very happy to pay for quality childcare”. Ms Morphett is a former president of Childcare Associations Australia, a peak national body representing childcare centre operators.
A 2006 OECD study found the qualifications and training of carers as well as low staff-to-child ratios are the main indicators of quality in childcare. Australia did not have a national mandatory minimum qualification for child care workers, and this is something the reforms will address.
Ms Burch said it was time the Canberra Liberals abandoned their scare campaign and accepted what everyone else knows, that the National Quality Reform is the best way forward for our children, a fact that even the Western Australian State Liberal Government has embraced.
“We have come to expect opposition for opposition’s sake from the Canberra Liberals, but even they must concede that they are alone on this one, and with not a shred of evidence to back up their scaremongering.”
Bookmark/Search this post with
