Just about every time I click on a YouTube video, watch television or open a newspaper, I’m confronted with federal government advertisements informing me that we can claim a non-means tested childcare rebate.
That’s fantastic, except my daughter is still on multiple waiting lists for childcare, as there is no availability for the days our family requires. She’s been on some lists since I was four months’ pregnant and she’s now 18 months old. If it wasn’t for her grandparents’ assistance with care, I would not have been able to return to work part-time in January.
Our family certainly isn’t alone. In the federal electorate of Melbourne Ports where I live, there are hundreds and hundreds of children waiting for childcare. Indeed more than 1000 children are waiting for a spot in the City of Port Phillip alone, according to a recent Nine News report.
What is the point of telling us about a childcare rebate when we can’t actually get into childcare to claim the rebate?
According to the 2013 Federal Budget papers, the government will spend $8 million on the childcare rebate advertising campaign. Just imagine how that money could be better spent on incentives to encourage new childcare centres to open where they are desperately needed. $8 million! What an appalling waste of taxpayers’ money and a complete red herring.
Despite being told by families for years that the childcare system desperately needs to be reformed, this government refuses to do anything to create more places. Rather, the focus has been on improving childcare workers’ wages and conditions. A noble goal, but one that will not improve the accessibility, flexibility and affordability of childcare. On the contrary: according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, last year the cost of childcare went up by about three times the inflation rate.
The government has dismissed out of hand the vital role of nannies and in-home carers, despite shift workers such as nurses relying on this mode of childcare. Common sense dictates that the government should regulate nannies and make the childcare rebate applicable to them, to meet the reasonable childcare demands of modern Australian families.
We’ve been lucky – grandparents are not a childcare option for many families. Parents are increasingly starting families at an older age, which means grandparents are older than previous generations, often making them incapable of being carers. Immigration has resulted in some grandparents not living in the same state or country as their grandchildren. And many free-spirited baby boomer grandparents simply do not wish to provide regular childcare for their grandchildren.
And there’s the wider economic position to consider. We are constantly being told by politicians and economists how Australia must urgently lift its productivity rate in order to generate more tax revenue and more economic growth. An easy way to accomplish this is to increase the workplace participation rate of women. Australian women are among the most educated in the OECD, yet our workplace participation rate is among the lowest, below New Zealand and Canada. Why? It’s not rocket science: a lack of affordable, flexible and accessible childcare plays a part.
According to the Grattan Institute, if Australia lifted the percentage of women participating in the workforce to Canada’s rate, our GDP would rise by $25 billion. That’s why it makes perfect sense for the federal government to invest in measures that increase the availability of childcare.
Women want to – and more often than not need to – return to work after childbirth. Our economy desperately needs the increased participation of women in the workforce. So why isn’t the federal government doing anything to reform childcare, ensuring it effectively serves the needs of modern Australian families?
Let’s stop wasting millions of dollars, insulting people’s intelligence with red herrings and dividing the community with faux class warfare rhetoric about nannies. It’s time to maturely deal with the policy elephant in the room.