Page 5794 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 7 December 2011
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The Productivity Commission’s early childhood development workforce research report released earlier this month illustrates that striking the balance between working and retaining childcare services has been made so much harder by these government reforms. The Productivity Commission report shows that 15 per cent more workers will be needed for childcare centres to meet the required standards. Due to the higher qualifications required, wages will need to be 10 per cent higher. There will also be a time lag before workers become appropriately qualified.
Subsequently, childcare centres face the prospect of staff shortages and long-term exemptions from complying with the standards. We already know that in the ACT retaining employees is difficult when you are in competition with the attractive remuneration packages offered by the public service. Retaining employees in the childcare sector in the ACT will now become that much harder.
The federal reforms to childcare, as examined in the Productivity Commission’s report, are due to start in four weeks time. The not-for-profit advocacy group, the Australian Childcare Alliance, has stated that childcare costs will skyrocket under the planned workforce reforms. They argue that the reforms must be slowed down and that family and long-day childcare centres need to be properly funded and supported. Without slowing down the reform process, the alliance argues that inexperienced educators may be inadvertently employed in the rush to upskill and increase carer-to-children ratios.
It is important to remember in these discussions that over 5,000 early childcare services in Australia are managed by their communities, either by not-for-profit organisations or committees of volunteer parents. This is where reform will be hit hardest. The level of complexity in the regulation that these centres face will not only be exacerbated by the rushing through of this reform agenda.
The federal Labor government have argued that the impact of the reform agenda on childcare fees would be minimal, that it would be under 50c a week. The ACT minister, Ms Burch, has believed them hook, line and sinker. She did not think it was necessary to stand up for Canberra families and examine the impact that these reforms may have on the people of the ACT.
The Productivity Commission examined this statement of the impact on cost and found that 50c a week was a gross underestimate. The Productivity Commission estimates that the cost increase would be up 15 per cent, which is an increase of about $50 a week, not the 50c as lauded by this Labor government.
The Productivity Commission report states that parents will be forced to make a choice—either to leave the workforce or to remove their child from care and move into unregulated backyard institutions to cope with the higher costs. At least someone understands the impact these reforms will have on the cost of living for families, because it is certain that the federal Labor government and this ACT Labor government, in particular the minister Joy Burch, would rather just bury their head in the sand—perhaps put her hands over her ears and say, “La, la, la.”
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