Govt standing firm on childcare backflip

Federal minister Tanya Plibersek says building new childcare centres in areas with
shortages isn't necessarily sustainable.
The minister for the status of women has defended the government's decision to dump
plans for hundreds of new childcare centres at schools.
During a debate at the National Press Club on Wednesday she said some parents
struggle to find places but building new centres wouldn't address the problem.
"I am sure that there are still areas where people will find it difficult to find a
childcare place," Ms Plibersek said.
"But whether ... it can be sustainable (to build more centres) in those areas of
shortage is a different matter."
Ms Plibersek said the market had changed since ABC Learning's collapse more than a
year ago, citing the market snapshot that showed high vacancy rates.
And, she said, she had seen vacancies in her inner-city Sydney electorate, despite
high prices.
"On my way to work there are three posters up ... for local childcare," she said.
"I never used to see advertising for places in my electorate."
Her opposition counterpart, Sharman Stone, said it was cruel for the government not
to acknowledge the "childcare crisis".
"I have ... women begging, saying I have been on a waiting list for two years at
four or five centres and I want to go back to work but I can't," she said during the
debate.
But she wouldn't commit to more childcare centres under a coalition government,
instead she flagged a review of the sector.
"The coalition will look very comprehensively at the range of childcare available
across Australia and the type."
Dr Stone said the coalition also hadn't ruled out subsidising nannies, saying it was
"extraordinary" for Labor to claim the idea was elitist.
"Other countries have au pair systems, they have nannies. Why is Labor so hell-bent
in equating nannies to some old 19th century elitist notion."
Ms Plibersek says the government isn't considering the policy because in-home care
is subsidised and available through family day-care programs.
And, she said, people on low incomes needed government childcare support.
"They are not the ones who can afford nannies at home."
Meanwhile, the Australian Greens say they will lobby the government to set up a $200
million fund to boost capital works for community childcare centres.
The party's childcare spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young says it's a practical way to
improve standards of early childhood education.
"The fund will help assist the childcare sector to make a transition away from a
profit-driven industry to a community-based non-for-profit model," she said in a
statement.