Media Enquiries:
ACT & QLD – Gwynn Bridge - 0418 764 779
VIC – Lucian Roncon - 0419 004 800
NSW – Lyn Connolly - 0425 225 275
SA – Barbara Langford - 0417 874 391
WA – Roslyn Thompson - 0407 652 177
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Childcare Alliance Australia
PO Box 137 Springwood Qld 4127 Email: president@australianchildcarealliance.org.au
MEDIA RELEASE
COAG Option May Lead to Struggling Families Being
Priced out of Childcare
7 December 2009
Today’s decision by COAG to propose
reforms without addressing the true cost to parents
or the loss of places
will leave
Australian families frustrated, ignored and angry warns Childcare Alliance Australia.
Childcare Alliance Australia (CAA) - which represents 70% of all long child care centres in Australia and whose staff care for
more than 330,000 young children - appealed again to the Federal and State governments to ensure struggling families are not
priced out of quality early learning programs altogether.
“We are not opposed to the principles behind COAG’s recognition of the importance of quality private and community child
care,” CAA national spokesperson, Ms Gwynn Bridge, said today, but we must put the needs of our children and their families
first. What good are these reforms if the costs to parents are so high that the children have to be withdrawn from quality formal
care and kept at home or left in an unreliable and potentially unsafe backyard care arrangement?”
CAA conducted a survey among 1000 parents whose child/children attends formal community or private long day care centres.
Nearly eight in ten parents said they could not afford to keep their child in formal childcare if the anticipated increase of
between $13 and $22 a day is realised as a result of these proposed reforms. In NSW, that figure rose to 9 in 10 who said no to
the fee hikes. Families will not be able to meet the magnitude of this fee increase.
“If the Prime Minister or any of the Premiers read any of the comments from our parents; they would do everything they could
to ensure that no family would be financially or socially hurt by these reforms,” Ms Bridge said.
Ms Bridge said many working mothers surveyed said they will be forced to quit their jobs and stay at home with their child or
look for cheaper, unregulated care options. Other survey respondents claimed their family would have to cut back on
household essentials. Single mothers believe it may force them back onto the single parent pension. Some families surveyed
even said they would sell their house before giving up childcare.
“This is a vitally important issue for families and our economy generally and the onus is on government to ensure affordability
and accessibility to quality childcare remains the right of every child regardless of where they live or what their parents earn.”
Ms Bridge said the Childcare Alliance Australia would continue to represent the needs of their families to the Federal and State
Governments ahead of any legislation being developed and implemented.
ENDS
For a copy of the full online survey results, please go to www.childcareqld.org.au and for media interviews, please do
not hesitate to contact Ms Bridge on 0418 764 779 or the other State representatives on the contact details below:
NEWS 
