The Australian Greens have released an effective plan to deal with the problems of the childcare sector and the needs of the families who rely on it, according to Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
Speaking in Brisbane, Senator Hanson-Young, Greens spokesperson on Early Childhood Education, says the Greens have developed a series of initiatives to help deliver a better service that values children and provides support to families.
"We place a high value on primary and secondary education in this country because we think it is important for children of that age - and we should be investing the same value on early childhood education and care (ECEC),'' Senator Hanson-Young said.
"It was a Greens amendment to pay the childcare rebate fortnightly rather than quarterly, that the Federal Government now claims as its own - this is an example of the Greens generating better outcomes for the community.
"The Greens want the Productivity Commission to inquire into the payment of services to work out the most cost-effective method of service delivery that doesnt just dump the cost burden onto families.
"The Greens believe education does not start in primary school but in the earliest years of life, so the provision of quality, affordable accessible care is a necessity. Our plan will help achieve this goal.''
The Greens policy would:
* Support nationally consistent ECEC standards with more highly qualified staff and lower carer-to-child ratios of at least 1:3 for children aged 0-2, and 1:4 for children aged over two and smaller groups
* Bring on a bill to establish a Commonwealth Commissioner for Children and Young People to ensure Australia's international and domestic obligations are upheld to ensure children's wellbeing
* Ensure fortnightly payments of the childcare rebate commence as soon as possible to ease the burden on families
* Establish a Capital Grants Fund of $200 million over four years ($50 million per year) to allow individual community centres to apply with quotes for capital grants work to build infrastructure
* Fight for more publicly funded, community-based and not-for-profit child care facilities, especially in areas of high unmet demand or growth and areas of high socio-economic need. The new National Quality Framework on ECEC must guarantee a place for all children under 3 by 2012
* Establish a Co-op Childcare Fund to provide $10m in grants for local, small and medium businesses to collectively establish childcare facilities for their employees. This fund could see up to 100 new centres established for around 1500 children
"These initiatives are practical, commonsense ideas that will boost confidence in the system, provide real support for families and start our children on a path of education that runs all the way to university and beyond,'' Senator Hanson-Young said.
Greens Lead Senate Candidate for Queensland, Larissa Waters, says a survey of vacancy figures compiled by the Greens shows an alarming lack of childcare places for Brisbane, particularly in community childcare with only 3 centres out of 15 surveyed having vacancies.
"My own daughter is 71st on a waiting list for our local community childcare centre and clearly many other Brisbane parents are in the same boat,'' Ms Waters said.
"It's not good enough - Queensland parents deserve low-cost, high quality not-for-profit childcare options, and I will fight for that as the first Greens Senator for Queensland."
