Page 247 - Week 01 - Thursday, 10 February 2022
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Minister, what is the impact on working families of having the most expensive child care in Australia?
MS BERRY: I am very happy to be able to talk about the ACT government’s initiatives in providing preschool education for three-year-olds, expanding it from four-year-olds to three-year-olds. This is something that we have consistently asked the federal government to apply as a national program because we all know that early childhood education provides children and young people with the best possible start to their education and life. We are already making a difference to families here in the ACT. Primarily, we are making sure that our young people, particularly young children from families who need additional support, get the best possible start through our Set up for Success early childhood strategy and by providing preschool for three-year-olds.
MR HANSON: Minister, what are you doing to reduce the most expensive child care in Australia for those parents paying that $610 per week?
MS BERRY: I have referred to one of the ways that the ACT government is supporting families in the ACT, by providing free, universal access to preschool education for four-year-olds and three-year-olds. We are the first state or territory in the country to deliver on that promise, that commitment, and we will continue to roll that out. Funding for early childhood education and care services is predominantly within the federal government’s remit, but here in the ACT we are doing what we can to make sure that young people get that support in their early years, through providing free access to preschool for three-year-olds as well as four-year-olds.
MS CASTLEY: Minister, why is child care in the ACT the most expensive in Australia?
MS BERRY: There are a range of reasons why early childhood education is expensive in the ACT. Regarding the comparisons that are made with other states and territories, with the ACT being a bigger city area, comparing it to Sydney and regional areas makes the comparison a little skewed. Also, the number of early childhood services that are operated by for-profit, private, corporate services can often lift early childhood education costs.
Unfortunately, what you do not see in some of those services is the wages of early childhood education and care workers going up at the same rate as the cost to parents. That is something that really needs to be addressed in that sector, a sector that is predominantly female and definitely underpaid when the rates for those qualifications are compared to similar qualifications in a more male dominated area. If the opposition want to focus on the issues within early childhood education and care, they should definitely look at the wages of the workers in that sector who provide the best possible care and education for the best possible start in life. Funding for those services is predominantly a federal government issue. That is where the opposition should be going—to improve the wages of those workers or to get behind the United Workers Union, to make sure that those services are funded appropriately so that parents are not paying more out of their pockets for people to make money out of early childhood education.
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