Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has been some five weeks now since a constituent of mine from the electorate of Ryan, Mr Matthew Preston, was in contact with the federal government and I want to raise on his behalf his concerns about the way the federal government has dealt with an issue of significant importance not only to him as a small business owner but also to this particular industry. He has not had a response from the federal government, in particular from the Deputy Prime Minister’s office—which has responsibility for the area in which this issue of deep concern occurs.

Matthew Preston is co-owner and licensee of two childcare centres in Burpengary. He also owns a childcare centre called Happy Times Childcare Centre and Kindergarten. When I made contact with him following his approach to me our conversations and our exchange of emails revealed a most disturbing attitude by the Rudd Labor government and the Deputy Prime Minister’s office to dealing with the issue of child care. I think the best way I can proceed in parliament is to read his email to me, because it reflects deep concern and it really does embrace very precisely the issue that he is most concerned with—not only on his behalf but also, he suspects, on behalf of many other child-care centre owners. This is what he says:

I am the joint owner and licensee of two childcare centres in Burpengary. Each of the centres are adjacent to each other (connected) however one is on Station Rd, Burpengary and the other, David St. Currently the centres are running at about 64% occupancy which means that we would have vacancies for about 54 children of all ages. On the same street (Station Rd) is an ABC Childcare centre, which has been placed on the list of ABC centres for Operational Review. There are another 3 childcare centres in the local area of Burpengary. One is an ABC centre which is on the “safe” list and the other 2 are privately owned—like ours. I know that these centres also have a number of vacancies, most likely more than us due to the good reputation we have in the local area.

He then comes to the central issue:

What I have difficulty with is the justification for the ABC centre on Station Rd being kept open with government funding when we have the places available for the children? The Government has the statistics as they collect the vacancy data from us each week. Therefore at an absolute minimum they could select which centres need to be kept open due to a lack of supply.

Mr Preston now has little time for the Rudd Labor government and he makes his point very clearly by saying:

I also feel that the government has, since its election, done nothing but attack the private childcare sector. This undoubtedly helped lead to the collapse of ABC, and has significantly devalued childcare centres as a direct result of the prospect of the government building centres on public land, thereby placing the industry under a very dark cloud.

He talks about when he contacted the government and followed their instructions about contacting the my.child.gov website on 11 November. He says:

On 11 November I provided information by fax and also online to the my.child.gov website to have our centres’ details uploaded and despite asking for updates or an estimate as to when it would be uploaded, there has been no response. The only contact provided to childcare centres is the contact for the general public.

So I raise this in the parliament today and my question to the government is: what about those who are in business and who run child-care centres? I think that the lack of response from the Rudd Labor government and the Deputy Prime Minister in this case is appalling, insensitive and thoughtless. This constituent of mine is running his own business. He tells me that he has been running his child-care business since September 1995, so he clearly has more than a decade of experience. I suspect that if he has been running his business successfully since 1995 then he has earnt the goodwill and respect of all parents who have put their children into his care—and he would not be raising this if he was not very serious about it and very concerned. He has places available for some 54 children of all ages. I raise this in the parliament because I think it is a very valid point—it is a legitimate point and I just want the government to address it. I ask the Deputy Prime Minister to respond to Mr Matthew Preston, who has given me consent to mention his name and his business in the parliament today. (Time expired)