It was certainly prophetic that on the eve of when Senator Nick Xenophon and his fellow NXT senators would publicly announce their opposition to Prime Minister Turnbull’s Omnibus Bill on 14 February 2017 (thereby scuttling the Federal Coalition Government’s latest attempt to achieve greater childcare affordability), that Australian Childcare Alliance NSW President Lyn Connolly participated in the ABC’s Q&A television program posing her question to the spectrum of federal parliamentarians.
The question asked was:
“The Prime Minister's latest attempt to reform childcare is intended to increase affordability while being paid for by new tax revenues from more parents returning to work, savings already identified by MYEFO and crackdown on rorts. So why has it taken 9 years so far to try and pass any proper childcare legislation and why is this legislation robbing some children of an early childhood education based on their parents work choice?”
Based on the responses from Victorian Liberal Senator James Paterson, former Labor Minister and currently Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education the Hon Kate Ellis MP and Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie, Australian children and their parents, childcare service providers and staff look set to again wait further before consensus can be reached by a majority in both Houses of the Commonwealth Parliament.
Equally interesting was the announcement on 13 February 2017 from Federal, State and Territory education Ministers all agreed to simplify the National Quality Framework, reducing the standards from 18 to 15, and elements from 58 to 40, for example. A cursory view of these proposed changes only confirm what the Australian Childcare Alliance NSW had been saying for years – that the existing regulatory framework is excessively cumbersome and negatively contributing toward financial non-sustainability.
Although achieving greater childcare affordability is not yet possible, the Australian Childcare Alliance continues to advocate to and engage with all federal parliamentarians to find effective solutions that can attract broad and majority support.