Government’s Support Of Report Smacks Of Hypocrisy

The Baillieu Government has hypocritically abandoned a vital occasional childcare program despite its significant and obvious benefits, Shadow Minister assisting the Leader of the Opposition on Children and Young Adults Jenny Mikakos said today.

The Government has today released a report into the Take-A-Break Occasional Childcare.

Ms Mikakos said the Baillieu Government had instead used the report as a flimsy excuse about why it was refusing to fund the program, despite it highlighting the many benefits it provides children and parents.

“The decision to cut funding from Take-A-Break Occasional Childcare program is having a devastating impact on 9000 children and their families,” Ms Mikakos said.

“Instead of looking after the welfare and educational needs of these children, the Children’s Minister Wendy Lovell has decided that penny pinching is more important.

“For Ms Lovell to now rubbish this program when she has spent the past nine months calling on the Commonwealth to fund it smacks of hypocrisy.

“For the sake of a relatively small investment of $2 million, this important program would have been saved. That’s why the Labor Government provided the funding in 2010.

“Regardless of advice that a consultant provides, in the end it is the government that makes the decision about whether to fund a program or not. The buck stops with the Premier and the Minister.”

The KPMG report was released by the Baillieu Government because today the Opposition was due to lodge its public interest grounds submission to seek the report at VCAT, following a seven month battle with the government to access it through Freedom of Information.

“Obviously Baillieu Government lawyers have advised Ms Lovell they would have lost at VCAT,” Ms Mikakos said.

“The question needs to be asked – if the report was so supportive of the Baillieu Government’s decision to axe funding, then why didn’t it release the report earlier?”

Ms Mikakos said Minister’s press release today attempted to denigrate the program, but the report outlined a number of key strengths including:

• Parents believe it is a safe and welcoming environment where children had a strong connection with staff;
• Parents received health benefits;
• Reduced social isolation for culturally and linguistically-diverse communities, and families in rural areas;
• Increased education levels and workforce participation for parents; and
• Played a role in detecting and diagnosing health and developmental issues that children presented.

Ms Mikakos said the report found that the program’s “social benefit exceeds social cost” and that fees were very affordable.

“For the Baillieu Government to ignore these findings shows a clear lack of understanding of the benefits of this program for Victorian families,” she said.

“Instead of choosing to use the report to improve the program, they chose the simple option of abandoning the 9000 families that use the program.

“As foreshadowed in the report, many services reported that they would have to close the Take-A-Break program if the subsidy was removed. Unfortunately this is now the case with five services so far ending their programs.

The Association of Neighbourhood Houses and Learning Centre (ANHLC) has reported this week that the Baillieu Government’s axing of funding has led to an average fee increase of 15 per cent this year.

“The Baillieu Government fee increase will significantly cut into the family budget despite its promise to cut the cost of living.”