Margaret Gleeson
With female work force participation rates at an all-time high of 57%, the federal government's plans to cut income assistance to single parents while implementing a new industrial relations regime will exacerbate the long-term crisis in child care.
Since the late 1990s, access, affordability and staff shortages have plagued the childcare sector.
Despite the extension of the Child Care Rebate and the introduction of a 30% tax rebate on childcare expenses (now deferred to July 2006), there is still an overall shortfall of long-day-care places. Lack of planning has created an oversupply in some localities and acute shortages in many others, and a general lack of places for children 0-2 years old throughout Australia.
The 2004 Child Care Census found an 8% increase in the number of commercial centres since 2002, and a mere 1% increase in non-profit, community based centres. Overwhelmingly, it is the non-profit sector that provides for babies, which are more costly and therefore less profitable for commercial centres.
Waiting lists of one to two years, common in metropolitan areas, make a farce of maternity leave provisions as women are pressured by employers to resign given the difficulties in securing suitable child care, and the absence of other family-friendly solutions.
The child-care system is currently designed for a five-day week, 48-week year working cycle so does not meet the needs of casual, part-time and shift workers — increasingly the norm.
Federal government funding arrangements have generated a burgeoning commercial childcare sector and increasing commodification of this important early childhood service. In the last four years, commercial childcare providers have entered the stock exchange and the sector has become increasingly monopolised.
ABC Learning was the first childcare operator to be listed on the ASX, worth $25 million at the time. It is now the largest operator, with 800 centres and a market value of $1.4 billion. More than 30% of ABC's income comes directly from the federal government, so a lot of its massive profits are siphoned from workers' wages through the taxation system.
The costs of child care borne by parents has blown out under the Howard government. In 2002-03 childcare costs rose by 17% and in 2003-04 they increased by another 12.2% (the CPI rose by around 3% in the same period). CPI figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics at the end of April revealed a further annual increase in the childcare index of 12%, compared with an increase of 2.4% for general goods and services.
The 2004 Child Care Census revealed that average weekly fees for child care now top $200. Average fees in commercial long-day-care centres increased from $183 in 2002 to $208 last year. In community-based non-profit centres, the average fees increased by $23 to $211 a week. Fee subsidies to parents (the Child Care Benefit) have risen only 37 cents since 2000.
The government's changes to welfare support, to come into effect in 2006, which reduce income support for single parents, will place greater pressure on child care and will plunge already vulnerable families into greater poverty.
Funding cuts to universities and TAFEs, student fee hikes, and the low pay and poor working conditions of childcare workers have resulted in a chronic shortage of qualified staff. The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU), the main union covering childcare workers, has mounted a two-year campaign for wage justice.
Significant wage increases were won by workers in Victoria and the ACT from July 2005. In September, childcare workers in South Australia achieved wage increases of 15% (from $60 to $100 a week for assistants, and $130 to $190 a week for centre directors). Cases are currently before state industrial tribunals in NSW, Queensland and WA.
Large commercial operators like ABC have already demonstrated their opposition to union-negotiated agreements, and in Queensland the LHMU has been taking on employers, like the YMCA, who have attempted to register non-union agreements.
The introduction of Howard's new industrial relations legislation will fuel the existing crisis. Dave Kelly, the WA LHMU's childcare union secretary, told media on October 18: "Already we're having trouble attracting people to this important industry — these new laws will exacerbate the shortages of qualified staff.
"Once some centres start lowering wages, there will be huge pressure on others to do the same. It's a race to the bottom ... the reason workers aren't attracted to the industry is because the pay is lousy and the responsibility is enormous ... things are about to get a whole lot worse."
From Green Left Weekly, November 2, 2005.
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