Families Need Family Day Care

Terri Butler MP raises the issues discussed in her meeting with Kids at Home in Parliament yesterday.

Full transcript below.

Ms BUTLER (Griffith) (13:56): People from across my electorate of Griffith on Brisbane’s south side have been contacting me to raise their concerns about the Abbott government’s rotten budget. One of those people last week was Sharyn, who runs a family day care provider—Kids at Home Family Day Care. And like family daycare providers across this country she is gravely concerned by the budget cuts to family day care in the Abbott government’s rotten budget. If you look at Family Day Care Australia’s information they estimate that these cuts are going to mean an extra $34.50 per child per week for parents with kids in full-time care. It will be more in rural and remote areas, according to Family Day Care Australia.

Sharyn came to visit me to drop in a number of postcards signed by local families to tell politicians in this place about why they are so concerned about these cuts to family daycare. The postcard says:

My family uses family day care and I know that family day care is an essential service in our community, providing local families like mine with access to high quality and affordable early childhood education and care and allowing me to contribute to our local workforce. It goes on to say that the changes are going to have: … a very real and lasting effect in our local community.

Should these changes take effect in their current form and time frame, parents like me face uncertainty around increasing fees, service closures, and even my capacity to remain in the workforce.