ABC linked to 14 new childcare closures

Operators of the latest round of childcare centres to close say they were deceived by management who had told them they were not connected to the troubled ABC Learning.
Families at 14 Neighbourhood Early Learning Centres in NSW, Queensland and Victoria were told on Thursday the facilities would be closing by December 31, following the announcement of the closure of 55 ABC centres across Australia last month.
Victoria is the worst hit, with nine Neighbourhood centres to close, including seven in regional areas.
Kate Miller, director of the centre in Gisborne, north of Melbourne, said families and staff had been misled.
"We're absolutely gutted, we have been deceived," Ms Miller said on Friday.
"We were told all along we were not part of ABC but Neighbourhood. Parents were told emphatically we had no links to ABC whatsoever and all along we were ABC.
"We were licensed under ABC, our provider number was an ABC number."
Ms Miller said a regional manager confirmed Neighbourhood's link to ABC to her on Thursday, 12 months after denying a connection.
"A person came down to represent Neighbourhood on 17 December 2007 and assured families we were not part of ABC," she said.
"The same person told me yesterday, 'yes we are agents for ABC'."
A Neighbourhood spokeswoman denied, but then confirmed, a link with ABC.
"We have no connection with ABC. We manage centres for ABC," she said from the company's Brisbane headquarters.
"We are making no other comment."
The Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU) said ABC Learning held the leases on the properties on which Neighbourhood operates, but failed to inform the union last week the centres were in danger of closure.
"So it's part of the ABC empire that's gone horribly wrong," LHMU national secretary Louise Tarrant told reporters in Sydney on Friday.
Parents and staff received a letter on Thursday confirming the closures.
The letter from Neighbourhood revealed the relationship with ABC Learning would no longer continue, but Ms Tarrant said the union was still trying to determine what actually caused the centres to close.
Up to 1,000 families and 200 staff will be affected by the closures, although Ms Miller was confident Macedon Ranges Shire Council would step in to take over her centre.
The Municipal Association of Victoria is already conducting a study into the viability of local councils and not-for-profit groups taking over the 27 doomed ABC centres in the state and will add Neighbourhood to its list.
"It's painful now, but it could be a positive step," MAV chief executive Rob Spence said.
"The best case scenario is that we get local government in partnership with the not-for-profit community sector to take over."
Ms Miller agrees, saying the ABC experience, in which the company went into administration and receivership after a $1 billion shortfall, proves big business does not belong in child care.
"Big companies should not be able to be involved in child care, it should always be community based," she said.
"They say they care about the families, but they don't."
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the closures would be urgently investigated by her department.
Neighbourhood operates 36 centres across the country, with 22 of the centres to remain open.