Why is Labor ignoring child care cost blowouts?
July 13, 2010
For the sake of working families the Gillard Labor Government must do better with child care costs than its promise to pay child care rebate fortnightly in a year’s time.
“There are three hurdles parents face with child care affordability and the Gillard Labor Government has addressed one,” said Dr Sharman Stone, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Childcare.
“A promise to pay the child care rebate fortnightly from 1 July 2011 shows Labor is not deaf to the problems of unaffordable child care, but it has chosen to do too little too late.
“Nor has it changed its budget cutbacks in child care subsidies. This Labor Government announced the bad news in the budget that it would cap the child care rebate at $7500, taking $278 out of the pockets of parents, and it removed indexation of the rebate for four years.
“Child care providers are already facing higher costs to cover wage increases and the implementation of Labor’s new National Quality Framework. This is now translating into parents reducing their hours in the work force or being forced out of the work force altogether as child care costs eat up their salaries.
“The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, seems to think working families are a soft target for spending cuts to meet the government’s $100 million per day borrowings.
“Child care centres around Australia are also reporting one in four bills are going unpaid as parents struggle to meet costs and have no other options.
“As child care becomes less affordable, our skills shortages will become more acute. Women forced out of the work force also has major long-term effects on the economy’s productivity and on increased poverty in older age. Labor must rethink its strategy.”