Page 4070 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 2010
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heard from Ms Burch in relation to this since she has become the minister responsible for childcare, whether this is apparent to her. So for the benefit of Ms Burch I will quickly outline why affordable and accessible childcare is important.
Apart from owning a home and paying for it, childcare for some families is the biggest financial commitment that they have when their children are young. I have had people comment to me when I talk to them about childcare that the childcare fees they had to pay “financially crippled” them when their children were young. From my own experience, I recall a time when I was paying various things for my two sons. One of them was in family day care and the other one was in senior high school at a Canberra boys school. I noted that at the time I was paying more per month for family day care than I was paying in school fees per term at a Canberra boys school. That is an indication of the cost of childcare that people bear in the ACT.
So it is no surprise that the lack of affordable childcare in the ACT creates a particular barrier for women who want to re-enter the workforce. Recent research by the commonwealth Treasury shows that the cost of childcare has a significant negative effect on workforce participation by mothers of young children. This is reaffirmed by stories that I hear from my concerned constituents and friends.
I am aware of just one family, to take an example, who are on a good income—not a high income but a good income—where the mother works a couple of days a week to keep her skills up while she has three young children in care. She is effectively working for nothing because what she earns pays her childcare fees because they are so high. But this is a young, go-ahead sort of woman who has made choices because she wants to have the certainty of a career when her children are older.
Mothers of young children participate in the workforce for a variety of reasons—for career considerations, for personal choice, for intellectual stimulation and networking and out of economic necessity. The particular mother that I have spoken of persists in the workforce on a part-time basis because she is motivated and a hard worker and she wants to maintain her skills. She wants to ensure that she remains competitive in the workforce for when she re-enters on a more full-time basis when her children get older.
I have also heard of several stories where mothers have been unable to return to the workforce because suitable childcare for their children cannot be found within reasonable access to their home or to their workplace. But if you listen to the government and you listen to Ms Burch, they will tell you—and I am sure she will tell us later today—that everything in ACT childcare is just hunky-dory. Well, Ms Burch, it is time that you took responsibility for your portfolio area and had a good, hard look at what is happening in childcare in the ACT.
To assist the minister, I would like to provide the Assembly with a few facts and figures. The provision of childcare in the ACT is somewhat unique. About 80 per cent of childcare is provided by not-for-profit community organisations. Twenty-two of these are community organisations which are run directly by parents. According to the report on government services in 2010, there were 10,008 children aged five and under and 5,430 children aged between six and 12 attending Australian government approved childcare services in the ACT in 2008. This represents 37 per cent of
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