Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the Labor senator for the ACT I recently had the privilege to see first hand the tremendous and important work childcare professionals do. As part of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union Big Steps in Child Care campaign I worked a day in the life of a childcare worker at the Bruce Ridge Early Childhood Centre. This experience brought home to me the many challenges faced on a daily basis by childcare professionals and the importance of the LHMU Big Steps in Child Care campaign.

The Big Steps in Child Care campaign is about standing up for childcare professionals. It is about recognising childcare professionals’ skills and the need for financial support for training. The shortage of childcare professionals is also a high priority after what I believe was substantial neglect during the years of the former Howard government. Childcare professionals through their union want a government that is committed to introducing consistent national quality standards and career paths with better pay for workers. In the ACT we currently have over 1,400 childcare professional staff with a total of 687 vacant positions and a job turnover rate of 47 per cent, which is lower than South Australia’s job turnover rate of 60 per cent but still higher than the average of other Australian states.

I have given my personal commitment to the members of the union to be a LHMU Big Steps childcare champion. I support their campaign for better wages and better access to the upskilling opportunities and will do my best within government to help achieve these positive outcomes. Like so many working parents here in Canberra and elsewhere in Australia I have relied on the essential services provided by dedicated childcare professionals over many years. In fact, I still utilise the services of after-school care for my youngest child. I have long campaigned for improvements to wages and conditions in the childcare sector but I have to say that walking in the shoes of a childcare professional in this small way—and it was a few hours of very challenging work—meant I experienced what it was like to perform such important work. It was a privilege to be able to experience this and it reminded me of how challenging and wonderfully rewarding and complex it is to deal with young children at such an important phase of their development.

With a Labor government federally and in the ACT, it is a great opportunity to look extensively into the challenges facing the childcare sector and to build on the reforms that both the ACT and federal Labor governments have already implemented. I am proud to be part of a Gillard Labor government that is delivering on our commitment to child care. The Labor government have driven an ambitious and unprecedented national reform agenda for early childhood education and child care, because we understand that a child’s experience in the early years can set the course for the rest of the child’s life. We understand that professionals in child care and early education play a critical role in ensuring that children have good quality experiences in child care and they help each child to learn and develop. That is why this government is committed to reforms to lift the quality of child care and early education, including improvements to staff-child ratios so that each childcare professional has more time to spend with each individual child.

As part of these reforms the government is providing opportunities for dedicated and experienced childcare professionals to gain new qualifications. This includes $115 million to remove TAFE fees for childcare diplomas and advanced diplomas to support over 8,000 people per year, including existing childcare professionals, to gain a vocational education and training qualification in early childhood education.

In relation to pay and conditions, the Gillard Labor government has restored a strong safety net for all Australian workers through the modern awards system. Federal Labor welcomes engagement with the LHMU with regard to the low-paid bargaining stream introduced under the Fair Work Act. This stream gives access to bargaining for workers in sectors where it has been difficult to gain the benefits of enterprise bargaining. It is another important part of delivering on our commitment to a fair go for all Australian workers.

Overall the Gillard Labor government is investing a record $17.1 billion in early childhood education and child care over the next four years. This is $10 billion more than the last four years of the former coalition government. We are committed to the early years and to ensuring that each childcare professional can provide children with the high-quality care and attention we all know they need and deserve. The Gillard Labor government are delivering on our commitment to raise the quality of early childhood education and child care, with $630,000 being provided here in the ACT by the federal government over four years to develop sector training, development and support.

In December 2009, the Council of Australian Governments endorsed a new National Quality Framework which will, firstly, improve staff-child ratios so that each child gets more individual time and attention; secondly, introduce staff qualification requirements so that staff are better able to lead activities that inspire youngsters and to help them learn and develop; thirdly, include a new ratings system so that parents know the quality of care on offer and can make informed choices; and, fourthly, reduce the regulation burden so that services have to deal with only one regulator. These national quality reforms have been developed in close consultation with the early childhood education and childcare sector. Because the changes are being introduced over a number of years, services will have time to adjust and there should be no sudden increase in costs to families.

The Access Economics modelling on the quality reforms shows that these significant quality reforms would increase fees—if passed on by the childcare centre—for long day care, per child, per day by only $1.83 in 2010, $2.35 in 2011 and $3.44 in 2012. These costs have also been offset by a significant increase in the child care tax rebate by the federal Labor government to 50 per cent of the cost of child care, which has decreased childcare fees for parents by 20 per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The ACT Labor government has signed up, with every other state and territory, to the COAG national quality agenda. ACT providers that have already improved staff-child ratios report that the improvements in quality of care for children are significant, that staff are less stressed and that the turnover of staff is reduced. These are very positive outcomes as a result of these reforms. The ACT government has also implemented, as of 1 July this year, a portable long service leave scheme for childcare professionals. This will ensure that childcare sector workers can move between centres and keep their fundamental entitlement to long service leave, allowing it to accrue overtime, boosting the attraction and retention of employees to the sector.

In conclusion, I would like to report to the Senate that I signed a pledge which commits me to continue my advocacy for childcare professionals, including their campaign for wage justice. I would like to pay my respects to the work of the LHMU in their representation of childcare professionals and their efforts to continue to progress the agenda of childcare reform nationally. I would particularly like to thank Yvette Berry from the LHMU here in the ACT; Jessica from Bruce Ridge; and Alyce, also from Bruce Ridge, for their forbearance and encouragement when I walked in their shoes, and I thank all the other staff and, of course, the children, who were terrific the whole morning at my day in the life of a childcare professional. I learnt a lot that day, and I pay my respects to childcare professionals throughout Australia.