2015-02-16
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young
This year, the Abbott Government has the opportunity for major reform to improve availability and accessibility, but most significantly, to improve the quality of education for children in the most important years of their development.
Over the past decade, the price of childcare has soared by over 150 percent in many places with some parents paying in excess of $100 per day for care. Compounding these extraordinary prices is a serious lack of available places. Parents are regularly forced to enrol children pre-birth to ensure a place.
A poll of more than 1000 parents conducted by the Australian Greens last year found an overwhelming 86 percent of Australian parents say that fees are one of their biggest concerns when it comes to getting their children into regular childcare.
Compared to other OECD countries, Australia has disturbingly low enrolment rates in early childhood education: for 3-year-olds, we're ranked 32 of 36 countries and 4-year-olds in early childhood and primary education Australia ranks 34 out of 38 countries. Many of the countries in the OECD are less reliant on private providers than Australia. Poor levels of Government funding have exacerbated this obvious crisis.
While fees and availability have long been issues for the vast majority of Australian mums and dads, we also know that the quality of education and care must be high for the healthy development of our kids. That's why a commitment to high quality care must be absolutely central to any government reforms. Vulnerable and at-risk Australian families must also be guaranteed access to that same high quality of care.
Under the former Labor Government the National Quality Framework was introduced in January 2012. The aim of the NQF is to raise the quality of care through a nationally standardised approach. It sets out requirements for child care and early learning service providers, including qualification and educator-to-child ratios. It's clear that, while we must strive for far better access and more affordable care, this cannot come at the expense of quality.
The Abbott Government is faced with an opportunity for major reform to early childhood education, but any improvements will only succeed if adequate funding is also allocated. The most sensible way to pay for this investment is retaining the 1.5 percent business levy that was earmarked for the now scrapped Paid Parental Leave Scheme.
The Greens have always advocated for affordable, available and flexible care, but have consistently presented an evidenced-based case for quality care.
Developing psychology shows us that these formative developmental years, particularly between the ages of 0-5, are the years that matter the most. The results of a well-funded and high quality early education and care sector are better outcomes both educationally and economically.
The first meaningful step the Abbott Government should take is releasing the findings of the Childcare and Early Childhood Learning report completed by the Productivity Commission in October 2014. The Commission's draft report showed us that, if the government doesn't increase funding to the sector, the childcare crisis will continue to worsen. Tinkering at the edges will only mean minor changes are made to a fundamentally broken system. A major overhaul is needed, and it needs to happen sooner rather than later.
The Greens want to see a national planning system developed to ensure child care places are available where needed and are equitably available to all children. We want to see the childcare support payments for parents simplified and funding to the sector increased so that families will no longer struggle to afford high quality care.
We also want to see a Capital Grants Fund established that would be made available to community groups and not-for profit providers to assist with costs of maintaining and establishing high quality centres. It's only with support and incentives like this that the problem of ever-growing waiting lists will be overcome.
The Abbott Government must reform early childhood education to ensure that maximum new places are created at the lowest possible cost to parents, with the highest quality of education.
Tony Abbott is telling Australians that the Government can't afford to invest in major reform, despite the desperate need for funding in the struggling childcare sector. It's unfortunate that the Abbott Government is letting big business off the hook while slugging families with increased costs of living and refusing to increase funding to childcare. These stalling tactics are disadvantaging the early childhood education sector, and denying Australians the opportunity to better, more affordable care.
Sarah Hanson-Young is a Senator for South Australia and the Greens' Early Childhood Education and Care.