CTU media release

3 May 2010

Spending money on Early Childhood Education is a “no-brainer” and government cuts are bad for children and workers, CTU president Helen Kelly said today.

The revelation that the Government will cut access to early childcare education by cutting eligibility to the Childcare Subsidy is deeply disturbing, said Helen Kelly today. “Anything which reduces people’s ability to take up job opportunities – as this policy does – is totally counter-productive in the current depressed economy,” she said. Research also overwhelmingly shows the benefits to children of high quality ECE.

“This is a change that is going to impact badly on women who, while they have increasingly high levels of labour participation, are still likely to have the dominant role in caring for young children. Changing the income thresholds will mean that lots of middle income families who are not on high wages will not be able to afford early childhood education. Reducing access to early childhood education will reduce the ability of mothers to be in the labour market and increase pressure on women and their families.

“This policy is very short-sighted. It is a further illustration of the Government’s abject failure to address employment equity for women.”

“Once again we are going in the opposite direction to other countries that are developing policies and increasing funding to enable younger children to get early childhood education and enable more women to re-enter the job market.”

“The Government needs to take another look and get some advice from women in the labour market and early childhood educationalists.  They made these cuts without consultation about the impact on families and they tried to keep them hidden.  They will have long lasting negative effects and we urge them to take another look.”