Jodie Campbell (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion. Will the minister update the House in relation to yesterday’s announcement by the receivers of ABC Learning? Are there any other significant developments or issues that the minister can detail to the House?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bass for her question. I know that she has been following this matter and is very keen to provide her affected constituents with information. Members of this House obviously would recall that a receiver was appointed to ABC Learning in the first week of this month. I would want to remind the House that the receiver found the financial and operational accounts of ABC Learning in such a poor state that he effectively had to start from scratch, centre by centre, to work through the future of ABC Learning. As the receiver has gone about this work, experts engaged by the government have been embedded with the receiver, working with him side by side.

Yesterday, as a result of these efforts, the receiver was able to provide the next update to the anxious mums and dads and employees about the future of ABC Learning childcare centres. Of course, this update from the receiver comes against the background of the government having worked with the receiver and having made up to $22 million available to ensure continuity of care for children until 31 December this year. Having that continuity of care assisted mums and dads and employees with working their way through this situation, but obviously people are anxious to know the situation for 2009. Yesterday, the receiver, Mr Honey, was able to confirm that 656 ABC Learning centres would continue to operate in 2009 and the details of the centres which will continue to operate are available from both the government’s information hotline—1802003—and on the pages of our mychild.gov.au website.

Knowing that the 656 centres are going to continue to operate obviously would provide some relief and reassurance to the parents who have their children cared for there. That is more than 70 per cent of the children attending ABC Learning. I think that is to be noted and is significant for those parents and those employees. Clearly there is more work to do on the remaining 386 ABC Learning centres in order to get information to parents and employees about the circumstances next year. The receiver is still engaged in a detailed analysis of the future of these centres. The receiver has said that a further statement will be made available for parents and employees in a week’s time. I think it is very important to stress that if a childcare centre is on the list of 386 that does not mean that it is marked for closure. Being on the list of 386 means the receiver is continuing to work on the situation and more information will be available in a week’s time—a very important message for mums and dads and employees anxious about all of this.

Obviously mums and dads and employees of ABC Learning—and I would suggest the broader community—across the nation are asking themselves the question: how did this happen? We know that the circumstances for ABC Learning came about because the former Liberal government uncapped the number of childcare places and then just let the market rip. No quality plan, no workforce plan, no plan to bring childcare centres to areas where they were needed, no action on the question of creeping acquisitions—just let the market rip. The Liberal Party were not only neglectful in this matter; they were complicit in this matter as ABC Learning—a bloated company, full of debt—gained such a share of the private childcare market, leaving us open to the risks and uncertainties that parents and employees face today. It is something that, if the Liberal Party had any decency, it would apologise to the Australian people for and make a full statement about its degree of complicity. The Rudd government will continue to manage this situation, working alongside the receiver, getting certainty to parents as soon as we can provide it. Our highest priority in all of this has been continuity of care. We will continue with this important work and I will continue to update the House as future information becomes available.