A former minister and a close ally of Prime Minister John Howard has urged the Federal Government to scrap the “shambles” of a child-care system and start from scratch to build a national policy.

High-profile western Sydney MP Jackie Kelly said Treasurer Peter Costello should spend the $12 billion government surplus “wisely” by fixing the child-care crisis rather than spending it on tax cuts.

Ministers should also stop “doing their own thing” and work together to respond to the escalating problem, she said. “We need a cohesive approach.” Ms Kelly said the system of care needed to be treated by all governments “in the same way they treat male-dominated issues”.

“We shouldn’t have the Treasurer with a 30 per cent rebate solution, [Employment Minister] Kevin Andrews saying women should negotiate [for child care in their workplaces] and [Family Minister] Kay Patterson saying other things,” she said. “And we need [Education Minister] Brendan Nelson to start taking an interest in preschools.

“They all need to say, ‘OK, how can we do this?’ At the moment, they are just coming out with policies and asking women to fit in with them.”

Great. Hooray. Somebody in the government talking about childcare in a sensible, cohesive kind of way, rather than the old Howard/Costello approach of making the kids cheaper to run.

Jackie Kelly Speech to Fisher-Price Childcare Awards
SMH article: Kelly’s plea to PM: fix child-care

That’s ok, but it does feel funny sometimes. What is all the fuss about?

Steve Cochrane has a go at explaining how it feels and why in this weeks Guardian parents section.

…
I stayed at home with all three of our children when they were babies, primarily because, as I work from there, it was by far the most convenient thing to do, but also because it didn’t strike either of us as being any kind of a big deal. Other people, however, didn’t agree. And when I say other people, I mean women. And when I say women, I mean mothers. Those who did exactly the same thing as I was doing, and probably without a second thought about the fact that they were doing so, regarded my familial ministrations as an act of Mandela-esque fortitude.
…

Read the article

Well bugger me. Larry lost his seat in the election and now he’s been appointed a director of Australia’s largest corporate childcare operator, ABC Learning Centres.

This fully and completely stinks. This sort of thing should be illegal. At the very least there should be a code of conduct stopping a minister from stepping into a board role less than a year after being the relevant federal minister!

LHMU Childcare: Ex-Howard Minister joins board of ABC Learning Centres

ABC: Larry Anthony’s new job stirs conflict of interest claims

Her first post is a press release she’s just issued. The press release covers some local activism we were just involved in with some success. There was a proposal to open a child care centre here in Fremantle in a really, really bad location.

The City of Fremantle Council said “No” this week to a proposal for a major child care centre that would have set a dangerous benchmark for children’s health.

Despite political pressure to approve the 86-place centre, Fremantle’s largest, the Council stood its ground and made a decision that reflected commonsense and caution.

“In the absence of controls to stop this kind of thing happening, it was a frustrating and risky process. But in the end, good reason, good ethics and good planning prevailed,” said quality child care campaigner and local mother Ms Libby Davy. “Now we have to ensure this result carries over into safe, healthy child care for all children,” she said.

I’m really glad council made the right decision here. We certainly need more child care in Fremantle, but not at the expense of children’s health.

Why does Howard think that thowing cash at things is the only answer. Does the guys speak any other language than cash?

Forget about the cash for the moment. Which of these guys best understands early childhood education? Latham does. Listen to Latham’s comments on childcare this week (from ABC’s PM program, Monday 27 Sept):

MARK LATHAM: In so many respects this has been the missing link in our system of life long learning in Australia. The traditional thinking that learning starts with the beginning of the school years, of course, ignores the fact that from nought to four, these are the formative years, the years of brain development, language development, the little personalities and minds racing. We neglect the full potential of our children if we don’t have a comprehensive national plan for early childhood development.

We want childcare to be more than child minding– that’s an important function, it’s an important part of the work and family arguments, the labour market arguments – but for the young ones themselves, it’s an opportunity to start the formal learning process in life, and that’s an opportunity that’s too good to miss, an opportunity we’ve got to take for their benefit, an opportunity we’ve got to take as a nation.

(my emphasis added in the quote above)

And all the rodent wants to do it make the kids cheaper to run. Typical. Out of the sandpit John.