Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This year’s budget will be a great disappointment for many people in my electorate who cannot find or afford child care or have their children placed in before school, after school or vacation care. This government wants to give the appearance of responding to the pressures in the system, but the reality is that not one single extra place is guaranteed, nor will child care be a single cent cheaper, as a result of this year’s budget. It is all rhetoric and little by way of substance.

The main concerns raised recently with me by constituents include the lack of long day care places for the under-twos, the inflexibility in the system that fails to cater for the needs of shift workers and the cost of long day care, which on average in my electorate is around $40 a day, which is prohibitive for many local families. Last year the cost of child care rose by 12 per cent, four times the rate of inflation, and the ABS child-care price index has surged 65 per cent in the past four years. They also complain about the lack of before and after school care places and vacation care.

Currently in my electorate of Throsby there are only 740 OOSH places to service a primary school aged population of around 14,000 children. In major centres like Unanderra and Warilla, there is not one provider of before school, after school or vacation care programs, and in the southern part of the electorate there is only one before school program. Now I learn that the Berkeley program, run by Barnardos South Coast, is to cease at the end of June, leaving 15 families and 21 children unable to be accommodated in the neighbouring Warrawong service.

The government’s great pronouncements on budget night, particularly that about getting rid of the caps on these places, will not fix the problem in my electorate, as this example clearly shows. We know that there are already about 67,000 outside school hours places from previous budgets that remain unutilised. These places are not being used for a variety of reasons—most importantly, the cost of providing these services, particularly in low-income areas such as the ones that I represent. None of these problems have anything to do with the cap and removing the cap is not going to fix the problem. All this government is doing is taking the unplanned market based system that has already created shortages, particularly for under-twos in long day care, and applying it to other types of child-care arrangements. It is a big con. The government wants to give the appearance of creating places, whilst actually giving up on supply problems and leaving parents and providers to struggle on with the real problems that plague the system.

In a recent survey leaflet in my electorate I asked constituents to tell me the specific problems that they were confronting. I regret to say that this recent budget failed to address the problems they raised with me. For example, a constituent from Barrack Heights said:

$160 a week for two children to attend two days does become expensive. I work to get a little in front but I end up paying out too much. So the question is am I better off just staying at home looking after my own children?

Another constituent from Flinders said:

It hardly makes it worth returning to work part time, when 2 children-costing almost $100 a day is charged for childcare. By the time tax is taken out of the wage, there is very little remaining.

There are very few centres who cater for under 2’s and the waiting lists can be phenomenal. As we need a place for both children together—its likely impossible.

Another constituent said:

Working in the health industry as a registered nurse I find it difficult to accommodate my hours together with childcare. I always have to ask my mother for help taking and collecting children from school. I feel all hospitals should have their own child care facilities including before and after school care.

This one is a typical scenario of many families in my electorate trying to juggle work and family life. This constituent said:

I commute to Campbelltown each day and drop my daughter at my mum’s at 7am pickup at 5pm. My sister works in Nowra and also drops her two children there at 7am and pickup at 6pm. If our mother/father, who are aged need medical care our jobs are in jeopardy. We had “peace of mind” knowing before/after school care was at Balarang if anything happened—but that has now shut down. Mum and Dad now have kids from ‘over the road’ on Friday’s—they used to go to the Balarang Centre. My folks need a medal!!

Another constituent said:

I sent my child to a community based preschool and am not entitled to 30% tax rebate as it is not approved care. This makes it more expensive than a full time 8-5 centre. The 30% rebate should be extended to all care types (including informal care) for working parents.

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