“Childcare at the pokies”. At first I assumed I had misread that headline and being a Sunday morning before I’d even taken a sip of coffee it seemed a plausible explanation. I looked closer and it wasn’t. I hadn’t misread the headline on the front page of The Sun Herald and it was worse than I first thought.
Perhaps some clubs want to set up a creche like gyms do, I thought, offer casual childcare for parents who are inside using the facilities. Not a particularly palatable scenario but marginally more palatable than what I came to read.
The headline and article related to a submission to the Productivity Commission by Clubs Australia whereby they have offered to open daycare centres in their venues in return for tax breaks on their poker machine revenue. You did not misread that.
It was reported that Clubs Australia executive director Anthony Ball urged the Productivity Commission consider the proposal as a “credible solution”.
“Not-for-profit clubs are well positioned to deliver affordable access to childcare,” Ball wrote. “The industry’s extensive community networks, sizeable facilities, geographic footprint and capital expenditure programs ensures that clubs can help fill service gaps where demand is most acute.”
In my mind it’s difficult to imagine a worse combination than clubs and childcare. Of course some will argue “Nanny state!” Who am I to say clubs shouldn’t open their doors to babies, infants and toddlers to address the shortage of day-care positions in Australia?
For a start, I’m a parent who can’t fathom the idea of dropping my young daughters off to a club, even to a presumably quarantined area. But, apart from that, I am also a citizen sufficiently interested in Australia creating a sustainable solution to childcare. Because a sustainable childcare solution is one of the critical pillars to ensure women can participate in the workforce to the extent they choose.
Broadly speaking, I would argue that an adequate childcare solution is one that can deliver affordable, accessible, and, critically, good-quality care. If anyone thinks opening daycare centres inside clubs is part of that solution then I suspect we have problems well and truly beyond the childcare shortage.
As I digested the article yesterday I was struck by something I have considered a few times recently. I might be off the mark here but my honest inkling is that whoever devised the “childcare-for-pokies-tax-break” proposal has had very little exposure to childcare. As in, might never have physically entered a childcare centre in their life. And no matter what other credentials they have, a person with no exposure to childcare is not the person to be devising solutions for childcare.
It’s an instance where, at least on the surface, it seems the decision maker has very little understanding of those who their decisions might affect. That is exactly why the issue of diversity – along all lines – matters so much. It’s not just a box to tick but diversity means we have decisions makers who reflect the individuals for whom their decisions affect. Because of that it’s no wonder that more diverse groups make better decisions.
I hope those charged with running the Productivity Commission’s childcare inquiry have a more nuanced understanding of the realities of childcare.