TONY EASTLEY: The Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Education, Julia Gillard says the Government is already moving to address serious shortcomings in Australia’s child care and early childhood education. She blames the former government for the neglect. Julia Gillard is speaking here with Alexandra Kirk.
JULIA GILLARD: We’ve entered new arrangements with states and territories to have universal access to pre-school. Whether children are in child care or being taken to kindergarten or pre-school, wherever they’re cared, for they will get the benefit of early learning programs.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: But the report card recommends above all that children should be cared for by the parents at home for at least the first twelve months. Obviously that necessitates paid parental leave and UNICEF says that should be 50 per cent of the parents’ salary. Do you accept that’s the level of support required?
JULIA GILLARD: The Rudd Labor government commitment, the one we took to the election, was to get the Productivity Commission to report on the best way of having paid parental leave in the Australian context. Obviously in the Australian context we have the baby bonus now, we also have many employers who offer the benefits of paid parental leave. We have said that we do want to see a scheme of paid parental leave in this country but we also want to get it right and that’s why we are going through the process of expert inquiry and report.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: The UN report’s also critical of the Government’s lack of investment in child care. They say that it should be at least one per cent of GDP. That’s more than double the current level of federal funding. Will you do something to address what the UN regards as a serious case of underfunding?
JULIA GILLARD: We are making huge new investments in this area. More than half a billion dollars in universal pre-school, more than $100 million in new workforce development measures because if we are going to have early learning, then we need the early learning teachers. Of course you can’t overcome more than a decade of neglect in a single day or indeed a single year.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: The Government’s currently having to prop up child care services because of the collapse of ABC Learning. The UN’s criticised the high level of for-profit services in Australia, saying that that overreliance children at risk if the private sector gets into financial trouble. In the restructure that’s obviously going to occur soon are you going to reduce the corporate sector’s hold on child care services?
JULIA GILLARD: I think the UN is being rightly critical of the policy settings of the former government where effectively the market was allowed to rip. We’re in the position where right around the country community-based organisations and local governments have stepped up, have put their hands up and said we want to be involved, we want to be involved in running child care centres that used to be run by ABC Learning. We’re working through all of that now - those expressions of interest, that goodwill and we are doing that with a perspective of getting more diversity in our child care system.