TRANSCRIPT:
I rise today to speak on the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Early Childhood Employment Powers) Bill 2024, a bill that would benefit significantly from the reasoned amendment moved by the member for Kew. This piece of legislation aims to strengthen the government’s commitment to open 50 new government-owned early learning centres (ELCs) by employing staff and setting and charging parents fees. This commitment, announced in advance of the 2022 election, with further details provided in the 2023–24 budget, stated these new government-owned and government-run centres would be in communities of greatest need. Sadly, so many communities across our state, including many in my electorate of Euroa, are set to remain without child care despite desperately needing it.
A 2022 report from the Mitchell Institute indicated that the Euroa electorate had significant issues when it came to childcare availability and accessibility. The Seymour region, Benalla, Avenel, Nagambie, Kilmore and Broadford were some of the areas pinpointed as struggling the most, whilst similar towns, such as Murchison, Rushworth, Tooborac and Redesdale had no child care whatsoever. These are major towns, not inaccessible backwaters, but they are being placed at a disadvantage when child care is so rare. The lack of childcare options is placing a significant barrier on young people who want to raise their families in regional Victoria. We have got incredible local childcare providers, but in most of these places there are up to six children competing for one place. It is not sustainable. Not having facilities will have a massive impact on the town’s future, with families choosing to relocate most of their lives to bigger centres like Shepparton. The lack of child care perpetuates generational disadvantage, something that is disproportionately impacting regional towns.
The Allan Labor government’s inability to manage money or manage a project is now impacting the education opportunities of our children. We already have extreme cost-of-living pressures as well as a labour crisis, making more accessible child care so important to ensure parents can return to work and alleviate these issues. Towns like Nagambie and Avenel were not even included in this government announcement, despite serious problems finding local child care in these areas. I had asked on several occasions that Avenel be included as one of the towns to receive a new childcare centre. Avenel is a growing township, with housing developments attracting residents, families and businesses to the town. Unfortunately, like many regional towns in Victoria, they have insufficient childcare facilities. They literally have none at all. With neighbouring towns, like Nagambie, also struggling with waitlists, it is imperative that Avenel is given the facilities needed to provide child care locally to all who needed it. It was incredibly disappointing to see them miss out on being included in the most recent announcement as towns and inner-city suburbs with far more childcare options were included ahead of them.
As part of the government’s rollout of the new early learning centres, I was initially pleased that Seymour, located within my electorate, was included to alleviate some of the strain on the system locally. But let me tell you my community has been incredibly disappointed about this misleading announcement. The reality is that the centre will not be delivered until well beyond 2028 if it is delivered at all. The headline-grabbing announcement of a new early learning facility prevented private and not-for-profits from filling the childcare void, while this government has no goal to actually deliver and relieve childcare waitlists. This government has a clear track record of overpromising and underdelivering for Victorians. I have serious concerns that this childcare initiative will be added to the ever-growing list of failures.
One major issue of concern for this program relates to getting staff at these childcare facilities. We know from experience that trying to attract teachers to primary and secondary schools in regional communities requires additional resources. For the few childcare facilities that my region has, staffing still remains a key issue despite them operating for years. With 17 of the 50 new government-owned ELC sites being regional or remote, this is something that must be addressed. So far there are very few details and no clear plan to overcome the very probable staffing challenges that will arise in these locations. In 2023 the Australian Childcare Alliance surveyed over 600 childcare centres, with over two-thirds of respondents saying they had capped enrolments due to staffing shortages. As a result, about 16,000 childcare places lay dormant due to the workforce crisis. Given we are already at crisis levels of workforce shortages, any interventions in the sector must be well thought out, organised and executed so there are no disruptions to existing service providers. Disruptions and distortions to the market could result in a significant reduction in the number of childcare places. We must ensure that getting staff to these new facilities does not take away from our already struggling system.
The government estimates they will need 700 educators plus another 100 teachers as well as administrators, support staff, cooks and more. Hundreds of staff will be needed, ready to go in these centres from day one, and there is no plan to ensure that these staff are not coming from existing centres. Neighbouring centres and kindergartens will be sacrificing their own staff for the new centres, and we are already seeing it locally in our community. They will have to reduce the number of places that they offer, taking places offline at a time we need to be growing capacity in the sector.
Due to how significant an issue this has been throughout my electorate, I created a survey and a review for local parents last June so they could explain the challenges and difficulties they faced accessing child care locally. Responses were received from major towns across the electorate, such as Avenel, Benalla, Broadford and Rushworth, as well as other smaller towns in the region. The responses shared overwhelmingly negative experiences, with 98 per cent of respondents saying they had been adversely impacted by access to a childcare centre in the region. Of those that were working, the responses highlighted a significant reliance on family and friends for childcare due to limited options in the area.
Inaccessible childcare has been an absolute slap in the face to parents not wanting but needing to return to work. One of the many functions of child care is to enable greater workforce participation, particularly for women. According to Deloitte, lack of access to child care takes almost 27,000 women entirely out of the workforce in Victoria and costs the economy about $1.5 billion a year in lost earnings. This is unacceptable. I want to share some of the responses to my surveys as well as personal stories shared with me that demonstrate the enormity of the problem we are faced with.
Felicity is a PR and marketing expert who lives on a property near Seymour with her family. She has been on a waitlist to get adequate care for her beautiful son Sebastian and has been forced to seek private babysitting support and nanny help, which means many days she is working entirely to pay for the care of her child. It is unsustainable, unfair and at times dangerous when leaning on people for care who did not have adequate experience or first aid knowledge, but we have no other option. She has to work to remain relevant and experienced in the field that she is damned talented at. In a way, she is lucky enough to be able to seek some private care, because many people like single mums or those without family support can only work the hours their children are in care, which is so limiting.
Lauren in Seymour is an incredible landscape architect with two gorgeous boys. She volunteers on absolutely every community event in town. Last year she had to quite literally wait at the door of childcare centres for access, waiting for a child to not attend because they were sick or absent. This is completely unacceptable. Another mum Lou, a local nurse who recently had two twin boys Freddie and Tommy, is on a 40-strong waitlist in Seymour for a centre that takes eight babies. Can I quickly say happy birthday, Freddie and Tommy – we adore you. But this government has genuinely promised a centre so far down the track that boys like Tommy and Freddie will be at school before it even starts to get built. There are countless more responses we received to these surveys. One mother said:
We have been on a wait list in Nagambie for over 6 months and still predicted to be waiting until December 2024. Unfortunately, I’ve now had to claim jobseekers payment due to lack of childcare, even if we have the baby in childcare we’re still limited with before and after-school care.
Another had to change jobs to one that is 40 minutes away just to be able to get full-time day care. One mother, a nurse in our community, said it is almost impossible to get child care:
… unless you want to be on a waiting list for 12 months. That is not always an option.
As an RN in a struggling healthcare system, she cannot work as much as possible because she cannot get the care for her child.
Many of the concerns about getting mothers back into the workforce can be found in amazing work done by the Sustaining Economic Empowerment and Dignity for Women, or SEED, project. I want to thank the local girls in Seymour for the extraordinary research they have done, highlighting the lack of child care as one of the major contributing factors in Seymour. The SEED project’s Flip It! report points out that a lack of access to childcare services has reinforced traditional gender roles in Seymour as women who may want to work are often obliged to stay home, work part time or take on lower paid jobs closer to home in order to look after their children. The report notes how these attitudes have manifested in high rates of domestic violence.
With that being said, I would like to make a big shout-out to all of our local teachers and childcare providers for what they do considering the lack of investment: to Narelle, Evie, Jacquie, Nicole, Jen, Trean and Amanda.