BILL WOODS: The Federal Government is saying that all ABC centres will remain open, at least for the time being. Joining us live from Melbourne is the Minister responsible for child care, the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Ms Gillard thanks for your time.
JULIA GILLARD: Good morning.
BILL WOODS: Ms Gillard what guarantee can you give parents, we are talking about 110 000 children here at ABC centres.
JULIA GILLARD: We are talking about a large number of children and obviously a huge number of working families and I understand that parents would be very anxious about this and employees would be too. A receiver was appointed yesterday and what the receiver said, in the very first statement, was that ABC centres would continue to operate. They are operating today as normal. The receiver hasn’t set any time limit on that. The Government is obviously working with the banks and the receiver. We understand people are anxious and our highest priority is to make sure people have got child care they can rely on.
BILL WOODS: We know you’re Government has had to make a lot of guarantees lately but what about guaranteeing these centres will remain open, can you do that?
JULIA GILLARD: We are going to be working with the receiver and with the banks. ABC centres are functioning normally now, children are being looked after, staff are at work, people are able to have their kids in child care. So they are operating now, the receiver has said they will continue to operate and we will keep working on this situation. We understand people are anxious, that’s why we’ve set up a dedicated hotline for people ring. The number is 180 2003 and we will also be putting up to date information on the mychild.gov.au website. But centres are functioning normally.
BILL WOODS: That’s 180 2003, thought I would repeat that, thank you. Do you think it’s likely that the ABC, it’s a big chunk of the child care market, would it be broken up and perhaps sold to other operators or perhaps a single operator even?
JULIA GILLARD: I think all of that is yet to come and I really don’t want to speculate about it but I think it is important to recognise that there are lots of operators in this country. ABC is the single biggest private operator, that’s true. But there are lots of centres in this country that are managed by private operators, that are managed by the not for profit sector and they are stable and financially viable. This is an industry highly subsidised by government. Obviously ABC got itself into trouble; it was starting to look at trading offshore in the US and all of that kind of thing and it has got itself into a corporate problem. But it is obviously possible for people to run perfectly financially viable centres in Australia, many people do. The Government is going to continue to support the child care industry through the Child Care Benefit, $1.9 billion a year and through our Child Care Tax Rebate which meets 50 per cent of parents out of pocket costs.
BILL WOODS: Of course not a good climate for anyone who wants to buy into this situation at the moment, not a lot of people could afford to. What is the Federal Government possibility of ownership of at least some of these centres?
JULIA GILLARD: We are not in the business of buying and running child care centres. We are in the business of supporting child care. That’s why we have the Child Care Benefit and the Child Care Tax Rebate to help take the pressure off working families when they’ve got children in care and they are paying fees. But the Government is going to be centrally involved in this situation. We are working with the banks, we are working with the receiver and our highest priority is to make sure mums and dads that rely on child care can still get that child care.
BILL WOODS: There are reports in the industry today, the administrator is saying the Federal Government needs to kick in $60 million just to keep the centres open until Christmas, is that the sort of contribution you are prepared to make if not to go as far as ownership?
JULIA GILLARD: I have seen those reports. What I can say is we are in discussion with the banks, who are creditors of ABC Learning and with the receiver. We are working with them and we want to make sure child care centres are there for people to rely on. And can I say about the child care system more broadly. I think we have ended up in this situation because the former government, the Howard Government, basically took the cap off child care places and then just let the market rip. There was no real Federal Government management of child care. We are turning that around, we are building National Quality Standards, we are developing a national workforce strategy so we have got enough trained workers, we are investing in the development of 260 new child care centres. We are obviously going to be here each and every day managing this situation with ABC Learning so people have got child care when they need it because we understand how vital it is for people to get to work.
BILL WOODS: Just before I go we will recap that number you gave us, that’s 180 2003, that’s the child care hotline. And sorry Minister, the website again please?
JULIA GILLARD: The website is mychild.gov.au.
BILL WOODS: Deputy Prime Minister thank you very much for joining us today.
JULIA GILLARD: Thank you very much.