On Tuesday, 21 February 2017, the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) NSW President Lyn Connolly, CEO Chiang Lim and Legal Intern Brittany Taylor met with the Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, Deputy Leader of the Federal Opposition, current Shadow Minister for Education, and Labor’s Federal Member for Sydney.

The issues discussed were:

1. the proposed 15 hours minimum of subsidised childcare versus the current 24 hours;
2. the focus on jobs for families versus educational and care outcomes for children;
3. the proposed policy effects on the range of children versus all children;
4. the underlying business cost factors that escalate the cost of childcare;
5. the issue of children-to-educator ratios that contribute toward the cost of childcare;
6. the operational cost and market availabilities of 0-2 year old spaces;
7. the composition of private owner/operators versus corporate/large-scale childcare;
8. the past versus present planning framework that encourage oversupply and speculative investment;
9. the future of Universal Access funding after December 2017 as well as its original objectives versus actual outcomes to date; and
10. the future of Long Daycare Professional Development Programme (LDCPDP) funding after 30 June 2017.

Ms Plibersek assured ACA NSW that she would consider our concerns and perspective, and asked to continue to be kept informed of any further information we may be able to provide that can positively advance early childhood education and care for the benefit of all children and their parents.