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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1648 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

What do we do in these situations, Mr Wood? Obviously, we will do the best we can to assist anyone; but it may not mean that we have the ability to completely take over any funding shortfall from the Commonwealth.

Mr Wood: But what is that? What is "the best we can"?

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Wood, you might be interested to know, just in relation to this, that the advice I have indicates that some $77m has been cut from the child-care assistance budget by capping fee assistance for non-work-related purposes in both long-day care and school-age services at 20 hours per week. There will be exceptions for families in crisis, children at risk and services that are the sole providers in their area. Occasional care will also be exempt from this 20-hour ceiling. My bureau advises me that the measure is unlikely to have a major impact on parents in the ACT, as most child-care and long-day care centres are used for work-related purposes.

The Federal Government, I understand also, Mr Wood, is aiming to save some $38.8m by changing the current method of advance payment of child-care assistance to services to arrears payments from January 1999. This will impact on all long-day care centres in the ACT which have previously had the benefit of advance payments, providing them with some financial security. Outside-school-hours care will lose its operational subsidies from 1 January next year, and vacation care its block grants from 1 February 1998, with this money retargeted directly to families through the new school-age child-care assistance system. This new assistance, based on long-day care parameters, allows for increased payments to parents using these services, with a maximum of $1.62 per hour payable.

The loss of operational subsidies for outside-school-hours care and block grants for vacation care services will have a considerable impact on many ACT services, which will increase fees to compensate for their lost funding. However, parents who are eligible for child-care assistance will be assisted to meet these higher fees. Parents not eligible for child-care assistance will pay higher fees for outside-school-hours care services. Child-care subsidies will be linked to age appropriate immunisation levels on 1 January 1998. The Bureau of Youth Services is looking at all of this, Mr Wood.

I have been promised some additional information from the Commonwealth which, they say, refutes some of the claims made in the media. I will go through that very carefully and assess what real impact this will have on the ACT. We will do what we can, Mr Wood; but I reiterate that it is impossible to expect this Government or indeed you, if you lot - on your 26 per cent, as opposed to our supposed 21 per cent - find yourselves here next February in a similar financial situation, to top up everything when the Commonwealth makes a decision which financially impacts adversely on the ACT.

MR WOOD: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Here I come; we are coming. The Minister has actually said that he is not going to do anything; he said about three times, "I do not care" and "There is nothing I can do". Really, my supplementary question comes back to an earlier point he raised. Minister, are you going to vote for your Liberal mates next time?

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