Tony Crook (O'Connor, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare. Will the government review its decision to cut funding for neighbourhood model occasional care centres, leaving some communities in regional Western Australia with no childcare option?

Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for O’Connor for his question. I am always delighted to talk about this government’s record when it comes to funding child care and early childhood education. As the member may be aware, we have, over the course of our government, massively increased funding in this area—in fact, to more than double the level that the Howard government spent—with over $18 billion to be spent over the next four years on early childhood education and care.

Having said that, the member is quite right that this has been not just a massive increase in spending but also a reform process. What that has meant is that there are areas that the federal government was previously funding that are now being left to the states. Equally there are areas that previously the state governments were funding that the federal government is stepping in on. To give an example of this, funding of $12.6 million on neighbourhood model occasional care centres has been ceased by the Commonwealth government, but in place of that there is $955 million which is now being spent by the federal government on universal access to preschool, an area which the states were previously left to fund 100 per cent.

To put this in context, in 2009-10 Commonwealth funding for Western Australian neighbourhood model occasional care was some $423,000. Now forgoing that, the Western Australian government is receiving $98 million when it comes to Commonwealth funding for kindergartens. So we have had an extreme reform process and we have massively increased funding in these areas, but there has been a shake-up of responsibilities.

The member for O’Connor might be interested that the Western Australian government will fully fund neighbourhood model occasional care services until 30 June 2011 and we expect that this funding should continue given the massive increase in Commonwealth expenditure in Western Australia. But still our government will never walk away from Australian families in need of care, so we have put in place a number of new measures which I am about to outline to help the very families that the member for O’Connor represents. These include direct support for five services in the wheat belt region through sustainability assistance of approximately $150,000 per year, exemptions for six services in the wheat belt region to operate less than five days a week on an ongoing basis and in-principle agreement for two more services to be added to this list so that they will be able to continue to receive Commonwealth support in the wheat belt region.

In last year’s budget we added $59 million to upgrade budget based funded services. This means that childcare centres in the areas which are facing the biggest disadvantage in Australia are funded and run by the Commonwealth government with no fees in place. We believe that these kids deserve the best service, which is why we have put in place $59 million to upgrade those services. Seventeen of the centres we are upgrading are in Western Australia and I would welcome the opportunity to take the member for O’Connor to visit those centres in his area to show how these improvements are going to help the lives of those children.

Ultimately the best thing that the Commonwealth government is now doing for these families and for their children is funding an unlimited number of childcare places in long day care, in family day care and in outside school hours care. This is all part of our commitment to more than double the funding levels that the Howard government put in place and make sure that child care in Australia is accessible, is affordable and is of high quality—because we know that the families who the member for O’Connor represents, like the families that we all represent, rely on this. (Time expired)