In less than a fortnight the Turnbull Government’s new childcare package will kick in and, when it does, many families and children in our area will be worse off.
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The Government’s new guidelines focus on parents/carers and workforce participation. They aren’t geared towards giving our kids a good educational start in life.
I believe children deserve equal access to education and support no matter where they live, or how much their parents earn.
We know that 85 to 90 per cent of brain development takes place during a child’s first five years. We know these early years lay down the behaviours and skills that are essential to lifelong learning and health.
That is why members of the Kurri Kurri Early Connections group were understandably concerned when they learnt of the Turnbull Government’s changes from Labor’s Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Development, The Hon. Amanda Rishworth MP.
Ms Rishworth visited Kurri Kurri with me in April to meet with this cohort of experienced and passionate educators, each of whom is committed to providing our children with the best start in life.
She spoke of her concerns about the Turnbull Government failing to commit to long-term funding for our preschools and about linking subsidies to the amount of parent/carer work-related activity per fortnight.
All who attended agreed that the Government’s new package ignored the benefit of children regularly accessing early education services and stood to disadvantage those families who were most vulnerable.
Sadly, this is how we expect it to play out.
When the Government fails to properly fund preschools and child care, the cost burden will fall to families.
The ones who stand to lose will be our children – particularly those from lower-income families.
Figures from the Department of Education confirm that 176,000 of the families who will be worse off are in the two lowest combined family income brackets.
We don’t know precisely how many of those families live in our electorate as yet because, nationwide, one in three affected families are yet to sign up for child care subsidies. Everyone basically needs to re-register.
We do know, however, that our electorate of Paterson is home to 2500 children who rely on four-year-old preschool. This places us fifth in the State.
That probably means you know a child, or family, who is involved with preschool or day care.
I urge all who stand to be affected to visit www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/child-care-benefit and check their eligibility as soon as possible.
Please let me know about your family’s experience and remember my staff and I are here to help if you encounter difficulties. Contact me on Meryl.Swanson.MP@aph.gov.au.
